[Reporter Lin Yancheng] To promote concepts and deepen the learning mechanism, Dharma Drum University organizes a variety of lectures and activities and uses comprehensive and abundant information for the public to understand the meaning and content of activities, which particularly may appeal to some new volunteers.

In order to provide relative experience to volunteers, on the afternoon of July 23, we held a volunteer training course on “Sharing News Writing and Photography Experiences."

The sharing program invited Zhang Yaozhong to conduct the workshop since he has worked for many years on the Dharma Drum Mountain propaganda team.  He used professional and practical content, shared his years of experience, and provided simulated cases and a complete workflow model so that participants were not only deeply impressed but also learned about how to write press releases related to practice.

The three key points of the sharing program included: （1）What is news writing and why should we write news, (2) How to use our skills to write attractive and smooth press releases, and (3) How to produce newsworthy photos or videos. The speech started with some of the difficulties that he encountered himself, including identifying the exact focal point of the activity, writing an appropriate entry point, how to record an activity accurately, and publishing under deadline pressure                                                           

After that, we learned about the entire process of issuing press released so $that we could fully grasp the various aspects of the process. Thanks to the use of Images for his explanation of the process, the number of simulated cases and the plenty samples of error experiences that he gave, all of the participating students learned a lot.

Mr. Zhang Yaozhong mentioned also that in addition to the narrative, if a good press release can be supplemented with a captivating image, it will leave the reader feel even more closely present at the scene. Capturing and using the image also includes several elements: firstly, we must obtain the consent of the respondents ,comply with local customs and laws, and respect their privacy; secondly ,we should highlight the background and match the theme of the article; ideally we should view and inspect on-site conditions in advance, avoid both moving lines that aren’t smooth and ornamental elements in order to catch the historic moment.

After the speech, during the Q & A session, the participants mentioned the courtesy needed while shooting pictures of people, and they also discussed the image copyrights and other issues.  Because of their frequent use on the Internet, all the images taken for the activity should be considered as protected by intellectual property rights in order to avoid them from becoming reproduced  illegally and also as a sign of mutual respect.

Teacher Ku Chung-yu, our host, pointed out after the sharing session that in the Dharma Drum University's overall development, the concept of volunteering and service is a very important aspect of all activities. We sincerely thank the long-term volunteers who continue to offer their help and support so that we can finish so many activities. The volunteer education program, on the one hand, provides a platform to interact with volunteers, while on the other hand we hope that through participation in it more people will be able to form a tight team and grow together. In the future, we will continue to launch such programs and we welcome volunteers to come forward with suggestions, because this way we can all work together to develop this huge Land of Happiness.