Secondary students go on a journey through time with ST180 exhibition
Bartley Secondary School students, teachers and principal at ST's 180th anniversary exhibition 'Heartbeats And Headlines: 180 Years Of Telling The Singapore Story'.
SINGAPORE – Ayden Lim, 12, associates The Straits Times with fond memories of reading newspapers with his grandmother.
But until recently, he did not know the national broadsheet was 'very old'. After learning more about its long history, he now 'appreciates how ST keeps the memories' of the nation's past.
Ayden was one of 23 Secondary One students from Bartley Secondary who toured
ST's 180th anniversary exhibition 'Heartbeats And Headlines: 180 Years Of Telling The Singapore Story' on Aug 15.
Guided by ST's editor of newsroom insights Diane Leow, they learned about ST's role in documenting key events in Singapore's history and gained insights on how the newsroom works.
The interactive experience also gave them a peek at how ST has adapted from a traditional print paper to a multimedia platform, keeping pace with the digital revolution.
Since news happens at all hours of the day, journalists may be called on at any time to cover breaking stories. Despite the rise of automation, Ms Leow emphasised that human presence remains necessary to research, check and produce news reports.
Ishaan Shivankara Bhat, 13, said the most interesting thing was 'how fast the news comes out', referring to how news is broken within minutes when a significant event occurs.
This was echoed by Matanguihan Mari Elize, 13, who said it was impressive how reporters are able to research and produce articles so quickly.
'I never really thought about how there has to be someone responsible for the articles,' she added.
Heartbeats and Headlines is in its final week. Its run at Raffles City is from Aug 8 to 17, following stints at Jewel Changi from July 12 to 20 and Westgate from July 25 to Aug 3. Event sponsors include Singapore Pools, Singtel, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Temasek and UOB.
Besides giving visitors an inside look at the newsroom, the exhibition also takes visitors on a tour through time, detailing ST's evolution alongside Singapore's growth as a nation.
One of the historical anecdotes that Elize said made her realise how news 'has a big impact' on Singapore was how Bengawan Solo became an overnight sensation following a positive review in The Sunday Times in 1981.
This enabled the Nyonya bakery, once a small corner store in Marine Terrace, to expand to a more central location in Orchard Road. Now a national icon, it has over 40 outlets islandwide.
Aw Jia Yuan, 13, picked up on a lesser-known fact that The Straits Times relocated its headquarters to Kuala Lumpur in 1959, after the Federation of Malaya gained independence. Following Singapore's separation from Malaysia in 1965, The Straits Times Group split into two companies in 1973: New Straits Times, which became a Malaysian company, and The Straits Times Press (Singapore) which was responsible for subsidiaries in Singapore.
Jia Yuan added: 'I learned how Singapore managed to get through tragedies like the Hotel New World collapse.'
To supplement their learning, students had the chance to design a personalised front page.
At the 'Make the Front Page' station, visitors can choose from templates representing ST in the 1930s, the 1980s and 2020s, and select where to place the top headlines of the day.
At the 'Rewind and Reveal' station, students got a glimpse of how iconic sites in Singapore have evolved over time. Swiping on the screen transitions between black-and-white photos from ST's archive and modern-day shots in colour of the same sites.
'Heartbeats And Headlines: 180 Years Of Telling The Singapore Story' is in its final week.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Ms Leow explained how ST's photo team took pains to replicate the original image. For example, a photographer waited for a bumboat to chug into frame to take a present day photo of the Singapore River.
Bartley Secondary principal Britta Seet said: 'I actually came for this tour on my own, and I see it as a good learning opportunity for my students to understand the value of news.'
''The students can learn a little more about the journalism industry and pique their interest in this potential career pathway,' she added.
Customer service agent Bang Yi, 29, was among the visitors at the exhibition on Aug 15. 'I saw it in the papers. It seemed interesting, so I came to take a look.'
Mr Bang said he reads The Straits Times online on the National Library Board's app. He said he started to read newspapers more in junior college, to keep updated on happenings around the world.
What he found most interesting about the ST180 exhibition was the section 'about how they work behind the scenes and various roles in the newsroom'.
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