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Tracing headlines through time: Pupils explore journalism at ST's 180th anniversary exhibition
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Primary 3 pupils from Radin Mas Primary School visiting the ST180 exhibition at South Gateway Garden in Jewel Changi Airport on July 15.
SINGAPORE - Three times a week, Arshita Kaur's mother picks out interesting headlines from The Straits Times and reads the articles to the nine-year-old as bedtime stories.
'Reading the news lets me know more because sometimes people do good things that we can learn from,' said Arshita, who came across an article about
a foster mum taking care of nine children in her home especially meaningful and is excited to learn more about journalism.
Arshita was one of the 45 pupils from Radin Mas Primary School who visited
The Straits Times' 180th anniversary exhibition on July 15 in Jewel Changi Airport.
Guided around the exhibition by Ms Diane Leow, ST's editor of newsroom insights, the excursion was part of the school's middle primary talent programme to expose pupils who are strong in the English language to journalism.
Titled Heartbeats and Headlines: 180 Years Of Telling The Singapore Story, the exhibition traces ST's journey from a colonial newspaper to a national broadsheet, to becoming the multi-platform media outlet that it is today.
Spread across five sections, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through ST's evolving newsroom, pivotal moments in Singapore's history, its role as a newspaper of record and how it has kept pace in the digital age.
Visitors can engage with interactive features, where they have the opportunity to design their own personalised front page of a newspaper or take part in a Reporter-In-Training quest. Adult visitors will receive a complimentary tote bag and notebook upon completing activities at three checkpoints, while children will be presented with a specially designed sticker set.
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Currently situated at the South Gateway Garden of Jewel Changi Airport until July 20, the roving exhibition will move to Westgate from July 25 to Aug 3, and to Raffles City Shopping Centre from Aug 8 to 17.
Exhibition sponsors include the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore Pools, Singtel, Temasek and UOB.
Mr Matthew Yap, now semi-retired, turned up on July 15 to visit the exhibition after reading about it online. As a former journalist in ST from 1983 to 1988, it was 'a very nostalgic experience' for him.
Mr Matthew Yap, 67, semi-retired, at the ST180 exhibition at South Gateway Garden in Jewel Changi Airport on July 15.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
'When I first entered the newsroom, I still had to use a typewriter that was then translated into a semi digital format…towards the end of my career, I experienced the birth of email.' the 67-year-old said.
So The Straits Times represented 'the birth of (technology) in journalism' for him, he added.
At one of the stations with an interactive display that let visitors flip through thousands of front pages, Mr Yap was delighted to find a number of his own stories on the front pages of Straits Times. The discovery brought back fond memories of his time covering housing, crime, and business stories.
Similarly, the pupils from Radin Mas Primary School enjoyed exploring the wide range of stories the publication has covered over the years.
For nine-year-old Evan Chin, it was 'fascinating' to see how Singapore has transformed over the years, through the black-and-white photographs to images in colour.
Other pupils liked creating their own front pages, an activity they had not done before in school.
Anda Lim said he was interested in learning about the different jobs in the newsroom. The nine-year-old boy said he was surprised by what he had seen at the exhibition as he usually reads news from ST only via messaging platforms like Whatsapp.
'Now I am seeing it in real life... I also didn't know that The Straits Times is 180 years old and that the publication is so old.'
