MJ and BJ Students Attend John Lee’s Policy Address

Three HKU Journalism students were invited to attend the first policy address by Chief Executive John Lee. Hailey Yip (MJ 2023), Ellie Yuen Lok Yi (BJ 2026) and Meko Hung Yee Ning (BJ 2026) were selected as our representative students to take this opportunity. We asked the students about their experience at the event.

“It was amazing!” Yip said. “It felt like all of our classes put into a real-life experience. It was a very surreal opportunity because I was able to see a lot of professionals and a lot of great talents at work.”

“It was just really interesting to see that everything that we learn in class is used in a practical sense,” Yip continued. “It was basically a Video News Production class in real life at a larger scale.”

Ellie Yuen agreed, “My original expectation is that it would be a bit different from what we do in class. But, surprisingly, it was much the same: finding sources online, checking to make sure our questions are right, writing really fast,…”

“It was a really good experience.”

Cameras at John Lee Policy Address

Meko Hung said the experience made him want to focus more on photo and video journalism. “In photo or video, you can actually tell different stories. You can present your story in different angles.”

“I noticed that the photographers were taking different angles of John Lee speaking. Some of them focused on his emotion, some focused on the address, the hard copy.”

Going forward, Ellie Yuen said she learned to “open up, to not be shy.”

“You have to grab your chance, to try to create a chance for yourself; To let people see you so that you can ask question and and do your work.”

Hailey Yip (right), with Yuen Lok Yi (centre) and Hung Yee Nin.

Yip joined the HKU Journalism Masters Programme after graduating with a Masters of Education in her home country, Canada. Having done some work on Cantonese radio programmes back home, she said she realised her interest in pursuing a career in journalism.

“I love how spontaneous it is. You get to meet various people, and that opportunity inspired me to apply for HKU. My parents are born and raised in Hong Kong, but I know nothing about that part of my culture. So I wanted to travel across the world to see what that’s like.”

Barely a month into the programme, her talent was recognised at RTHK. She started an internship, going in twice a week to assist with the English-language programming.

Yip says she hopes to continue her internship through to graduation, and stay in Hong Kong afterwards to work in radio or written journalism. In the long term, however, she says she would like to combine her two passions.

“I still love teaching, and if there’s a chance for me to — I always say I want to combine my love for journalism and teaching or education, I think that would be ideal.”

“I like having discussions with adults about something that you’re passionate about, which is what I always get in the class. I don’t ever feel like you are lecturing at us. It always feels more like we are sharing a passion and it’s like a conversation that we’re having. And you guys are just sharing your experiences of how we can get better. That’s something that I really like about the teaching style.”

Our Master of Journalism programme is now accepting applications for 2023-2024. Apply before 31 January 2023 by visiting this page.