Jan 10 - Double honour at Singapore Short Film Awards for MCM alumna 

Sun Koh, one of the biggest names in Singapore's film industry, won both Best Director and Best Fiction awards at the inaugural SAFF on Jan 31 with her short film Dirty Bitch. Sun remains the only Singaporean to have won the Silver Hugo, for her short film in 2002, putting her in the company of Oscar-winning and influential director Martin Scorsese, who also got the Chicago honour for his debut short film.

Jan 10 - m:idea Youth Choice Awards

To officially launch Singapore's first student-run media conglomerate, m:idea, the team organised a ritzy red carpet awards show, which was attended by a whole lot of celebrities including MTV VJ Utt, popular deejays Justin Ang, Vernon A, ESPN presenter Jamie Yeo, Singapore's only professional female magician Magic Babe Ning and Ris Low. m:idea also attracted thousands of dollars in sponsored prizes and goodie bags to give voters, among the more than 10,000 who voted their favourite celebrities and brands in the month-long online campaign.

Dec 09 - 2 MCM alum in CNN's list of People to Watch

Global news network CNN placed mass comm alumna Vernetta Lopez and Natalya Twohill on a list of 20 Singaporeans to watch, as 135 exceptional Asians shortlisted from a list of "a few billion people". Radio DJ-actress-entrepreneur Lopez led a movement to pressure world leaders to make good their pledge to end world hunger in 7 years, while NUS undergraduate Twohill started the United Nations Youth Association (Singapore) to excite youths about devoting themselves to doing good for society.

Nov 09 - MCM student wins UNIFEM writing contest

Second-year student Melissa Lam beat 46 competitors many from Singapore's top junior colleges to win one of two first prizes at the inaugural UNIFEM( United Nations Development Fund for Women) writing contest. Judges commended her for her originality of thought and insightfulness. As part of her prize she gets an all-expense paid 2-week internship in UNIFEM Australia. 

Aug 09 - MCM alum snags First Class Honours in NTU

MCM Diploma in Merit holder Chua Xiao Ying, who switched disciplines to Singapore's top business programme, NTU's Nanyang Business School, graduated with First Class Honours and won the Forbes Research Gold Medal. Former NP Tribune designer Meenakshi d/o Shunmugham, also in the business course, was awarded Second Upper Class Honours. 

Jul 09 - MCM alum is NUS Faculty of Arts & Social Science valedictorian

Former hype editor Sana Rahman not only bested all FASS undergraduates in the commencement ceremony, she is only the second poly grad who has earned a First Class Honours degree at the faculty in 80 years. Sana, who specialised in Political Science, is working as a research associate at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Using skills acquired at MCM, she was a features writer with Her World and Simply Her for two years before being enrolled in the National University of Singapore.

Jul 09 – MCM trains international students in journalism to prep for YOG

FMS is chosen by MICA as journalism trainer for 4 delegations of about 15 student reporters from around the world. They are brought in by the ministry to ready them for reporting for next year’s inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG). Other media trainers for the students include Singapore Press Holdings and Singapore Media Academy. The first team was trained by lecturer Robin Yee and theurbanwire.com student reporters on Jul 6.


Jun 09 - Fastest-track MCM grad earns his PhD
Samuel Wong, who stunned Singaporeans when he was offered direct admission into a PhD programme after he had just completed his MCM Diploma studies, has just earned his doctorate from the University of Sheffield. Dr Wong, who skipped undergraduate and Master's studies, has been teaching and supervising undergraduate theses at the La Salle College of the Arts.


Jun 09 – MCM Singapore’s largest media camp

The inaugural SYMCamp 2009 is organised and conducted by MCM staff, led by lecturer Danny Boey, and will train more than 100 secondary school students over 3 days through a series of seminars and workshops.  
 

Apr 09 – A good death - a study of local attitudes

Commissioned by the Lien Foundation, MCM students Brian Lim and Kalis Koh embark on a research project that investigates the attitudes of Singaporeans towards what constitutes a good death. The findings were reported extensively in the media.


Feb 09 – Running a national campaign at Zouk

MCM students Jananitha Sri and Tammy Chua organise a massive party at Zouk to launch the Speak Good English Youth Movement, in partnership with the National Library Board. The event was covered in a few media.
 

Jan 09 – Singapore first media ‘O’ level subject offered by FMS

60 students from Kuo Chuan Presbyterian, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School, Singapore Chinese Girls’ School have enrolled in Media Studies (EL), the country’s first media subject offered at the ‘O’ levels. The subject, approved by MoE, has been developed by, and will be delivered by FMS.

 
Jan 09 – 987 FM crew open Radio Heatwave’s new studio

Radio Heatwave’s spanking new state-of-the-art Radio Broadcast Studio at the atrium is launched by Daniel Ong, 987FM’s Programme Director, as well as his deejays, including MCM alum Vanessa Fernandez, Shan Wee and Roslyn.


Dec 08 – FMS co-hosts "The One Show 2008 South East and South Asia Workshop"

New York-based The One Club, the world’s leading non-profit organisation recognising and promoting advertising, partners FMS to co-host "The One Show 2008 South East and South Asia Workshop". This inaugural regional tertiary level advertising competition, whose participants benefited from the mentorship of regional bigwigs in advertising, is co-ordinated by lecturer Ziggy Soh, who is course manager of our new Advertising & Public Relations (APR) diploma.


