Wilson Lau New Media

For my final project “The Changes of Buddhists’ Organizations and Their Activities in Hong Kong since the Handover”, I plan to do a series of short articles and will use several online media to link the various parts.

I plan to have a major long article that will outline the overall changes in attitude towards Buddhism among the population in Hong Kong as well as the activities organised by local monasteries and Buddhists’ organizations. Basically the religion has seen a growing following in recent years, particularly of young, better-educated professionals. This long article will also give the context of the changes in political and sociological terms.

Apart from this long article, my final project will be broken into three parts which will provide more in-depth analyses of the changes. The three shorter articles will look into three aspects related to the Buddhism and the activities organized by Buddhists’organizations in Hong Kong. The three aspects are: social welfare; academic studies; and commercial activities.

I will put links to external sources of information to enable viewers of these articles to explore the topic on their own further .

Considering the nature of the story, which is more like an analysis of changes, I will primarily rely on text. However, as James Foust reminds us that online journalists should keep in mind that [multi] media might allow the story to be told differently”, I will use some stand alone photo essay to highlight two aspects of my final project. One of them is the commercial/ tourism industry.I will illustrate it with pictures of Po Lin Monastery, Chi Lin Nunnery and the Nam Lin Tang Garden. The photo essay on how Buddhist organizations have contributed to the social welfare in Hong Kong will include images of Buddhist College and the elderly home and a host of medical services provided by the Chi Lin Nunnery.

In addition, I will have images embedded in the texts as illustrations, e.g. the subject matters being described and my interviewees. I think the photos in the text will help to create a certain mood for the articles.

 Some audio MP3 clips will be included in my final project. First I think the audio clips may help to lend authenticity. Though they might be editted clips, the voice and intonations of my interviewees might help the users of my page to feel closer to the interviewees. In addition, these audio clips will be about information and ideas not covered in text.

As for the interactive elements in my final project, I plan to provide links to the local Buddhist bloggers I have identified in the course of this project. I want to put the users in touch with these bloggers so that they can delve more in depth into the subject with other people with similar interest. I will also encourage users and readers to leave their comments.

A resource page is essential. It will enable users to explore this subject matter on their own and look beyond what I have covered. I will group the links to sites based on the structure of my project, divided into three major aspects. Besides, I will provide the RSS feeds from relevant sites and blogs and will encourage them to do tagging through del.icio.us. by providing to them the tags I have got so far and as well as the tags by several other bloggers who share an interest in Buddhism.