June’s story of the month goes to news reporter Diane Leow
SENIOR reporter Diane Leow’s coverage of the impact of the Singapore haze in Australia has helped her clinch Meld’s story of the month for June. Here’s why.
In addition to serving the international student community here in Australia, Meld is also a training organisation dedicated to equipping media students and fresh grads with skills in online journalism – giving them the work experience they need to be successful in the jobs of tomorrow.
As part of that, we regularly reflect on the work the team has done, celebrate achievements, and encourage the pursuit of excellence as they learn from each other and allow iron to sharpen iron. Editors nominate a top story from each of their sections each month, and from these, we pick one that we think is the most stand-out.
Diane Leow is Meld’s senior news reporter, and her coverage of the impact of the Singapore haze in Australia has helped her clinch story of the month for June.
News editor Sandra Qian explains why:
“Diane pitched this story after she discovered local pharmacies were running out of N95 masks. She felt the subject was relevant for our readership, many of whom would have family and friends in the countries affected by the haze.
In addition, her angle gave the issue relevance from an Australian perspective. This demonstrates her sensitivity of news-worthy topics, and awareness of her audience.
The article was very well written and only needed slight restructuring of the key points to sharpen the lead. It was substantiated with authoritative sources and well-sourced interviews.
The article was filed in a very timely fashion (three days), during which Diane kept me well informed of the article’s progress.”
Well done too to reporters Tracy Pham, Regina Karis and Grace Yew for making the June top stories list for the lifestyle, entertainment and sports/tech sections respectively.