JMSC Wins Two Major Research Grants

The JMSC has won two significant awards from the Research Grants Council for 2010-2011. The Council allocates research money annually from the Hong Kong government.

The JMSC’s Associate Professor, Dr Miklos Sukosd, gained a grant of more than HK$337,000 for his research into Measuring Media Pluralism in Asia: the Case Studies of Hong Kong and China.

Sukosd previously taught at ELTE University in Hungary, and at Princeton and Harvard Universities in the United States. He is the author or editor of numerous academic texts; this study springs from his research interest in political communication and democratic performance of the media in post-communist states.

King-wa Fu

Dr King-wa Fu, Research Assistant Professor at the JMSC, scured a grant of more than HK$475,000 to research the Development and evaluation of a theory-guided mental health promotion programme for enhancement of help-seeking behaviour and attitude in Hong Kong.

Fu’s research has long focused on the media’s influence on mental health and suicide, health communication, research methods, measurement, and statistics in journalism.

“This study aims to investigate a theory-driven approach to developing a community-based mental health promotion programme by targeting individual’s stigma and attitude toward clinical depression and seeking help from professionals,” he said.

“While the World Health Organization (WHO) has projected that clinical depression will become the second leading cause of disease burden by the year 2020, this study is timely and it could potentially make contributions to the public health and the health communication practitioners.”

The primary cause of disease burden is set to be ischemic heart disease.

The Director of the JMSC, Professor Ying Chan is delighted by the news. “While the JMSC focusses on professional education we are also working hard to build our capacity in traditional academic research,” said Professor Chan. “The grants award is a real breakthrough for our research programme.”

Hong Kong University has had a very good year for funding from the General Research Fund with the highest number of approved GRF projects (195 projects) and the largest share of approved funding – more than HK$150 million.