Lin Hui is a Senior Broadcast Journalist with MediaCorp’s Chinese radio news team.

Just last week, she picked up the trophy for ‘Young Journalist of the Year’ at the MediaCorp News Awards. Last year she had won the prize for ‘Feature Story of the Year’.

She told Asia Radio Today more about the awards.

 1.  For anyone who doesn’t know, what are the MediaCorp News Awards and who is eligible to win?

MediaCorp News Awards is an annual awards ceremony to honour journalists across the three media platforms in MediaCorp – Print, Television and Radio. MediaCorp journalists who have produced news/ current affairs works within the qualifying period will be eligible to be nominated for the various awards.  Winning entries will be chosen by a panel of judges.

2. You won Young Journalist of The Year.  Were you picked because of a particular story or stories or because of overall attitute/talent do you think?

There is a set of judging criteria for every award given out that night.  The judging panel will judge the shortlisted nominees based on the given judging criteria.

3. What motivates you as a journalist?  What do you think you are contributing by doing your job?

I think journalism is about bringing the world to the people, simplifying complex concepts for the people and being the voice of the people. There is satisfaction in beating others to bring a breaking story to our listeners and also satisfaction in telling a good, well thought out story about someone or an issue of the day, especially if people get inspired by what they hear. The bonus will be affecting change by helping to shape policies.

4. What news stories have you been most excited about covering and why?

There are typically two kinds of news that excites me. The first is breaking news, be it an energy-filled Elections Day coverage or incident based news such as a murder or fire. Things are always changing on the ground and information comes in bits and pieces and the challenge is to assess the authenticity of the information and get them out to our listeners in the fastest time possible, while at the same time try to capture the emotions or atmosphere as well. The second will be inspirational stories of ordinary people. As cliche as it might be, these stories of people beating the odds, bad-boy-turned-good, the dream chasers etc always warms my heart and reminds me of the possibilities in life, that one has a choice of what they want to be and how lucky I have been. Hopefully, these stories can inspire others as well.

5. Last year you won another MediaCorp News Award for your tribute to Lee Dai Sor, a broadcast famous for highlighting other Chinese dialects.  Why was this story so important to you?

I grew up not being exposed to dialects in the media. I also seldom speak dialect with my grandparents simply because I’m not fluent in them. Though I’ve heard of Lee Dai Sor, it was not until I spoke to his daughter and grandson and also the people who grew up listening to Lee Dai Sor that I truly understood how big a figure he was at the time. It was also then that I realized how influential radio was as a medium, how people will rush home to tune into his stories at a particular time, how he exposed a whole generation of Singaporeans to great Chinese classics and got many to be interested in the Chinese language. Such was the power of radio and Lee Dai Sor. I can only imagine how he felt when he was stopped from doing something that he is so passionate about and believed a great deal in. It was a story about a local radio legacy and for someone who has always been very passionate about radio, it spoke to me and I was glad it spoke to others as well.