A team from Lianhe Zaobao sought to tackle the subject of inequality through the personal stories of Singaporeans from different backgrounds coping with poverty.

They interviewed 35 households in Ang Mo Kio, Kallang, Redhill, Toa Payoh and Yishun, and pieced together a widely shared and discussed visual interactive feature that looked at how these families coped with their anxieties.

They also put together a graphic, illustrated in muted colours, that featured two boys from different socio-economic backgrounds talking, and transitioned into a close look at the stories of various families.

Yesterday, the efforts of the seven-member team were recognised when The Inequality Sketch won the Best Digital Feature in Singapore Press Holdings' Chinese Media Group (CMG) annual awards.

"The challenge lay in how to present inequality from a different perspective," said Ms Ng Wai Mun, one of two writers on the team. Other members included writer Wong Siew Fong and illustrator Loo Fang Kai.

The awards were presented at the group's annual Chinese New Year get-together, where CMG head Lee Huay Leng congratulated her colleagues for their display of dedication and unity.

"However, we must not rest on the laurels of past achievements," she added, using the story of the Three Little Pigs to stress the importance of staying adaptable.

A total of 15 awards were handed out yesterday.

Winning Best Video was The Story of a Bowl of Shark's Fin Soup, the brainchild of Ms Lee Lay Ming and her colleagues at CMG Digital.

The 20-minute documentary took a total of six months to complete, and saw Ms Lee travelling to Spain and Taiwan to explore the complex issue of shark's fin consumption in a compelling way.

"I remember the process being quite painful," said Ms Lee, adding they asked themselves: "How do we make it interesting and relevant for viewers?"