Program News

Tsinghua School of Journalism Celebrates 10th Anniversary

BEIJING - For those interested in how to innovate the curriculum of international journalism in China, there was a day-long academic conference.

For those who wanted to experience the energy and creativity of journalism students, there was an evening of song, dance, drama and comedy.

Phone call to Mobile News Network Prompts Delivery of Water Wells in India

For 10 years the government promised the remote Indian village of Sajan Khar its own well, and for 10 years the villagers struggled with the same four-mile trek to fetch drinking water for themselves and their animals.

Then early this year, Hem Singh Markam used a cell phone to call for help. And 15 days later, two hand-pump wells were delivered.

It is the latest example of what happens when indigenous, tribal communities are able to make their voices heard.

Grads From India’s "World Media Academy" Land Jobs With Global Media Firms

The World Media Academy Delhi graduated its first class of students on Saturday, May 26, all of them armed with the skills to become professional multimedia journalists in today’s high-tech, competitive news environment.

"This is your chance to make a difference in your profession," Knight International Journalism Fellow Siddhartha Dubey told students during his commencement speech. "It really is all about the love for journalism and reporting.

Religion Reporting Programs at ICFJ to Expand

New offerings include online courses and an international reporting fellowship, thanks to Luce Foundation grant

A new, $300,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation will bolster ICFJ’s religion programs and help improve U.S. and global reporting.

Bank of America Sees Impact of Business Journalism Graduates

BEIJING -- The Global Business Journalism program at Tsinghua University is helping to generate top-quality coverage of business and finance in the world’s fastest growing economy, said Lisa Xue, chief administrative officer, China, for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Xue was speaking at a May 13 luncheon hosted by the bank as part of the 10th anniversary of the university's School of Journalism and Communication.

"We’re happy to see GBJ graduates are hired by China’s top media," said Xue.

Media Play a Key Role in Senegal's Election

Senegal held a successful runoff election for president on March 25th, resulting in the defeat of two-term President Abdoulaye Wade. Despite fears that Wade would refuse to go quietly and that violence would result, he conceded defeat to opposition candidate Mackey Sall and Senegal experienced a relatively smooth transfer of power. Journalists were credited with getting out the results early and professionally, making it difficult to dispute the outcome.

Market Research Experts Explain Real-World Data Mining

Whitney Foard Small, Regional Director of Communications for Asia Pacific and Africa of Ford Motor Co., and Tatt Chen, Senior Vice President of Penn Schoen Berland, Asia, were special guest speakers in Professor Lee Miller's Data Mining class on April 9.

Small and Chen, whose firm does consulting work for Ford, talked about how they measure the impact of public relations campaigns and the attitudes of key groups of potential customers.

"Measuring PR can be done," Small said.

Knight Fellows Create Data Tools to Help Journalists Tell Better Stories

In a region where few journalists know how to find and use data, two new Knight International Journalism Fellows will create a series of tech tools to help reporters in South America analyze material and investigate important stories such as the use of tax money in Argentina and the degradation of the Amazon. The new tools include interactive data blogs and online maps that display complex details in a way that readers and viewers can readily grasp.

Business Editor Says Social Media are Westernizing China

Zhang Hong, deputy editor-in-chief of the Economic Observer, told students in Advanced Business Writing how the weekly newspaper uses social media in news gathering and distribution. He visited Professor James Breiner's class on March 29.

The newspaper, with print distribution of about 100,000, gets about 10-15 percent of its web traffic from Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Zhang said.

Indiana, Tsinghua students do data mining on food

Lars Willnat, professor of journalism at Indiana University, brought 17 students to visit the campus and Professor Lee Miller's data mining class on March 12.

Miller started the session started with a presentation on some of the top restaurant chains operating in China. Students then did a a data-mining exercise in the form of speed dating, in which they each interviewed 10 of their peers from the other country about their food preferences and eating habits.

After two minutes, they moved to interview the next person.