Campus Digest

HKBU-SOPA workshop brings six SOPA award winners to campus to share their experience

15 Oct 2015

SOPA winners share their experience (from left): Ms Hannah Beech, Ms Nancy Carvajal, Ms Chen Yi-shan, forum moderator Dr Cherian George of the Department of Journalism, Mr Harry Harrison, Ms Didi Tatlow and Mr Greg Torode SOPA winners share their experience (from left): Ms Hannah Beech, Ms Nancy Carvajal, Ms Chen Yi-shan, forum moderator Dr Cherian George of the Department of Journalism, Mr Harry Harrison, Ms Didi Tatlow and Mr Greg Torode
SOPA winners share their experience (from left): Ms Hannah Beech, Ms Nancy Carvajal, Ms Chen Yi-shan, forum moderator Dr Cherian George of the Department of Journalism, Mr Harry Harrison, Ms Didi Tatlow and Mr Greg Torode

 

The Department of Journalism of the School of Communication invited six winners of the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Awards for Editorial Excellence, the Asian media industry's most prestigious journalism award, to participate in the HKBU-SOPA Award Winners Forum from 12 to 16 October at which they shared through a forum, lectures, class sharing and group discussions their professional experience in journalism with University members, students, media professionals and the public.

The invited speakers were Ms Hannah Beech, East Asia Bureau Chief of TIME Asia, Winner of the SOPA Award 2013 Excellence in Lifestyle Coverage; Ms Nancy C Carvajal, Reporter of Philippine Daily Inquirer, Winner of the SOPA Award 2015 Journalist of the Year; Ms Chen Yi-shan, Deputy Editor of CommonWealth Magazine; Winner of the SOPA Award 2015 Excellence in Business Reporting; Mr Harry Harrison, Cartoonist of South China Morning Post; Winner of the SOPA Award 2015 Excellence in Editorial Cartooning; Ms Didi Kirsten Tatlow, Correspondent for International New York Times, Winner of the SOPA Award 2008 Journalist of the Year; and Mr Greg Torode, Special Correspondent for Reuters, Winner of the SOPA Award 2015 Excellence in Explanatory Reporting.

Mr Cliff Buddle, member of the SOPA Awards Committee of SOPA, and Professor Roland Chin, President and Vice-Chancellor, officiated at the opening ceremony.

In his speech, Professor Chin thanked the speakers for sharing their valuable international experiences with the HKBU community and hoped the students gained from this Forum and learnt as much as they could from the speakers. 

Mr Buddle said the digital environment has brought challenges to media organisations and at the same time created many exciting opportunities to young journalists. He encouraged participants to learn from the speakers’ experience and expertise and put them into practice so as to remind people why journalists are still important today.

The opening ceremony was followed by a public forum on “Framing a story – The journalistic challenge to put issues in context”. The SOPA winners shared their thoughts and experience in doing reports and creative works. They also mentioned that a sense of curiosity and passion for uncovering and telling stories are the bedrock of journalists.