Three new postgraduate journalists have been named for the annual international internships organised by the Pacific Media Centre and sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation with the support of the China Daily.
They will go to China and Indonesia for their internships next year.
Postgraduate journalism diploma journalists Sarah Robson and Christopher Chang have been awarded the two three-month internships with the China Daily.com.cn in Beijing as part of an exchange programme with AUT University.
They will succeed Kim Bowden and Yvonne Brill who were in Beijing earlier this year.
Sarah Robson, 23, began her journalism at Salient, the student magazine at Victoria University of Wellington. She was named junior magazine feature writer of the year at the 2010 Qantas Media Awards, for a portfolio of features published in Salient throughout 2009.
In 2010, Sarah became editor of Salient for a year.
On top of her studies this year, Robson has worked at Idealog business magazine and the Herald on Sunday. She has completed work experience at Radio New Zealand in Wellington and the Manawatu Standard, and has written features for Pacific Scoop, Werewolf and New Zealand Marketing.
Asia-Pacific interest
Like Robson, Christopher Chang, 24, graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) at AUT this month.
He studied law and English literature at the University of Victoria in Wellington.
Chang has a strong interest in Asia-Pacific affairs and completed the Asia-Pacific Journalism course. He lived in south-east Asia for six years and is involved with the Asia New Zealand Foundation Young Leaders Network.
He worked for the New Zealand Herald Online this year and was a key member of a team of student journalists who covered the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland in September.
Krissy Dwyer, 26, will go to the Jakarta Globe in Jakarta for six weeks, following Corazon Miller who did a recent internship on that paper before also doing a spell with the Philippine Star in Manila.
After working for several different media organisations in Germany and travelling the world, Dwyer graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in Film, Television and Media Studies and Spanish in 2010.
Loves travelling
Over the past year, she has been working as a reporter for an educational newspaper and leads tours for international high school students within New Zealand, Australia and Europe. She loves travelling and speaks four languages.
“We are delighted by the high calibre and international focus of our graduates going on these internships,” said PMC director Professor David Robie. “They are good ambassadors for emerging New Zealand journalism.”
He also paid a tribute to a China Daily deputy online mobile news editor, Chen Bei, who was with AUT on a staff exchange and “boosted our insights and understanding on global social media”.
Asia New Zealand Foundation media adviser Rebecca Palmer described the selected young journalists as “impressive”.
Pacific Media Centre
