I got an extention!

Hey peeps!

Amy here again. Anyway I have been extended to work till the end of January. Cant say Im not happy cause I have really been enjoying myself. Anyway the media visit was really tiring but absolutely worth it! We did not have the lion dance as expected but we had 'lou sang' instead which is a traditional thing Chinese people do where they toss the 'yeesang' as high as possible for prosperity and good luck. Lol. we also had the celebrities from MY fm( chinese radio) follow us around to host the media visit where they wore really cute chinese costumes to greet the media. I guess visiting the media is easy. The hard part was to get all the huge boxes of mandrin oranges into the loading van. (but did I mention that although I was tired, the only motiovation that kept me up was the hot celebrity hosts? lol. My job rocks!) OMG i think i broke my arms while trying to do that. Anyway I got more work to do and I have to rush off to do my medical check up later. Will continue soon.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR everyone!

Last Week Here...

...and Im already breathing a heavy sigh for having to leave my job this weekend. It has been absolutely wonderful here at Astro. I know this may sound strange but I am so comfortable with my job here, I wouldn't mind staying till I leave for Curtin. lol. STRANGE, I know.



Anyway, we are going on a media visit tomorrow around all the media companies in KL. My first media visit. We're going to be bringing cupcakes that says 'GONG XI FA CAI' to wish them a Happy Chinese New Year. We have also called for special lion dance performances for all of our visits.

(Lion Dance from 2008 Media Visit)

So I think I mentioned in my last post that these media visits help to strenghten our relationship with the media personnels. I think it is absolutely crucial to be on their good side especially if there is a crisis going on. Information will be diseminated through the proper channel, and No time is wasted to help save the company's good name.

Speaking of crisis, we had one 2 weeks ago. For those who are in Malaysia, Im sure you have heard about the recent 'sex party' that was suppose to take place on New Years Eve. For those who are not aware, having a sex party in Malaysia is frowned upon as we are a Muslim country and unfortunately, the police managed to raid a sex party which had an actress and an Astro newscaster in it. This lead to a whole whoo haa where the Astro newscaster had been arrested and gave a statement that she was celebrating her bachelorette party thus having alcohol, unused condoms and drugs. I think that her statement is quite absurd because a alcohol ,drugs and random sex is not exactly going to get the judges favour if she wants to plead not guilty.

Anyway, my managers phone had been ringing off the hook when they identified the newscaster and we had to do some damage control. Of course I did not have anything to do with releasing press releases to the media as my supervisors thought it would be better if I just observed and let the pros handle the crisis. The main crisis was whether Astro was firing the newscaster as she will be a bad influence to Malaysians especially the younger generation as the young ones are those who loook up at their idols and think their actions are proper.

Well, I learnt that during a crisis, depending on what or how big the crisis is, press conferences arent really needed unless it is about something big like the company going bankrupt or such. so all we did was issue a press release that Astro would stand by the newscaster until they hear more from her instead of jumping into conclusions and firing her.

The outcome was good cause a few days later, the community decided to text in their opinion and thought that her actions are forgivable as people do make mistakes and she should not be judged based on one mistake which will ruin her for life. It has been a week an no buzz about the newscaster problem. We're really glad nothing serious has happened.

Anyway, it was good that I managed to observe how a crisis is handled. It actually made me afraid of any crisis but I guess thats all part and parcel of being a PR.

Love

Amy

Ps: Im so sad to leave. My colleagues are seriously nice and cool people. No matter how much I have to work, I believe having good people to work with seriously helps make work much more fun.

Happy New Year from Astro

Hey guys,

Been seriously busy with events to even bother to come and share my experience with you guys. Today, weirdly, is a slow day. So anyway since my last post, I have done some crazy things here. We got to decorate the whole of Astro with christmas ornaments and I even got to help design what type of ornaments should be used which is kindda cool.


Besides that, in conjunction with the Astro's Kampus Astro which is a platform for boosting the educational system and learning functions in Malaysia, Astro has had so many events that launches the many great ideas and plans that can help eradicate the bridge that seperates those who are less fortunate to the education system. For example, Astro C3G is a program on television which will feature working adults with really odd jobs which has not been recognised widely but still able to help the future generation to earn a living. These people will speak on their jobs and hopefully parents (especially chinese parents) of the future generation will not force their child to take up something like medicine even if they do not have any interest in the field.

Astro also saw the final show of 'Sehati Berdansa' which is a Malaysian version of Dancing with the Stars, which I had to issue out invites to the media, RSVP and make sure that they were happy at the finals, getting enuff good shots of the contestants and making sure they covered the after party as anything they report can have a huge impact on Astro. We also recently launched 'Raja Lawak' which is a show to find the next funny man/woman in Malaysia. My weekly duties for these shows are to issue out invites to the media, create a staff comm to inform the staff to catch the show on TV as well as to make sure the interviews between the media and the eliminated contestants go smoothly.

Last friday (2nd Jan), my boss also made trips to various newspapers in order to wish them a Happy New Year and to strenghten the contacts of Astro and the Media. I wished I could have followed. Unfortunately, Astro is on a limited budget due to the bad economy so I wasnt able to go. Would have been a great opportunity to get to know the different journalist and try win their hearts so that it would be easier for me to liase with them in the future. Oh well! :(

What I cannot wait for is the Chinese New Year Party which the communication division will be hosting soon. We are in the mist of sending out invites to all media, arrange a food testing session with the restaurant, and look for uniformed cheong sams for all of us to wear. Cannot wait for it cause I would rather go and organise events than sit at the desk and write and translate press releases, not that Im complaining but events ROCK!

Love,
Amy

New here.

So I just started working a week ago. 17th November 2008 at Astro, a Broadcasting Network company in Malaysia. So far Im loving the job although I do ocassionally complain about the long hours and the crazy work.However I do find my job very inspirational.

On the first day on the job, I had to start working on an event called 'Campus Astro' where Astro basically sponsors Astro sattelite dishes to schools so that school children can learn from watching educational television programmes. Had to pack goody bags, set up demonstration stands, organise the arrangement of items and so much more.

I would have to say Im pretty fortunate or cursed, however you may put it, when I joined Astro because I had to start on events immediately. I have to admit, sleeping at 4 am is not exactly fun. AT ALL! However, I do realise that I was actually fortunate because despite all the running around, talking on the phone, panicking when one of the science demonstrator was running late, I still managed to feel that 'good' feeling everyone gets when they realise that the event was a success and its all thanks to the Astro Communications team. It made me happy to hear the Guest Minister congratulate the team on a job well done.

As for the work I do now, I have written news realeases, translated articles from English to Malay, created newsletter designs for Astro, read newspapers to find articles on Astro(EVERYDAY!), handle the media during a shooting session of one of Astro's dancing Programs 'Sehati Berdansar', Updated Astro's media list, handled 2 events and so much more.

Im basically learning something new everyday. Working at Astro has certainly surprised me. I have literally learnt that being a PR is not easy or as glamourous as people may make it seem to be. I have met so many local celebrities which many people will kill for but for me, I am busy running around to even stop and ask for an autograph. :(

lol. so......Did you get bored reading my post?

ps: I have posted and edited this 5 times and it still wont space the paragraph. GRRRR!