Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Established in 1992, the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information (WKWSCI) is the only full-fledged communication school in Singapore and is a world-class centre of excellence with an international faculty, state-of-the-art research laboratories, and global institutional affiliations.

I am currently a full-time undergraduate pursuing a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. The courses offered provided me with greater exposure to the media industry and increased my knowledge of the theories behind certain decisions and actions observed. The many hands-on activities on professional equipment also trained me in the relevant skills required in the industry. The following are the course modules I have taken over the course of study and some memorable projects I had participated in.

Course Modules

CS0201 FOUNDATIONS OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Taking this course made me realise that communication is not as simple as what I normally see at face value. There are many theories behind each way of communication that could make it achieve different aims and objectives. Communication is also deeply linked to the self, and I got to understand more about humans as an entity and how we do intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal communication. The classes also touched on other aspects such as perception, impression, persuasion and broader topics like gender, culture, advertising, mass communications, together with their relationship to communication and the relevant theories behind them.

Personality Creation Project

This project aims to assess our knowledge of the OCEAN and HEXACO personality traits model. We have to craft a character possessing two of the personality traits and film a series of TikTok videos depicting the life of this character. This is my first hands-on project in WKWSCI. Everyone in the group participated in the brainstorming, scripting and filming processes. I helped out with the editing while others completed the creative brief.

This series of videos can also be found in the playlist here.

Urban Redevelopment Project

This project mainly assesses our understanding of the various communication concepts and theories taught by attempting to integrate them into design elements to fit into an empty plot of land in the central business district area. In my opinion, this is an extremely interesting project as it allows us to think out of the box and explore a whole new world of possibilities. The following are the facilities that we have come up with after discussions as a group.

CS0204 BASIC MEDIA WRITING

This course created an opportunity for me to explore journalism, which I had never imagined myself to be. Going around searching for interviews, crafting interview questions, conducting interviews, finalising story angle and finally writing the article have never been more interesting. Learning the key techniques to writing a good news story has also trained me to become a better writer holistically, answering the questions of readers and addressing their concerns.

Video Story Assignment

There were other tasks like news writing and feature story writing assignments assessing our understanding of journalism before this, but this was the first feature story assignment where we had to film our interviewees. After securing an interview with Chef Charles Leow, who decided to return from the United Kingdom to search for his roots in the Hakka culture, we decided to work on the relation of food to preserving culture.

I feel that this is by far the most exciting and fulfilling assignment I have had. The initial stages of the project were challenging, as we had difficulty securing interviewees due to our identity being only students. We had to change our topic and focus a few times before confirming this final topic. I felt very proud of myself when I completed the last edits for this video. Not only have I picked up the skills needed to produce a video news story, but I have also learnt a lot from our interviewees on Hakka food and their culture.

This video can also be found here.

CS0209 MEDIA LAW, ETHICS & POLICY

This course is one of the most challenging courses I have taken. It is not easy to digest all the concepts and statutes of different legislatures as more topics are covered progressively. Despite this, my knowledge of the laws relating to the media has notably increased, and I am more confident of being able to protect myself from any legal situation that could arise if I join the media industry one day. The learning of legal proceeds, intellectual property laws, defamation laws, POFMA and many more were surely beneficial to me.

The Memories

Here are some records of my journey in Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.

Freshmen Orientation Programme Video Creation

Each orientation group have to produce two final videos for the finale. I was allocated to the group with the theme "drama". We decided to take inspiration from the series "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" and introduced our own WeeKims of WKWSCI. I helped out with the filming and initial stages of editing before passing the OK-CUTS over to the main editor.

This video can also be found here.