Come Down for IMC+

As you probably know by now, Singapore Polytechnic's Diploma in Media and Communication is a course that covers a broad spectrum of topics. What us students learn in our 3 years here at DMC includes public relations, advertising, psychology, social media and writing. And that's just to name a few of them!

Just like the things that we learn, you'll find a wide array of colourful personalities here at DMC.

Maybe you're the one whose notes never stay clean for long because you're always doodling during your lessons. Perhaps you're the person who's always hyped up and never seems to stop talking in your group of friends. Or maybe you're the quiet type who much prefers writing your heart to conversing with people.

If you've ever felt like a misfit or just felt that there's just something different about you then you'll blend right in at DMC. There's something that binds us all together at DMC and that's the little spark of creativity that we have in all of us. It doesn't matter if you're a quiet writer, an inspired artist or an effervescent chatterbox, that spark of creativity is going to catch fire in DMC.

My favourite bunch of misfits here in DMC

If you're dying to know more about our course, why not come down to our event organised by our very own DMC year 2 students! Head on down to SP Convention Centre on 4th February for IMC+. IMC+ aims to expose it's participants to the world of Integrated Marketing Communication, which is just what IMC stands for! Here's your chance to learn more about the media industry in Singapore and also about integrate marketing communication which is an integral part of DMC.

In fact, you might have already seen some of our posters in train stations. Does this look familiar to you?

Taken from SP IMC+ Facebook

There'll be talks by various industry speakers such as Valerie Cheng, Justine Leong and Calvin Soh on topics such as advertising, creativity and ideas. You'll be sure to leave IMC+ leaving inspired! In addition to that, there'll be performances as well as refreshments provided.

Another good reason to come down to SP, the goodie bags!

Thanks to our gracious sponsors, the goodie bags will contains gifts from Etude House, the Yoghurt Place, Miyoc and Teenage too! And those are just to name a few (:

Here are our hardworking students packing the goodie bags that our IMC+ participants will receive.

Image taken from SPIMCPLUS instagram page

So register here soon and we'll hope to see you there! 

For more information, 

please visit www.spimcplus.com or www.facebook.com/SP.IMCplus

What's DMC all about?

Yes, DMC incorporates the aspects of TV, radio and journalism. But is that it? What do we learn, exactly  - and what do the terms "PR' or "Advertising" mean? How is Psychology related to our course?

So. Let's take a look at what are the main categories that our course revolves around: Public Relations (PR), Advertising, Writing, Psychology, Design and Production and Integrated Marketing Communication (yes, we agree that they sound chim (: but they're essentially pretty simple to understand)

#1 Public Relations

Public relations is basically how you handle your company's image. Think of crisises that have happened, and how companies dealt with it.

Currently, if there are SMRT breakdowns, we are given free bus rides and are redirected to the right places, plus the breakdowns are announced on twitter, giving you live updates - that's good PR, because despite the crisis, they're taking steps to remedy the crisis. 

PR is basically, free, and can be done in times of peace or times of crisis.
In PR, you don't pay for your good image, like you do in advertising. For example, sometime in late 2011, there were some hot Abercrombie and Fitch models standing near Orchard (in Singapore) and you could take pictures of/with them for free? 

That's PR - because, they technically didn't pay any money for an advertisement, or to boost their image. They didn't do a feature on the newspaper. However, people took pictures of them, upload them on Facebook, Twitter etc. and KA-BOOM! You have a million people who suddenly know about Abercrombie and Fitch and are talking about it. There was news coverage of this on many sites - and A & F didn't pay for the news coverage, it was free. 

#2 Advertising

Okay, so the closest we knew of advertising before joining DMC, was …well, an advertisement on TV, like the Mocha advertisement. But, hey, we learnt that advertising isn't all about just filming some random video with a product in it. And, it doesn't just include TV advertisements. 

Posters, brochures, banners, web banners, youtube ads, SBS, SMRT ads - these are all an integral part of advertising. 

Key Point: Advertising, doesn't need to be boring.

For example:

Credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prosales/4219293984/

The challenge for advertising - is that it's got to be something that stands out. Doesn't that snake look real?!

#3 Writing. 

That's pretty much self-explanatory: we do report writing, article writing, and feature writing. So, it could be covering news pieces (crime, sports, politics,) or like entertainment news (celebrity gossip, interview with a famous person etc.) We also learn what kind of questions to ask, how the flow of the article should be etc.

#4 Psychology.

Why learn Psychology? Well, by understanding consumers mind-set, we can appeal to them. For example, why do people buy Nike over Adidas? It could be the same water bottle, but is it the brand that affects the purchase, or the price, or how their image will appear to be by buying a certain product? 

By knowing the answer, we can advertise or do PR more effectively, as we understand how people think and work better. Ours is a people-oriented industry, hence, understanding people is the key.

