SINGAPORE – The thousands of Taylor Swift fans who descended on the Singapore Sports Hub during her Eras Tour in Singapore in March 2024 were able to get a taste of the concert high in February of the same year by collecting nine posters with hand-drawn illustrations that mark the 35-year-old pop queen’s music eras.
On April 23, this project won The Straits Times the gold award for Best in Audience Engagement at the 17th edition of the Digital Media Awards Asia, which was presented at a ceremony at the Pullman Kuala Lumpur City Centre hotel in Malaysia.
The annual awards are organised by the World Association of News Publishers (Wan-Ifra) to recognise publishers that have adopted digital media and mobile strategies.
The brainchild of ST correspondent Yamini Chinnuswamy and executive artist Billy Ker, each of the nine posters represents one album – or a music era – in the singer’s record-breaking Eras Tour from 2008’s Fearless through to Midnights from 2022.
The hand-drawn illustrations and photographs match the aesthetic of each era, packed with information such as factoids, achievements and news from that period.
The nine posters come together to form a composite image of the singer.
“From the very beginning, we wanted to create a must-have piece of memorabilia for fans,” said Mr Ker, 36, who was the creative genius behind the work.
“Each piece needs to capture the unique aesthetic and spirit of Swift’s respective albums, or musical eras, while still functioning as a compelling standalone design.
“When pieced together, the nine posters also have to form a visually coherent narrative that told the full story of Swift’s evolving career,” he said.
The winning project saw an increase in print sales of the English-language daily by more than 8,000 copies over the nine days it ran, and over 4,000 downloads of the soft copies of the nine posters.
This was made possible with social media marketing, including a TikTok contest, to engage readers of ST, said Ms Chinnuswamy, 37.
“In the era of the rapidly developing news cycle, it’s very heartening to see that a journalistic project can resonate in such a long-term and personal way with readers,” she added.
“The posters became keepsakes for fans and readers who would forever link the Eras Tour Singapore with The Straits Times.”
Swift’s sold-out concerts ran in Singapore from March 2 to 9, 2024. The last of her six concerts was the largest-ever staged in Singapore, with 63,000 attendees.
ST, which is part of SPH Media, also bagged six other awards, walking away with the most accolades among news publishers.
It clinched five golds and two silvers across multiple categories.
ST editor Jaime Ho said: “The two most important ways through which newsrooms get affirmation for the work we do are first, in the quiet but growing trust that we have within our audiences and community, and second, through awards such as these, when our fellow professionals around the world recognise our work as world-leading.”
He added: “One may be more visible than the other, but both are equally important and appreciated, and both drive The Straits Times to do even better in our pursuit of public service journalism.”
Missed ST’s 9-era infographic series in print? Download it here to become a Taylor Swift Mastermind2024 in visual stories and digital graphics
Golds
Best News Website
ST won the top prize in the Best News Website category for the visual story “How food diary videos on social media can impact your body image”.
Put together by digital graphics designer Alyssa Mungal, digital graphics journalists Charlene Chua and Stephanie Adeline, data visualisation developer Chee Wei Xian and correspondent Elizabeth Law in December 2024, this story discusses the psychological impact of “What I eat in a day” TikTok videos on viewers.
The team conducted a frame-by-frame analysis of 113 such TikTok videos and identified various elements, including the narrative structure, specific shots and audio, that could encourage social comparison andpoor body image among young people.
Best Data Visualisation
ST also won a gold in Best Data Visualisation for the visual story “Drowning in plastic: The oceans’ growing constellations of trash” published in November 2024.
This story was constructed by digital graphics journalist Laura Arago, digital graphics designer Claire Xu, data visualisation developer Roman Sverdan and senior data visualisation developer Youjin Shin.
This story explores how the everyday actions of humans, like the purchasing and washing of fast-fashion items, have unknowingly resulted in the presence of an estimated 170 trillion microplastic particles in the oceans, and more in the air and soil, globally.
These plastics make their way into the digestive tracts of marine species, with a whole gamut of environmental and ecological concerns.
Such toxic chemicals in the food chain eventually reach humans through seafood consumption.
Best Lifestyle or Sports Site
When Singaporean kitefoiler Max Maeder won bronze at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, a team of 30 comprising sports correspondents, digital visualisation developers, digital graphics journalists and more sprung into action.
A package of three interactive pieces – “Max Maeder’s ultimate guide to kitefoiling”, “Max Maeder and the art of kitefoiling” and “How Max Maeder won Olympic bronze for Singapore” – were published between May and August 2024.
The stories tapped 3D animations, 360-degree panoramic videos and quizzes to offer readers an immersive experience on the sport, techniques adopted by Maederin races and his success story at the Olympics.
This cross-desk collaboration, which involved a 3D scan of Maederfor the team to animate his avatar, earned ST a gold for Best Lifestyle or Sports Site.
Best Podcast
In November 2024, ST Podcasts uploaded its fourth and final episode of Green Trails – an environment podcast special where ST hit the ground with experts to explore how the natural environment can make an impact on the lives of the layman.
This outdoor podcast series, which experiments with the recording of nature sounds and offers listeners a captivating experience, won the gold award for Best Podcast.
Hosted by correspondents Shabana Begum and Ang Qing, and produced by the ST Podcasts team, the four-part series discusses the environmental crises facing four spaces in Singapore with people who know these spaces well and what the future holds for them.
The episodes delve into topics including land reclamation as a solution to counter rising sea levels, foraging insects for consumption and human-wildlife coexistence.
Silvers
Best Data Visualisation
ST also snagged the runner-up position in the Best Data Visualisation category for the visual story “No mere child’s play: How Singapore builds playground culture” published in October 2024.
The story takes readers through a time capsule of playgrounds in Singapore, showing how they have evolved from the early days of Singapore’s independence to the present.
Using a combination of photos, videos, illustrations and animations, the team of 12 highlighted how the traditional concrete and mosaic tile playgrounds that typically stood in a pit of sand transitioned into the plastic ones seen today.
This was further supplemented by the use of 3D-modelling and mapping.
Best Lifestyle or Sports Site
“Sounds of Singapore, rhythm of home” – a National Day feature with a heavy audio element published in August 2024 – clinched silver in the Best Lifestyle or Sports Site category.
This story incorporates soundbites characteristic of life in Singapore. The sound data was fed into artificial intelligence programs that visualise the sound data according to the different aspects – rhythm, texture and musical tones.
Every soundbite is introduced in a quiz, encouraging readers to discern the source of the sound. This is accompanied by vibrant data-generated animations that transform the audio into a larger, poetic art piece.
The success of this feature was even reflected in the data journalism newsletter Data Vis Dispatch on Aug 13, 2024.
Summary of awards
Gold
- Best Data Visualisation - Drowning in plastic: The oceans’ growing constellations of trash
- Best Lifestyle or Sports Site - An inside look into kitefoiler Max Maeder’s Olympic quest
- Best News Website - How food diary videos on social media can impact your body image
- Best in Audience Engagement - 9-part Taylor Swift infographics that make up a giant poster
- Best Podcast - Green Trails - An audio trail bringing green issues alive
Silver
- Best Data Visualisation - No mere child’s play: How Singapore builds playground culture
- Best Lifestyle or Sports Site - Sounds of Singapore, rhythm of home
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