Tracing headlines through time: Pupils explore journalism at ST’s 180th anniversary exhibition

SINGAPORE – Three times a week, Arshiya Kaur’s mother picks out interesting headlines from The Straits Times and reads the articles to the nine-year-old as bedtime stories.

“Reading the news lets me know more because sometimes people do good things that we can learn from,” said Arshiya, who found an article about

a foster mum taking care of nine children in her home

particularly meaningful and is excited to learn more about journalism.

She was one of the 45 pupils from Radin Mas Primary School who visited

ST’s 180th anniversary exhibition

at Jewel Changi Airport on July 15.

Guided around the exhibition by Ms Diane Leow, ST’s editor of newsroom insights, the excursion was part of the school’s middle primary talent programme to introduce pupils who are strong in English to journalism.

Titled Heartbeats And Headlines: 180 Years Of Telling The Singapore Story, the exhibition traces ST’s journey from a colonial newspaper to a national broadsheet, and its evolution into the multi-platform media outlet that it is today.

Spread across five sections, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through ST’s evolving newsroom, pivotal moments in Singapore’s history, ST’s role as a newspaper of record and how it has kept pace in the digital age.

Visitors can engage with interactive features, where they can design their own personalised newspaper front page or take part in a Reporter-In-Training quest.

Adult visitors will receive a complimentary tote bag and notebook upon completing activities at three checkpoints, while children will receive a specially designed sticker set.

Currently situated at the South Gateway Garden of Jewel Changi Airport until July 20, the roving exhibition will move to Westgate from July 25 to Aug 3 and to Raffles City Shopping Centre from Aug 8 to 17.

Exhibition sponsors include the Ministry of Home Affairs, Singapore Pools, Singtel, Temasek and UOB. 

Mr Matthew Yap, now semi-retired, visited the exhibition on July 15 after reading about it online.

As a former ST journalist from 1983 to 1988, it was “a very nostalgic experience” for him.

“When I first entered the newsroom, I still had to use a typewriter that was then translated into a semi-digital format... Towards the end of my career, I experienced the birth of e-mail,” the 67-year-old said.

ST represented “the birth of (technology) in journalism” for him, he added.

At one of the stations featuring an interactive display, which allowed visitors to flip through thousands of front pages, Mr Yap was delighted to find a number of his own reports on the front pages of ST. The discovery brought back fond memories of his time covering housing, crime and business stories.

Similarly, the pupils from Radin Mas Primary School enjoyed exploring the wide range of stories the publication has covered over the years.

Nine-year-old Evan Chin found it “fascinating” to see how Singapore has transformed over the years, through the display of black-and-white photographs and images in colour.

Other pupils enjoyed creating their own front pages.

Anda Lim, also nine, said he was interested in learning about the different jobs in the newsroom. He said he was surprised by what he had seen at the exhibition, as he usually reads news from ST only via messaging platforms such as WhatsApp.

“Now I am seeing it in real life... I also didn’t know that The Straits Times is 180 years old and that the publication is so old.”

Correction note: In an earlier version of the story, we misspelled a pupil’s name as Arshita Kaur. It should be Arshiya Kaur. We are sorry for the error.