(Apartment which are still building. CREDIT: PAUL ROVERE
Background and angle:
At begin of February in this year, the Chinese government announced that it would no longer recognise qualifications earned through online learning. As a result, many Chinese students were required to return to their Australian university campus to complete offline courses in order to have their qualifications recognized. The abrupt reopening of China has resulted in the return of tens of thousands of Chinese students to Australian campuses, causing a student housing rental crisis in Australia. The rental crisis is not caused only by the large number of international students returning to Australia to continue their studies. The negative impact of the new crown epidemic on the economy has resulted in inflation, higher interest rates, landlords being forced to pay for more loans, higher rents charged to tenants, and is also a significant cause of the rental crisis. Due to high rents and limited availability of housing, renting a suitable accommodation has become a urgent social issue in Australia for many Chinese students. This is also what I am concerned about, so I intend to write a Feature story and disseminate it in the media to gain more people’s attention.
Publication and target audiences:
I will choose The Sydney Morning Herald as my publisher because it is the oldest newspaper in Australia with a large and stable audience, and by publishing this feature story about the rental problem of Chinese students on it, I can attract more readers’ attention. Although most of the news on this platform pertains to Sydney, Sydney’s rental crisis is the most severe in Australia, making it representative. （According to Domain’s latest rental report, apartment rents in two-thirds of Sydney have risen by more than 10% in the past year.）
My target audience have 2 types:
1. Chinese international students: This feature story reflects the concerns of the Chinese student community, who must return to Australia to continue their studies because of the Chinese government’s policies but are struggling with high rents and a shortage of housing.
2. Education department, international student department of the university：As we all know, education has become an important industry in Australia and international students have to pay high tuition fees and living expenses in Australia every year. And Chinese students occuppy a very large proportion of the international students. These government departments, as well as school officials to place international students to better develop the Australian education industry, so this issue, they are also concerned about.
My Feature stories will do interviews for both international student and housing agent. I will interview some Chinese international student to understand their actual plight in the rental crisis. Then I will also interview real estate agents to get some data on the demand for housing from international students.
Multimedia, hypertext & interactivity
Other data for this feature story will also come from some reliable news reports, I will hyperlink my articles to those news stories, and I will indicate the source of the images I use. I will also open a comment section under my article with my contact information.
The following sources will be considered:
The Sydney Morning Herald
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(word count: 538)
Hi Kexin, personally I like your story angle. As one of the Chinese students who returned in this semester. I found I was literately suffering in the rental crisis. Thus, from an auditorial perspective, I consider you to have a nice and sharp story angle. Besides, the story you talked about is newsworthy enough. It is highly related to both Chinese international students, and the Australian market itself. Thus, your story has high human interests, timeliness, proximity, and conflicts. Moreover, the multi-media and the hyperlinks you mentioned were helpful for audiences to engage and access other valuable resources if it is necessary. I am looking forward to reading your story!