Students learn about digital media industry from expert from Channel News Asia

Miri – 9 October 2013 – 50 students of Curtin University, Sarawak Malaysia (Curtin Sarawak), including those from the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at its School of Business, learned about the latest developments in the digital media industry and the future it offers at a talk entitled ‘Shape the Future of Digital Media: A Video Editor’s Perspective’ held at the university recently.

The talk by PT Alagan, Video Editing and Media Manager of Channel News Asia Singapore, outlined how news broadcasting has changed over the years since its emergence and the current and future trends in digital media.

According to Alagan, who has been in the broadcasting business for over two decades, media management has gone through tremendous change over the past few years, including digitisation where data is stored in digital form. This form of storage, he said, has made archiving of information more convenient.

He added that media students nowadays should be able to easily adapt to working in the industry as they are well exposed to the latest advances in technology from the university stage.

Alagan related to the students how he started out as a video editor at MediaCorp News, later playing a leading role in the digitisation of Channel NewsAsia’s content, and now regularly trains broadcast journalists.

Over the years, he has won some 30 awards for his innovative editing style and involvement in elections specials and show revamps. His portfolio covers a vast range of genres including documentaries, news, sports and music videos.

Curtin Sarawak’s Bachelor of Arts (Media, Culture and Communication) programme is a three-year programme that covers the study of theory, history, ethics, criticism and practice of media, information, and new communication technologies. It combines scholarly academic study, critical and analytical thinking, professional conduct, creativity and hands-on practical experiences such as video production.

Head of Curtin Sarawak’s Department of Media, Culture and Communication Ngu Ik Ying presenting a souvenir to Alagan.

The students, Ngu and Alagan in a photo call at the end of the talk.