Wednesday, 30 July 2014

TODAY Online

A new study conducted by Associate Professor Lim Sun Sun, who is from the Department of Communications and New Media at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, showed that social media is proving to be a ripe breeding ground for gang recruitment among high-risk youths.

This is the first study of the impact of social media on high-risk youths, and covered 36 juvenile delinquents aged between 15 and 18 whose criminal records span the gamut of theft, robbery, drugs and even rioting. The research showed that through platforms like Facebook, these youths socialised with peers connected to gangs and were drawn into their criminal activities.

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Friday, 18 July 2014

Berita Harian

This was a feature on Ms Seri Ariyani Zulkafli, an undergraduate from the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and recent NUS graduate Ms Ainul Hikmah Aminul Rashid, who have been volunteering at APEX (Ace PSLE Exam) Mentors, a youth volunteer group that helps mentor madrasah students towards PSLE excellence, for over two years. The group had recently taken up the task of preparing and managing a break fast event for the Al-Muttaqin Mosque as part of its Ramadan to Remember (R2R) Programme. They had also raised more than $8,000, which went into purchasing grocery hampers that were distributed to over 150 needy families in Ang Mo Kio.

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

The Guardian

This was a report on the Darwin Online Beagle Library project led by historian of science Dr John van Wyhe, a Senior Lecturer from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at NUS. The lost collection of books that kept Charles Darwin company aboard HMS Beagle and provided inspiration for his later works on evolution has been made publicly available for the first time. Hundreds of titles that filled the shelves of the ship’s library on Darwin’s five-year circumnavigation of the globe in the 1830s have been brought together and made freely available through the project.

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Tuesday, 15 July 2014

The Straits Times

In today’s edition of The Straits Times, there was a commentary by Associate Professor Lim Sun Sun from the Department of Communications and New Media at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Assoc Prof Lim cautioned against the “cot bumper approach” to parental mediation of children’s media use, and suggested that parents can interpret, moderate and mediate for their child the media content that he is confronted with. She noted that parental mediation is an ongoing journey of trust, sharing, discussion, and debate, and opined that parents embrace each alternative view as an opportunity to rationalise with their child why they disagree with it.

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Saturday, 12 July 2014

The Straits Times

It was reported that an anonymous donor is giving half a million dollars to writers who can tell Singapore’s story best. From 2018, and every three years after that, the best history book on the nation will get a $50,000 prize. The idea to do this came from Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, who had appealed for a donor in an earlier article which he wrote in the paper’s By Invitation column. Prof Mahbubani said that the $500,000 will be placed in an endowment fund, and the interest would be used to support the book prize every three years, and he hopes that this will inspire others to donate to other kinds of prizes which celebrate Singapore’s 50th anniversary. The competition will be organised by the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Saturday, 12 July 2014

The Straits Times

This was an article contribution by Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS, in which he suggested that Singaporeans be happy for one year – from 10 August to next 9 August, when it will be Singapore’s 50^th anniversary. . He noted that we have had, by any standards, an extraordinarily successful first 50 years, and the chances of us being equally successful over the next 50 years are practically zero, and shared three areas in which we will have to deal with tougher competition. Prof Mahbubani highlighted that we should therefore celebrate this very special moment as a nation and also at the individual level. Since Singapore will be celebrating its 50^th birthday next year, he used the number five in his three suggestions on simple pleasures that all Singaporeans, rich and poor, can enjoy together – $5 meals, $500 holidays and $50,000 homes.

Click here to read the full article.