Hong Kong University journalism students join FCC as contributors in maiden project

The Journalist and Media Studies Centre and The Correspondent are putting together a programme where students from the JMSC will report on an issue related to journalism and media under the guidance of JMSC’s faculty and editors from the magazine.

“It’s an exciting opportunity for our students to learn from professionals and get exposure. The Correspondent’s long history of serving the journalism community in Hong Kong will provide a great learning opportunity for future journalists,” said JMSC Director Keith Richburg.

Keith Richburg said JMSC students would learn from professionals and get exposure. Photo: Sarah Graham

The partnership will begin with students producing reports on social media and censorship in China, using Weiboscope, a JMSC research project led by Dr King-wa Fu, which tracks social media posts from a select group of Chinese microbloggers who are being censored on the Sina’s Twitter-like platform Weibo.

Two former FCC presidents Jim Laurie and the late Diane Stormont were heavily involved with JMSC as teachers and programme leaders. In fact, not long after JMSC started Stormont was one of the first students of its Masters programme. Photographer Kees Metselaar has been a teacher with the programme for the past seven years.

The JMSC was founded in 1998 with the goal of bringing professional journalism education to Hong Kong’s premier university. Over the past 17 years, students and staff of the JMSC have won some of journalism’s most prestigious awards including the FCC’s Human Right’s Press Awards.