Digital N3 Salons

    AAJA-Asia organizes Digital N3 Salons throughout the year to discuss important media trends and offer training to members and attendees of its annual New.Now.Next Media Conference (N3con). The Digital N3 Salons connect attendees across Asia and the U.S. — with groups gathering simultaneously at various sites that are connected via a live streaming platform.

    Since physical gatherings are currently not an option as we deal with the coronavirus pandemic, our 2020 series of Digital N3 Salons is fully digital. Join us for engaging conversations and training you won’t want to miss!

    The Future of Tech and Finance in Asia

    Saturday 12 December 2020, from 09:30 am to 10:30 am SGT/HKT

    In Xi Jinping’s 2020 proposed 5-year economic plan for China, he labeled technological innovation as the key driver of Chinese economic growth. China is pioneering 5G globally, in part through Huawei’s 5G telecommunications lines. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been politically pressuring its allies and other nations to vehemently reject Huawei, citing fears of potential Chinese governmental interference, and the banned technological exports to China, in addition to an on-going battle over the fate of China’s two biggest apps in the U.S.: WeChat and ByteDance. To top it off, Ant Financial, the Chinese Fintech app protege, made history after surpassing Saudi Arabia’s Aramco to nab the top spot for the largest IPO.

    This chat will explore how different Chinese technologies deployed are being used through the Asia Pacific region, technology as a driver of economic growth in the region, and the U.S. push back on China’s growing tech dominance.

    Confirmed Speakers: 

    Dr. Yanfei Li is an Associate Professor with Hunan University of Technology and Business. He is also currently a Research Fellow with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), an international economic policy think tank. He specializes in energy markets, energy policy, and economics of technological change, serving the interests of both academic and public sectors. Dr Li’s current research covers regional natural gas trade and market integration, regional power infrastructure planning and electricity trade, economic and environmental assessment of energy technologies, hydrogen economy, and energy-economy-environment modeling. He acquired PhD in Economics from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Peking University in Beijing.

    Xiaomeng Lu is a senior analyst in Eurasia Group’s geo-technology practice with a focus on the interactions of emerging technologies with geopolitics, market dynamics, and regulatory norms. She provides in-depth analysis on key policy issues such as cybersecurity, data protection, artificial intelligence, internet governance, 5G, and trade. Before joining Eurasia Group, Xiaomeng was the China practice lead at consulting firm Access Partnership. In this capacity, she helped top financial and cloud service providers of the US enter China’s market amid the trade war between the two countries. She also played a key role in establishing and expanding the company’s first office in Asia, which generated over $1 million in revenue in three years. Xiaomeng has a master’s degree in international trade policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Renmin University of China.

     

    CV Workshop for Young Journalists

    Saturday 24 October 2020, from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm SGT/HKT

    Preparing your CV can be a daunting task. Yet, whether it is for applying for an internship or a first job, a well written CV, in line with the APAC news industry’s best practices, can make a decisive difference. If you want to stand out, improve your job searching skills and increase your chances of working as a professional journalist, this workshop is for you!

    Programme:

    The workshop will go through the basics of setting up your journalist resume:

    • Best layout options
    • Wordings that work
    • Developing and tailoring your profesional profile
    • Highlighting the best parts of your work
    • Typical errors to avoid in CV writing
    • Review and feedback

    Geared towards students and early career journalists, this interactive session will include personalized advice, tips and techniques to help you make the most of your next identified opportunity.

    Workshop leader: 

    Rebecca Isjwara is a reporter with S&P Global Market Intelligence, covering banking and financial services in APAC. She is a co-host of the AAJA-Asia podcast, a series of interviews accompanying N3Con.

    Rebecca holds a BBA in Global Business and Finance from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and is currently serving as the co-vice president for the Hong Kong subchapter of AAJA-Asia.

     

     

    Trauma Awareness and Resilience: What every Reporter Needs to Know!

    Saturday 11 July 2020, from 11:30 to 1:00 pm (SG/HK time)

    Improving crisis reporting and protecting journalists have never been more important than during the Covid-19 pandemic. As we carry out the vital mission of informing citizens and holding leaders accountable, journalists frequently bear witness to human suffering, whether covering mass disasters or individual atrocities. Journalists are also sometimes the direct targets of violence and harassment which can affect health and well-being.

