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Professional experience not enough to challenge student debating champions, writes Kevin Kung
Natalie So (left) opens the debate; the teams (top): Benjamin Allen, Natalie So, James Lo, Rachel Evans, Nick Edwards and Kevin Egan; the audience votes (above). Photos: Paul Yeung
journalists. She added that the industry has survived the introduction of many new challenges before, and they hadnt displaced journalists. Allen and Egan were both relentless in their speeches, Allen saying that social media was a huge challenge because it was forcing traditional journalism to evolve, and Egan going so far as to define each word of the motion to gain support. Lo and Edwards wrapped up their respective teams arguments, and a second vote was taken. This time, the proposition took 54 per cent of votes, and the opposition received 43 per cent. The HKSDC team was surprised by the outcome, mainly because their opponents had so much more life experience than they did. So said of the FCC members: They are all professionals who used their past experience in the industry as examples in their speeches, and that made their arguments solid.
Allen said their aim had not been to beat the veterans. This was more about making the debate an enjoyable one. It was less about competition, and more about sharing with the audience and helping the Council members to learn from the debate, said Allen, It was nice to have this result, but thats not the main point. Edwards was gracious in defeat. It was encouraging to have such a passionate debate and to be a part of it, and listen to very young people with this level of opinion about what journalism brings to the world, he said. When I first started to work in the field, there was no reliable internet. Things have got more competitive for sure; this is what the challenge of journalism remains. He admitted, too, that they had been at a disadvantage from the start. Rachel and I havent debated before, and Kevin did it long time ago when he was at school, Edwards said. We were facing a world class debate team!