ST's interactive audio feature wins global media award

Its nine-part infographic on Taylor Swift also clinches a prize at annual Inma event

- Gabrielle Andres

The Straits Times bagged two awards at the annual International News Media Association (Inma) Global Media Awards in New York on May 23 (Singapore time).

Winners across 20 categories were announced during a ceremony at the Edison Ballroom in New York City, with the Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine taking the top honour of global best in show.

ST's interactive audio feature Sounds of Singapore was awarded first place in the Best New Audio/Voice Product or Feature (National Brands) category. Second place went to Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, while News Corp Australia took third place.

The feature, which was published ahead of National Day 2024, captured nine sounds that resonate with the Singaporean experience.

For the project, team members visited areas such as Marsiling, Orchard Road and Toa Payoh to find sounds and scenery to record.

They built three programs that detect and illustrate different aspects of sound - rhythm, texture and musical tones. The programs use sound waves and pitch data to generate animated shapes.

The recorded audio, animated shapes and video footage were then combined into collages. Each collage opens with a poem and is followed by the animated shapes, before segments of the footage gradually appear on the screen.

The 15-second clips are presented as interactive quizzes, challenging readers to identify the sounds as quickly as possible before the complete video is revealed.