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10 November 2012
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14 November 2012JMSC Organizes Online Journalism Workshop for Secondary School Students
During the workshop students learned multimedia techniques used in today's newsrooms including audio recording.
Over 80 students participated in the multimedia workshop. Photo by: Michael Kim
Over 80 students from Hong Kong secondary schools have participated in a series of workshops on journalistic storytelling in the digital age, organized by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education and the South China Morning Post’s Young Post (SCMP).
The “Online Journalism for Secondary School Students” was held on Oct 2, 23 and Nov 3, organized by JMSC Teaching Consultant Masato Kajimoto as part of The University of Hong Kong’s Knowledge Exchange initiative. The aim was to teach students how to produce “character-driven narrative” slideshows using computer programs such as Audacity and SoundSlides.
Students were taught elements of photography, interview techniques and effective storytelling skills, just as they would have been in a college-level journalism course.
Mabel Sieh, a reporter for the Young Post, and Sandra Lai of the Hong Kong Academy worked with Kajimoto to recruit students for the event.
“It’s great to see so many secondary students taking an interest in journalism, and having so much fun learning some up-to-date online skills at HKU,” said Sieh.
The stories produced by the student participants included one on an expat rapper producing YouTube hits and a candy store.
Students developed audio and photo slideshows similar to those seen on the web sites of the New York Times, CNN and other international news agencies. Photo by: Michael Kim
“Whether or not they will become journalists in future, the experience is already meaningful as they’ve used the platform to explore human stories, and that’s what journalism is about,” said Sieh.
Ruby Leung, a student participant from Young Post, praised the quality of the course. “Everything was so well organized and it was my first time publishing an article on the Internet. I’d say it was really useful,” she said.
The student works can be found at http://jmsc.hku.hk/sites/hkstories/.
A cover story on the workshop, and the details behind the story the students produced on teenage expat rapper Lucas Scibetta, appeared in the SCMP Young Post on November 22. It may be found here.