Future focused: Chin speaking at the 2025 Digital Media Asia conference by WAN-IFRA at Pullman Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Star Media Group (SMG) plans to create a digital ecosystem through a comprehensive talent development programme.
Aimed at strengthening its young audience engagement, the initiative will focus on empowering youths to create the kind of content they want to consume, said The Star’s Deputy Executive Editor Christina Chin.
“We want to equip young participants of our BRATs (Bright, Roving, Ambitious Talents) programme with the skills, ethics and training of a professional journalist.
“With these, they will have the ability to craft relevant, authentic and, most importantly, engaging content for their peers.
“It’s about stories they want to read,” she said, adding that the initiative will include the revitalisation of SMG’s award-winning R.AGE platform.
Chin said a recent survey by the organisation found that while youths are interested in news, they are particular about how it is presented.
She was speaking during the WAN-IFRA Digital Media Asia 2025 session on “Digital News Consumption Trends and News Avoidance” yesterday.
“They are keen on educational, hyperlocal and global trends.
“The challenge lies in delivering concise, entertaining, relevant, informative, and authentic content – elements that hold significant value for this demographic,” she said.
Chin added that collaborations with educational institutions will be key to ensuring the initiative’s success.
Fellow speaker Amy Ross Arguedas, who is a research fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, said trust in the news media remained stable across many countries last year.
She said the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 found that an average of 40% of people trusted news media most of the time.
She said Malaysia, along with the Philippines, Japan and South Korea, was among the countries that stood out due to a notable rise in trust levels towards news media.
“There’s been a slight uptick in recent years, possibly linked to the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.
At another session, SMG Head of Technology, Kevin Seng, shared with the audience its success in improving its customer data platform.
Seng spoke about SMG’s data-driven strategy in a session titled “Effective Use of Data in Newsrooms”.
The two-day WAN-IFRA Digital Media Asia 2025 event ended yesterday.