#5 Design and Production

Design and Production varies from learning photoshop, down till learning how to use profession cameras, how to edit videos, making short films, acting as the cast, learning about lighting, sound and so on and so forth. (: It's a pretty fun module to learn.
For those of you who aren't technical, this is a good time to learn some basic technical stuff, or do other stuff like script writing, or being in-charge of logistics, etc.

#6 Integrated Marketing Communication.

So, you hear this word everywhere. What is this?!

Okay, to put it simply, it means combining all these modules together to form one main massive module. It means using PR, advertising, psychology, Design and Production - all together, to create campaigns.

So, for example, your assignment is to create a campaign around a water bottle. What can you do? 

We've broken this up into the different course modules/content:

For Psychology: What are the factors that people consider when they buy a water bottle?

For advertising: What is the main selling point of this water bottle/How is it different from other water bottles? (Create an idea, and where you want to advertise)

For Design and Production: How are you going to design/produce this ad? (Video, brochures, banners? Make samples/prototypes)

For PR: Is there anything you're going to do, to create free publicity? (Like people doing a flash mob about the water bottle, or giving out free water bottles?)

So, in a nutshell, IMC combines all the modules, to create a campaign. You finally learn how all these modules sync together. (: 

With that, we hope that whoever is keen on joining DMC,  will have a clearer idea of what this course offers. 

It's an amazing course - because we learn varying modules, and learn to put them to practical application and meld them together.

So, any questions about DMC? 

Tweet us, Facebook us, or just leave a comment below. (:

For more info, on the specific modules for DMC, check out our SP DMC official website.

See ya later!

Day 3 of the Singapore Polytechnic Media and Communication Conference

Day 3 of the SP Media and Communication 2011!

This workshop for the day was... "I think! I write! I shoot!"

These are our student participants who came all the way down from Malaysia! :D

Before the activity started, the student facilitators did a simple skit for the students.

\

The students were then given cards and were asked to write a story.

There were events, character, aspect, place and item cards. 

They were tasked to write a story based of the cards given.

After that, the students were asked to act out the whole story that they wrote. 

The whole idea of the the workshop was to demonstrate the power of words

in every story written. 

This workshop was done to provide future students a feel for the

Diploma in Creative Writing for TV and New Media.

Did you know that this is the only creative writing diploma in Singapore? 

Did you know? In the next season of The Noose, 4 episodes were actually \

written by 4 DTVM students.

Moving on to the second student workshop of the day

called....

YOU CALL THE SHOTS! 

Spot someone familiar in the photo?

Yes! It's ShiGGa Shay. He's also known as Jin.
If you didn't know, Jin is also one of our SP Media and Communication
year 2 student too!

Their team showed their secondary school participants
ShiGGa's new video. It's a video worth checking out!

PS:// I don't know whether to call him Jin or ShiGGa. Woo, so weird!

The participants were asked to be part of the video. 

The workshop taught key points on how to create hype and excitement for a personality, building your personal brand,promoting your song and sharing your vision of the song with the public.

We think the student participants really enjoyed day 3. 

Kudos to the teams for the awesome workshops! :D

Stay Tuned for updates on Day 4! 

Credits: Official Blogger For SP Media and Communication 2011 Que

Day 2 of the Singapore Polytechnic Media & Communication Conference 2011!

 Year 2 Students from the Diploma in Media and Communication headed two student workshops where Secondary School students were invited to Day 2 of the conference for a series of fun activities and games. Lady Gaga was seen at Day 2 of the Singapore Polytechnic Media & Communication Conference 2011

As part of the Advertising and Public Relations workshops conducted for our 

secondary school participants, the classroom was decorated with pictures of Lady Gaga.

There were students from Bukit Batok Secondary, Bedok View etc.

They had to imagine that Lady Gaga was coming to Singapore and had to create 2 videos, one for public relations and one for advertising, to promote her arrival. This was done in groups of 5 or 6.

Rehearsing before recording the video. 

Discussing with fellow team mates. 

The students had a great time working with each other coming up with their video.

The other workshop conducted was the journalism workshop called, The News Academy. 

The workshop started with a short skit by Year 2 Diploma in Media and Communications students Isyana and Nicholas. 

Mdm Rohanah, one of the course lecturers, helped out in the workshops as well. 

She taught the students the basic concepts of journalism such as why it's always important to have the 5 Ws and 1 H in your story. 

Who, what, when, where, why and how. 

Other acronyms she taught were COBRA which stands for 

Clear and Concised, 

Objective, 

Balanced. 

Recent and 

Accurate.

and KISS: Keep It Short and Simple. 

There was a crime scene and the students were supposed to ask the actors 

questions which answers would help them write a news tweet. 

It was really entertaining because Farhan, a Diploma in Television for New Media student and also the guy in blue in the above picture, was really acting like a real 

policeman and stuck to his character the entire time.


Credits: Official Blogger For SP Media and Communication 2011 Que