Republic Poly’s Media Challenge ends on a high note

The Media Challenge 2014

The grand finale and challenge of the Media Challenge ended on a high note with great success at Republic Polytechnic on 5th April 2014. Team Next Door from Raffles Girls’ School clinched the top place with much effort and fervour. Verbal Anatomy (Westwood Secondary School) and Adrenaline (Marsiling Secondary School) came in at a close second and third place respectively.

The Media Challenge is a contest targeted at secondary schools who are interested in learning about mass communication. It aims to engage social media savvy youths, stimulate their creativity and nurture their interest in mass communication. Targeted at secondary school students, The Media Challenge is a platform for them to acquire skill sets in writing, communicating, and critical thinking – as well as increase their awareness and interest in social issues.

Youths’ Passion for Our Community and Singapore

Last year’s inaugural Media Challenge saw a total of 18 teams from 15 schools. This year, the number increased to include 28 schools from 25 different teams, showing the growth in popularity of the competition as well as social media and communication among the youths. The emphasis for this year’s challenge is Digital Marketing and the theme of the contest this year was to “Support Youths’ Passion for Our Community and Singapore.”

This unique event provides a hands-on experience for students to learn all about the challenges and rewards of working in media-related industries. In this year’s competition, the students were judged on factors such as effectiveness of social media usage, quality of their blog content and presentation skills to promote a cause that is close to their hearts.

The challenge started in late March with apprentice workshops from industry partners giving talks on the need for youth involvement in promoting social causes, an overview of the social media landscape, using blogging as an effective marketing tool and audience analysis. The teams used their new found skills to promote the farms and businesses in the Kranji Countryside Association as a mini-challenge.

In line with this year’s theme, “Youths’ Passion for Our Community and Singapore”, the students were encouraged to develop their awareness and interest in everyday social issues.

The Winning Team

To achieve their goal, the winning team, Teens Next Door, set up a blog and used platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to engage their target audience. Through these channels, they reached out to other youth in Singapore, encouraging them to interact with the “familiar strangers” in their lives through social media. In reaching out to these acquaintances, it was hoped that they would broaden their social circles. Over the course of the month, the group’s Facebook page amassed close to 600 fans, attesting to the reach of their campaign.

The panel of judges comprising both RP staff and industry partners from Ogilvy, Blugrapes and National Youth Council were extremely impressed by the quality of projects developed by the teams that covered a broad spectrum of topics of relevance to youth,” said Mr Warren Wang, Director, Centre for Enterprise and Communication.

Youths Making Use of Social Media For A Better Cause

With the infiltration and abundance of social media in our daily lives, it’s really heartening to see a generation of youths make use of social media to promote causes worth highlighting to the public and fighting for. Through this challenge and social media, obstacles were overcame, skills were put to good use and new friendships were forged. 

An interesting outcome of the mini-challenge is that the top three teams did not use Facebook at all, opting instead to use Instagram and Twitter. New social media platforms have been appearing and making their way to the centre stage. Hopefully, Singapore youths will make good use of these social media platforms to promote good and meaningful causes in the future. 

For a more detailed account and the full list of winners, check out The Media Challenge’s official website here.

Pictures courtesy of Republic Polytechnic.