Dec 08 –Photographic exhibition at VivoCity

MCM students Yeo Kai Wen and Lee Xianjie returned from a community service project with Lien Aid and produced a stunning collection of photographs highlighting the plight of Cambodians whose poor sanitation practices were poisoning their children. The quality of the images and reporting was so excellent and moving, the students secured $15,000 worth of sponsorship to stage the "Demon in the Water" photographic exhibition at VivoCity, which drew praise from visitors around the world.

 
Nov 08 – "Above and Beyond" coffee table book

The well-received coffee table book detailing NP’s vision of global engagement and how this has paid off for students who have undertaken various sponsored overseas programmes was produced by 5 MCM final-year students, chief of whom was Lee Xianjie. The project was initiated and co-ordinated by lecturer Robin Yee to celebrate NP’s 45th anniversary.
 

Aug 08 – FMS sends 20 MCM students on overseas immersion

FMS launches the first of its overseas immersion programmes involving as many as 20 students. The students, led by lecturer Sng-Fun Poh Yoke, spend 6 weeks at top-ranked Wuhan University, where they studied 3 modules, including one entirely delivered in Mandarin.

 
Aug 08 – MediaCorp News broadcasts students’ packages on Beijing Olympics

4 Mandarin TVpackages produced by FMS students during the 2008 Beijing Study Trip for 40 MCM students are telecast over the Chinese channels. Their work was supervised by lecturer Jonathan Foo. The other students produced articles published in various magazines, photographs which were exhibited at the Asian Civilisations Museum and research for a website on Chinese Opera.


Apr-Aug 08 – Power98 broadcasts student radio work

Radio Heatwave students produce 6 capsules a week and host a weekly hour-long programme for Power 98 radio station.


Feb 08 – MCM Student shoots Channel U travelogue in Australia

Final-year MCM student Tan Qing Guang is picked by Channel U as Director of Photography and Assistant Director for an Australian travelogue. His trip was fully sponsored by the Australian Tourism Board.


Feb 08 – UrbanWire launches novel mobile phone programme

"Uwtimate Download", an innovative telco-unspecific privilege programme by theurbanwire.com is launched at Home Club, offering discounts with about 60 vendors to anyone who downloads the Uwtimate logo to their handphone. The programme was covered by several media.


Jan 08 - MCM alum snag key roles in Beauty World

Graduates Dwayne Tan and Alemay Fernandez, who have made a name and career for themselves as performers played the key roles of Frankie Wong and Rosemary Joseph in Michael Chiang's 20-year-old musical "Beauty World".


Dec 07 - MCM student releases debut album

Final-year MCM student Daphne Khoo, a Singapore Idol finalist, released her debut album, "Desperate", and launched it at the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre on Dec 23.


Dec 07 - CTV produces ad for Traffic Police

The Traffic Police video, Drink Driving, Shatters Life, produced by CTV, was launched at the Cathay Cineleisure on Dec 7 by the Singapore Traffic Police. The 30 sec-commercial reflects the inconvenience experienced by a 25-year-old executive after his driving license is revoked for drink driving. The video will be shown at pubs and bars in Singapore and is also on youtube. Search for SADD- Students Against Drink Driving.


Nov 07 – Radio Heatwave brings in Zouk DJ

The students running Singapore’s first campus radio station successfully negotiate with Zouk to bring in DJ Andrew Chow to spin for free for 1,300 RED Campers who had signed on for NP’s 3-day outreach camp.


Oct 07 – FMS offers Introduction to Journalism AEM

FMS offers the inaugural Introduction to Journalism Advanced Elective Module (AEM) to selected secondary school students from Bishan Park, Canberra and Commonwealth Secondary schools. The 60 students learnt the fundamentals of print, TV and radio journalism, producing a newspaper, and TV news bulletin at the end of 40 hours of instruction.


Jul 07- UrbanWire breaks the 2-million threshold

The entertainment/lifestyle e-zine produced by MCM Online Journalism students breaches the 2-million monthly hit mark in Jul, for the second time and has not looked back since. Nov 2007’s figure was 2.3 million hits.


Apr 07 – FMS presents paper at BEA, Las Vegas

The prestigious annual Broadcast Education Association (BEA) invites Robin Yee to deliver a paper detailing the pedagogical benefits of mounting media study trips. Drawing on successful case studies mounted by FMS, including the New York Journ Trip, Shaoxing Media Production trip and Sabah Storytelling Workshop, the only Singaporean paper there was well received.


May 06 – FMS students beat undergrads to media research grants

Putting paid the myth that poly students are good at hands-on work but not cerebral pursuits, our congratulations go to Dr Brian Lee and the following student leaders and their teams for winning NYC research grants normally intended for undergraduates and post-graduate students.

Amanda Soh      Effects of 3G and video/camera-enabled phones on Singaporean  youths
Debbie Teo        Sex and the Telly (Effects of American pop dramas on youths in Singapore)
Agnes Koh        The Singapore tertiary students' perception of the local television media on its
                           coverage of politics
Stephanie Ho     Sexual content in popular television drama: its effect on Singapore
Charlotte Choo  Youth, media and sexual innuendos
             
Mar 06  – MCM PR project wins PRISM award