    While research suggests that at least 80% of journalists have been exposed to a traumatic event while carrying out their work, few have been trained to protect themselves of such exposure and its aftermath.

    This session will explore the impact of trauma on journalists and newsrooms. It will equip you with simple approaches to peers and colleagues and management tactics for dealing with trauma exposure.

    The training will cover:

    • How to monitor how staff are holding up; building resilience in the face of undertaking very difficult stories
    • Monitoring colleagues and staff when covering traumatic events
    • Mitigating the impact of traumatic events
    • Newsroom planning and protocols before, during and after traumatic events.

    Workshop leader: 

    Cait McMahon OAM, PhD is a registered psychologist and the founding managing director of Dart Centre Asia Pacific since 2003. Dart Asia Pacific has its headquarters in Melbourne, Australia and holds trainings and other programs throughout the Asia Pacific region. McMahon has been interested in the nexus of journalism and trauma since working as staff counsellor at The Age newspaper in Melbourne in the mid 1980’s and 90’s. This interest pushed her to pursue postgraduate research on trauma exposed journalists in 1993 with subsequent publications. Her PhD focused on Australian trauma reporting journalists, post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth. Cait has received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), one of Australia’s highest civil accolades, for her work with journalists and trauma.

    Established in 1999, the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma provides resources, training and thought leadership on covering violence, tragedy and crisis. The Dart Center is recognized as a world leader in evidence-based trauma-awareness and support programs for journalists, as well as in advancing innovative, ethical reporting on survivors of traumatic events.

     

    Saturday 30 May 2020, from 09:00 am to 11:30 am (SG/HK time).

    Up next in our N3 Digital Salon series:

    • Using Data to Find Impactful Coronavirus Stories and
    • Why Diversity Matters Now and What You Can Do About It

    Want to find impactful stories about the coronavirus pandemic and bring in new readers? AAJA-Asia’s lead trainer, Kuek Ser Kuang Keng will show us the hidden stories in international Covid-19 datasets available publicly. He’ll also take us through some of the most impressive data journalism projects produced by Asia colleagues this year.

    Before diving into Keng’s in-depth workshop, two special guests from the U.S. are joining us! We’ll be welcoming OpenNews’ Erika Owens and Sisi Wei on how news organizations can build communities focused on journalism & tech that are inclusive and support critical news projects.

    PROGRAM

    09:00 – 10:00 – Why Diversity Matters Now and What You Can Do About It?

    A conversation with OpenNews about  how to create a journalism industry that is not only more tech savvy but also more inclusive and equitable. Founded in 2011 by the Knight Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation, OpenNews connects a network of developers, designers, journalists, and editors to collaborate on open technologies and processes within journalism. We will also introduce the OpenNews’ Peer Data Review Program which provides support and coaching to journalists working on data journalism projects.

    Speakers

    Sisi Wei is the Director of Programs at OpenNews, where she envisions and executes transformative initiatives to help create a journalism industry that is more inclusive and equitable, especially for journalists of color and local journalists. Previously, she was the Assistant Managing Editor at ProPublica, during which she edited and managed news apps, graphics, visual investigations and large, interdisciplinary projects. Sisi has won numerous Malofiej, SND Digital and ONA awards, the Gannett Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism, and the 2016 Data Journalism Award for Best Individual Portfolio. She has served as an adjunct professor at New York University, The New School and CUNY, and she is also the co-founder of Code with me, a high-impact, nonprofit workshop that teaches journalists how to code. (sisi@opennews.org)

    Erika Owens is Director of OpenNews, where she convenes people and projects across journalism and technology to move the industry forward. Her adroit community work has been instrumental in establishing OpenNews as a leader in how to foster and sustain networks. Erika also serves on the board of the Movement Alliance Project (formerly Media Mobilizing Project) and has trained as a donor organizer through the Giving Project at Bread and Roses Community Fund. Previously, Erika was web editor at the Philadelphia Public School Notebook.

