ST wins top awards at Inma Global Media Awards

The Straits Times bagged several awards, including the best in Asia-Pacific award for a World Cup 2022 interactive special at the annual International News Media Association (Inma) Global Media Awards in New York on Friday.

Winners across 20 categories were announced at the awards ceremony at the Harvard Club, with Norwegian daily Bergens Tidende taking the top honour of global best in show.

ST’s World Cup 2022 “hat-trick” package of three interactive specials won first place under the national brands category for best idea to encourage reader engagement, beating out projects by American daily USA Today, which placed second; and Italian daily Corriere della Sera, which placed third.

The project also clinched the Best in Asia-Pacific title, surpassing other finalists from the region.

The three-part special which was published in the lead up to the football tournament in Qatar, featured an interactive on the Top 5 most iconic goals scored in Fifa World Cup history; a Goal of the Day game; as well as an interactive exploring the anatomy of World Cup chant.

The special on iconic goals – put together by interactive graphics editor Rodolfo Pazos and his team, alongside sports correspondent Sazali Abdul Aziz – used augmented reality to break down historic goals that inspired and astonished.

It provided in-depth analysis on goals, including the likes of Diego Maradona’s ‘Goal of the Century’ for Argentina against England at the 1986 World Cup, that was fleshed out with accounts from the players themselves. 

 

The popular Goal of the Day game allowed readers to play in first person, and relive some of the most memorable goals of the 2022 World Cup.

The interactive feature was also updated after each game during the tournament to reflect the results, and now serves as an interactive repository of the Qatar World Cup’s best goals. 

 

Combining data visualisation and analysis with audio, the third special in the package took a closer look at the world’s most iconic football chants.

It was put together by Mr Pazos’ team and digital graphics journalist Christopher Udemans, together with executive sub-editor Dilenjit Singh.

Readers could select a country to hear its chant - from England’s England ‘till I Die, to South Korea’s Daehan Minguk - accompanied by an analysis of factors like length, repetition, overall complexity, and themes of the chant.

Separately, an interactive feature on living inside and outside with dementia in Singapore took home third place under the national brands category, for best use of visual journalism and storytelling tools.

The first place went to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, while second place went to Argentina’s La Nacion.

The cross-desk collaboration – put together by data visualisation editor Rebecca Pazos, Life correspondent Akshita Nanda, and digital graphics journalist Charlene Chua – sought to change narratives about dementia, and highlight both the positive and negative sides of the illness.

Data visualisation was a key tool in this campaign to capture the nuances of age data across neighbourhoods in Singapore.

It also used photogrammetry, or a technique used to obtain 3D digital models by taking overlapping photographs of an object or area, to explore the inside of a home and how its set-up can help a person with dementia live longer with the illness.

The project also featured a seamless, real-life to 3D transition for exploring Singapore’s first dementia-friendly neighbourhood.

The impact of the feature extended to the community. The two dementia advocates featured in the project - Ms Alison Lim and Mr Anjang Rosli - were also nominated for the ST Singaporean of the Year 2022 Award.

ST’s Stop Scams campaign, which sought to educate the public about the scourge of scams and scammers, received an honourable mention in the best public relations or community service campaign category.

The campaign spanned several media formats including an interactive feature, videos and podcasts, extending to a webinar and roving exhibition.

While the videos gave a face and voice to victims of scams, the podcasts raised greater public awareness in Singapore and globally, to highlight the latest scam tactics, trends and ways the authorities are dealing with scams.

ST editor Jaime Ho said: “We’re deeply grateful for the affirmation of the ground-breaking work that The Straits Times newsroom produces.”

“Even as we recognise the best work of our journalists, these awards are also shared by the entire newsroom, as it drives each of us to explore new heights in the stories we tell, and how we tell them.”