A group of fourth-year students in the University of Macau (UM) Department of Communications recently won three awards for their graduation publications, namely UM Bridges Fall 2019: SONDER, and Communicator 2020: A Tale of Macau During Pandemic, at the 2020 Campus Newspaper Awards organised by China Daily Hong Kong Edition. The former publication won a second prize in the Best in News Reporting (English Category) and a third prize in the Best in News Writing (English Category), while the latter publication won a third prize in Layout Design (Chinese Category).

This year’s event attracted participants from 43 universities in the Greater China region, including Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, UM, Fu Jen Catholic University, and Shih Hsin University, with over 660 submissions from nearly 2,000 students. In the end, a jury comprised of 85 scholars, professors, and journalism professionals from the Greater China region selected 76 prize winners in 24 categories.

The publication Communicator 2020: A Tale of Macau During Pandemic was co-produced by 28 students in the Department of Communication, under the guidance of Dr Che Hio Ieong. The publication focuses on the role of Macao during the COVID-19 pandemic and illustrates the stories of people from all walks of life during that period. The recipient of the third prize in the Layout Design (Chinese Category) is Cynthia Lau.

The English publication UM Bridges Spring 2019: SONDER was co-produced by 29 students under the guidance of Prof Wu Mei in the Department of Communication. Students Erriss Ho and Yulie Che used the new word ‘sonder’ as the topic for their interviews and feature stories ‘Is Eating Less Meat Good for Your Body?’ and ‘The Habit: Visiting Museums’, which won a second prize in the Best in News Reporting (English Category) and a third prize in the Best in News Writing (English Category), respectively.