Colorful years

Going back to before the 1980s, during that period, the Party and the government attached unprecedented importance to news and propaganda work. Whether at the central or local level, Party newspapers, periodicals, and radio stations all regarded communication work as a key point.

At that time, the professional news team was relatively weak and there was a severe shortage of news articles. Under these circumstances, they adopted a very effective method: by screening and carefully cultivating a large number of amateur correspondents, they enabled ordinary people from all walks of life to participate in news reporting.

This approach not only greatly enhances the news gathering and editing capabilities but also effectively solves the problem of scarce sources of articles.

At the level of Party committees and governments, the selection and training of key correspondents has been vigorously promoted.

Everyone understands that having a high-quality, highly skilled core team of correspondents means having an advantage in the field of publicity and winning more valuable opportunities to showcase the region's development achievements, unique highlights, and advanced experiences.

In this way, we can not only enhance the local reputation and influence, but also create a favorable public opinion environment for the smooth development of various undertakings.

Therefore, since then, cultivating outstanding amateur correspondents has become an important task in news and publicity work in various regions.

In the early 1980s, Dayong County was booming. To strengthen leadership in rural areas despite relatively underdeveloped transportation, the county party committee and government implemented a system of district-based management for the thirty-one communes. These seven district offices, like shining pearls scattered across the land, each shouldered an important mission.

The Jiaoziya District Office, located in the bustling area of ​​Jiaoziya Commune, took on the important responsibility of managing six communes, including Jiaoziya, Xinglong, Zhonghu, Qiaotou, Luoshui, and Yuxi.

The place is bustling with people and has become a core hub for economic and cultural exchanges in the surrounding areas.

On a sunny morning, around ten o'clock, a slightly dilapidated but vibrant passenger bus slowly drove into the street where the Jiaoziya District Office was located. Two people got off the bus—Zhang Cong and Man Guoliang—representing the County Party Committee Propaganda Department to organize a training course for correspondents.

As per the pre-established plan, this training course required each commune to select one outstanding farmer correspondent to participate, while the commune secretary could decide whether to participate based on the actual situation. This arrangement aimed to improve the efficiency and quality of information dissemination in rural areas, enabling more talented farmers to tell the stories of their hometowns through writing.

That afternoon, trainees from various communes arrived at the district office one after another. After a roll call, it was found that ten correspondents had reported on time. Six of them were simple and honest farmer correspondents with dreams in their hearts, while the other four were experienced commune secretaries.

Over the next three days, these trainees will receive practical training to improve their writing skills and journalistic literacy.

Each person's food and lodging expenses, subsidies for work-related delays, and consumables such as notebooks and draft paper are all uniformly allocated at a standard of 200 yuan, and the district office will make overall arrangements based on the actual situation.

Keep in mind that, given the price levels at the time, 200 yuan per person for three days was enough to ensure two delicious meat meals a day, and if you were careful with your budget, you would even have some left over!

Therefore, when the county party committee's communications team came to the district office to hold a training course for communications officers, both the enthusiastic farmer communications officers and the district office and even the various communes welcomed them with great enthusiasm.

After all, for the comrades in the district office, this not only means being able to participate in a professional training activity, but more importantly, they can enjoy the pleasure and satisfaction brought about by the significant improvement in their meals!

This training program differs significantly from traditional professional education and training institutions. Typically, those institutions focus on imparting systematic and profound theoretical knowledge of news writing; however, this program is different. Here, the training consists of only two parts—selecting a topic and providing writing guidance.

Initially, the trainees were asked to submit news leads and related materials they possessed. Then, the highly experienced instructor, Ms. Man, would carefully screen these leads and materials. Once the topic was determined, Ms. Man would personally guide each trainee in transforming it into a complete and high-quality news article.

Once a reporter's revised manuscript receives Mr. Man's final approval, it will be stamped with the official seal of the county party committee's communications group and mailed to the county radio station. It will also be sent to various newspapers and radio stations at the county level and above. Generally, any manuscript approved by the county party committee's communications group will be broadcast by the county radio station and has a high chance of being published in the prefectural party committee's official newspaper.

However, if you want your manuscript to be accepted by provincial or higher-level newspapers, magazines, or radio stations, it depends not only on the quality of the manuscript itself, but also sometimes on luck, since the competition is fierce.

However, it is gratifying that all the correspondents who participated in this training, regardless of their skill level, will eventually have at least one or two articles published by news organizations.

Of course, if any topics of great value are discovered during the training process, or if some correspondents struggle to come up with suitable topics, the county party committee's communications team will not hesitate to go to the front line, carefully plan and organize a special reporting event.

The exceptionally intelligent Congcong, with his high level of comprehension, became the biggest beneficiary of this training program. After completing the training, he returned to the publicity department and was able to independently conduct news reporting activities.