Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung encourages aspiring journalists to set their sights on the Bay Area in a video address. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Student journalists from Hong Kong Baptist University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong bagged 28 of the 76 awards at this year’s Campus News Awards with storytelling and analysis that stood out among 2,000 contestants from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Campus News Awards, an annual event held by China Daily Hong Kong Edition since 2012, is the only event that brings together journalism students and schools from the four places.
HKBU and CUHK continued their dominance from last year in an event that drew more than 660 entries from about 2,000 students at 43 universities. A jury of 85 scholars, educators, and journalism professionals selected the 76 prize winners in 24 categories.
HKBU led the way with 18 awards and were champions in eight categories, while CUHK won 10 awards and were champions in five categories.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the main topic of discussion in this year’s competition. A third of the winning entries documented the historic crisis and its impact from diverse perspectives and in-depth analyses
The COVID-19 pandemic was the main topic of discussion in this year’s competition. A third of the winning entries documented the historic crisis and its impact from diverse perspectives and in-depth analyses.
ALSO WATCH: Campus News Awards 2020
The pandemic has presented challenges to schools, teachers, students and parents. But it also provides ample possibilities for journalism students to use their creativity to record this eventful year.
The pandemic also brought changes to the way the Campus News Awards was organized this year. China Daily Hong Kong Edition announced the competition results online on Thursday, with a video listing the full details of the results. The video features a keynote speech by Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung and words of wisdom from nine prominent figures, including judges of the contest.
Broad horizons
In his speech, Cheung extended his congratulations and encouragement to the prizewinners. He said the award-winning pieces reflected a thriving media environment with news reports covering a comprehensive scope of important issues in the region.
Cheung took note of the significance of the opportunity that the Campus News Awards, now in its ninth edition, has created for journalism students to communicate and interact with one another.
READ MORE: Winners of Campus News Awards told to set sights on Bay Area
Cheung said the participants’ reports showed they not only focused on local issues, but also important events in other places. He encouraged the contestants to continue to broaden their horizons and come to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to explore opportunities.
One of the judges of the competition, Wong Yuk-shan, president of the Open University of Hong Kong, said that the contest gave young students a good opportunity to understand their communities.
Judge Hu Zhengrong, editor-in-chief of China Education Television, said this year’s entries showed journalism education has progressed and the news media industry has advanced, too. He noted using multimedia elements in storytelling has become more prevalent.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung encouraged the contestants to continue to broaden their horizons and come to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to explore opportunities
The number of video and other multimedia entries, as well as data journalism entries, increased significantly this year.
Data and multimedia
Deng Haiying, 22, a first-year graduate student at Renmin University of China, and 16 schoolmates jointly won the award for Best in News Reporting (Chinese) with a data journalism analysis of 2,286 news stories on the outbreak of the pandemic in the mainland in February. She described the award as special recognition.
When Deng learned that their report won the approval of judges from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, she said she was encouraged to get recognition from a jury composed of professionals from various cultural backgrounds, including from outside the mainland.
While data journalism focuses more on macro issues, caring about humanity inspires journalists to see through social phenomena, said Deng, adding that the team will continue to pursue its passion for data journalism to become more influential beyond campus.
ALSO READ: CUHK triumphs at campus news awards
Wang Yuli, a judge of the event and a professor of the Department of Mass Communications, Chinese Culture University in Taipei, encouraged the student journalists to make their reports more in-depth and comprehensive with investigations and interviews, instead of just relying on data, to show readers what is behind a massive amount of information.
Li Yuanhao, 20, a junior at the School of Journalism and Communication of Nanjing University, won the award for Best in News Photography with a series about the supply of groceries in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, during the peak of the pandemic in the mainland in February.
The “unexpected” win encouraged him to keep digging for photo stories and to reflect the lives, efforts, and spirit of ordinary people, Li said.
The spirit to keep on practicing until you improve is a suggestion that Mike Rowse, another judge of the news awards and a former director-general of InvestHK, has for fellow journalism enthusiasts. He shared extensive reading and learning from good writers as one of his ways to improve writing skills.
Other prominent figures in Hong Kong who congratulated the students in a video included Under Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Bernard Chan Pak-li; Judy Chen, chairman of UNICEF Hong Kong; Witman Hung Wai-man, principal liaison officer for Hong Kong at the Shenzhen Qianhai Authority; Winnie Tang, founder and honorary president of the Smart City Consortium; and Allan Zeman, chairman of Lan Kwai Fong Group.
They called on participants to pursue their dreams in journalism and shed light on more issues in society.
