Off The Record: Tweeting the #UmbrellaMovement

While Hongkongers were glued to Facebook to keep up to date with Occupy related news and views during the Umbrella Movement, people around the world were following what was happening in Hong Kong via Twitter.

Twitter is a go-to place for journalists to get up-to-date and first-hand information about breaking news wherever it happens, as well as links to smart analyses and valuable data. Journalists also use it to share their published and broadcast stories, as well as the stories, observations and photos that may not make it into their reports.

In the age of entrepreneurial journalism, Twitter is a platform where journalists and aspiring journalists showcase and promote their work and build up their portfolios.

In this discussion, Off the Record has invited locally-based Cantonese-speaking Tweeters who posted in English. In so doing, they helped to tell the Hong Kong story to the world.

The speakers are:

Kris Cheng graduated from CUHK in Sociology and GPA, he has worked in the Chinese language media and currently freelances for the Washington Post.

Isabella Steger has worked at the Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong for more than four years, and started covering Hong Kong news since the beginning of the Umbrella Movement. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Oxford University. Tweeting since 2008.

Yuen Chan, lecturer of School of Journalism and Communication, introduced the two speakers at the beginning of the talk.

Isabella Steger (left), reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and Kris Cheng, freelancer for the Washington Post

Yuen (second left) presented souvenirs to the two guest speakers.