     

    Moderator

    Zela Chin. An award-winning journalist, Zela is the principal reporter for the weekly, prime-time documentary program Pearl Magazine on TVB, the largest broadcaster in Hong Kong. Prior to launching Pearl Magazine, she was a reporter with TVB’s business feature program, Money Magazine. TVB shows reach 2.3 million households in the city, and over 300 million households worldwide. Zela started her career at CNN headquarters in the U.S. and later joined CNN in Hong Kong to produce Talk Asia. Highlights include interviews with Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, scientist Stephen Hawking and opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

    10:00 – 11:30 – Using Data to Find Impactful Coronavirus Stories

    This workshop will introduce you to two of the most used international datasets on the pandemic (Our World in Data which combines the most important data from Europe’s CDC and John Hopkins University in the U.S.) – We’ll talk through the tips and tricks to navigate the data and errors to avoid.

    We’ll also showcase the best data journalism projects done by Asia’s journalists in the past 3 months.

    Speaker

    Kuek Ser Kuang Keng is an award-winning digital journalist cum trainer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is the founder of Data-N, a training program that helps journalists to integrate data journalism into daily reporting. Data-N has helped publications like Foreign Policy, BBC World Service, Mediacorp and Malaysiakini to enhance their storytelling with data, visual and interactive components. With the support of Google News Initiative, he has been conducting regular digital journalism workshops across the region since 2018. Keng is also the competition officer of Data Journalism Awards (2019) and Sigma Awards (2020), two international awards that recognize outstanding work in the field of data journalism worldwide.

     

    Saturday 25 April 2020, from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm (SG/HK time).

    PROGRAM

    10:00am – 11:20am – How are journalists Covering and Coping with COVID-19 in Asia? 

    Journalist from various AAJA-Asia’s subchapters will share how they are living and working through the Covid-19 pandemic. What are the challenges they have met, the changes they have experienced, the lessons they have learnt?

    Panelists:

    Motoko Rich is Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times. She has been a reporter with The Times since 2003, and has covered a broad range of beats at the Times, including real estate (during a boom), the economy (during a bust), books and education. She started her journalism career at The Financial Times in London and worked at The Wall Street Journal for six years in Atlanta and New York. Ms. Rich, who grew up in New Jersey, Tokyo and Northern California, is a graduate of Yale University and Cambridge University.

     

    Ching-Ching Ni is editor-in-chief of the New York Times Chinese language website cn.nytimes.com, the newspaper’s first online edition in a foreign language. She started her journalism career at Newsday in New York and served for about a decade as China correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. Before becoming an editor she was associate dean and professor at the journalism school at Shantou University in southern China.

     

    Grace Moon  is a freelance journalist and researcher based in Seoul, South Korea. She has written and recorded stories for the BBC, Public Radio International, NBC News, South China Morning Post, Food52, Dallas Morning News, Newsday and more. She’s also served as a fixer, researcher and translator for Radio-Canada, AJ+, UK’s Channel 4 and other media.

     

     

    Nicholas Yong is Assistant News Editor at Yahoo News. Nicholas has been working across print, broadcast and digital media for 12 years. He covers the general beat for Yahoo News Singapore, with a special interest in politics and long-form news features. He is also a published author and has written two works of fiction.

     

     

    Moderator:

    K. Oanh Ha is a senior reporter covering global business issues in Asia for Bloomberg. She’s currently based in Hong Kong. She joined the news organization in 2010 as Vietnam bureau chief and has also overseen the outlet’s coverage of consumer and healthcare news. Before joining Bloomberg, she worked as a host and reporter for KQED Public Radio in San Francisco on its nationally-syndicated program, Pacific Time, examining the connections between Asia, the U.S. and Asian American issues. She’s also reported for the San Jose Mercury News, covering Asia Pacific affairs, technology and small businesses.

    A full video recording of the session is available for free on the Digital N3 Salons Facebook group. 

    11:30am – 12:30pm – How to Build and Strengthen Your Presence Online?

    Tips and insights from Angie Lau, Editor-in-Chief, CEO, and Founder of Forkast.News.

    Angie Lau is an award-winning veteran journalist and a respected thought leader in blockchain technology. Before founding Forkast in July 2018, Angie anchored Bloomberg TV’s flagship morning show “First Up with Angie Lau” broadcast globally into 350 million homes, offices and trading floors. Angie’s TED Talk “I Am Not Supposed to Be Here” is now a TED Ed Lesson for its global audience of 6.7 million followers.

     

    A full video recording of the session is available for free on the Digital N3 Salons Facebook group.