• Society

Athletes Take on New Challenge as Content Producers

• By Kim Makara
• April 29, 2024 3:25 PM

PHNOM PENH – Three athletes, including a vovinam fighter who won the Best Athlete Award at the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), are taking on a new challenge in their lives: Becoming a part of the media spectrum. 

Vovinam fighter Pal Chhoreaksmy, Petanque player Thorn Thavry and footballer Keo Soksela are currently engaging in sports content production after completing their duties at the 32nd SEA Games. 

Just like other media professionals, they write stories, conduct interviews and train to become news photographers.

Chhor Reaksmy bagged a whopping 6 medals, 4 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze during the games hosted by Cambodia last year. She also won a Best Athlete Award. 

She now works as a content producer at the Interior Ministry’s Sports Council. She said that communication is very valuable for a society that requires wide knowledge in writing reports, taking photos and shooting videos. 

She said that only passion might not be enough since it requires more knowledge and effort to learn. While she bravely brought to the nation, working in content production posed her the same challenges. 

“Working in communication is new to me because I have no previous experience but only passion. I have a hard time taking photos and videos because I do not fully understand the techniques of using a camera,” she said. 

“My first step was to capture the photo. After that, I could move to news writing.”

Reaksmy’s colleague, Thavry, also joined the news section of the Ministry of Interior after the SEA Games. Thavry was a member of the Cambodian national team in a competition in Vietnam in 2016 and competed in the 2018 Petanque Championships in Myanmar.

Thavry started her new job in early June last year. Just like Reaksmy, Thavry was nervous at first and reluctantly appeared on live broadcasts to read news reports. After almost a year, Thavry said she is no longer as hesitant as before because she gained experience.

“At first it was difficult because I was scared and not a professional. But with love, I learned it. Having done it more frequently, it became a daily routine. I no longer panic,” she said. 

She said sometimes she needs to conduct interviews about unfamiliar sports which forces her to work more to prepare her questions.

Keo Soksela, the goalkeeper of Visakha Football Club, is a content producer at the General Department of Sports under the Ministry of Education. For the past seven months, Seila wrote articles and took photos. As for writing, Sela says that it is not good yet and the interview also needs to learn more. 

“I think it is an interesting experience to work in content production. I still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to interviews. But I can turn reports into news stories,” he said.

 

Originally written in Khmer to ThmeyThmey, this article was translated by Torn Chanritheara for Cambodianess.