Bloomberg Editor John Liu tells GBJ commencement that quality journalism, technological advances offer optimism to battered media industry
Posted: July 9, 2018 Filed under: Global Business Journalism, Journalism Training | Tags: AI, Artificial Intelligence, Bloomberg News, Burundi, CCTV, CGTN, Chen Changfeng, China, Chinese economy, civil rights, Columbia University, discrimination, GBJ, Global Business Journalism, Global Business Journalism Program, global economy, global vision, Grace Shao, Hang Min, Icigumije Brice, John Liu, Korea, Li Chengzhang, Linda Lew, New York Times, Quan Yue, Sarah Taylor Talaat, sex discrimination, sexism, Shi Anbin, Shi Lin, Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication, TSJC, Zeng Fanxu, Zhu Yuxuan Leave a comment
GBJ graduates pose outside of the School of Journalism and Communication
Rapid advances in Artificial Intelligence technology give journalists “great reason to be optimistic about the future” of an industry that has struggled with declining audiences and revenues for the past decade, John Liu, Bloomberg News Executive Editor for Greater China, told 2018 Global Business Journalism Program graduates at the annual commencement ceremony on June 5.
John Liu addresses the 2018 GBJ commencement
Innovative media outlets such as Bloomberg News and The New York Times have harnessed the power of AI to improve the quality of their data analysis and to increase audience engagement by offering digital news stories of particular interest to each news consumer.
“Things are starting to get better know, because people are discovering that consumers are willing to pay for good content,” Liu said in an address at the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication. “The next big step, we believe, is AI telling you what you want to read, what you want to watch, before you know it’s there, even translating it into the language you want to read,” he said.
Sixteen international students were awarded master’s degrees in Global Business Journalism in a 90-minute ceremony, while 19 Chinese students received master’s certificates in addition to their master’s degrees from the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication.
Students from 65 nations and regions have participated in the Global Business Journalism Program since its creation in 2007. This year, Icigumije Brice became the first GBJ graduate from the African nation of Burundi.
Dr. Hang Min, GBJ Co-Director and TSJC Associate Dean for International Affairs, said that at a time of “dramatic change in China and beyond” that it is important for young journalists to have “multiple perspectives” and to offer “constructive solutions and not just destructive criticisms.”
“Stay open,” she urged the graduates. “Never close any window of opportunity and never say no to something because it’s not your planned path.”
GBJ Co-Director Rick Dunham told the students and their families that the media industry needs to do more to boost the careers of women.
“In the GBJ program, about three-fourths of our students are women, and with rare exceptions, women are the top performers in our program. Yet many of these high achievers may face obstacles in the job market. Women suffer discrimination, overt and hidden, in hiring, promotion and pay,” he said. “We must overcome these insidious forms of male discrimination. In the words of the American civil rights anthem of the 1960s, ‘we shall overcome, some day.’”
Professor Dunham noted that TSJC “is leading the way in empowering women,” and Liu noted that five of the six GBJ grads hired by Bloomberg have been women.
“Not only is advancing women in the workplace the right thing to do, it is also good business,” he said.
Yuki Nakajima wrote the top thesis among international students.
Top GBJ students also offered their perspectives on the program. Speaking for the Chinese graduates, Zhu Yuxuan, hailed GBJ as “a great program for us to develop a global vision … while we are gaining professional knowledge.” International student Zhu Yuxuan, of Japan said GBJ “has allowed me to broaden my horizons and meet friends from all over the world.”
“Every day, we met talented and outstanding students from all over the world, and had the chance to interact with local Chinese students,” she said. “All of us played together, learned together, and progressed together over these two years, and I’m sure every one of us emerged as a better person than we were two years ago.”
Sarah Talaat of the United States, chosen as the GBJ speaker at the TSJC ceremony later in the day, said GBJ students were not only taught practical journalism skills, but also “how to pursue a career grounded in truth and patience, brought about by hard work and dedication, and held to the highest standards of our chosen fields.” She predicted that the program’s sponsors “will see a return on your investments in the shape of better journalism and communication for the benefit of the world.”
Speaking for GBJ graduates was Grace Shao of Canada from the Class of 2015, who worked at CGTN for two years and is returning to academia this fall to study data journalism at Columbia University in New York. Shao, who covered top global economic issues and developments in Korea during her time at CGTN, urged graduates to “undersell yourself” and take care of their health.
“This industry isn’t for the meek,” she said. We have to be on our toes at all times; you have to have writing skills, multimedia skills, analytical skills, people skills, presentation skills, and so on, I can’t think of a job that demands a more well-rounded candidate. Believe in your talents and all that you’ve learned here from your Tsinghua professors!”
Top TSJC officials taking part in the ceremony included Executive Dean Chen Changfeng, Administrative Dean Hu Yu and Administrative Dean of Research Shi Anbin. Professor Zeng Fanxu was honored as top academic supervisor. Graduating students Li Chengzhang, Shi Lin, Quan Yue, Yuki Nakajima and Linda Lew received special awards for their contribution to the GBJ program.
Global Business Journalism students are improving the quality of journalism in China and around the world
Posted: July 12, 2015 Filed under: Global Business Journalism, Journalism Training, Rick in the news | Tags: Bank of America, Barrows Dunham, Bloomberg News, CCTV, China, China Daily, Chinese economy, commencement, Data Journalism, Global Business Journalism, graduation, Hang Min, House Un-American Activities Committee, ICFJ, International Center for Journalists, Jin Jianbin, Lee Miller, multimedia journalism, Radio Beijing, Red Scare, Shi Anbin, Tsinghua University, Xinhua, Zhang Sihan Leave a comment
A talented group of global journalists, including the first graduates from Nepal, Jamaica and Ukraine.
I am so excited about the opportunities I have had in China to work with journalism students — both international and Chinese — and professional journalists to improve the caliber of reporting and writing in China, and to prepare us all for the Brave New World of journalism in the Digital Age. Here is a transcript of my speech at the July 10 commencement of the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication Global Business Journalism Program.
Speaking to the 2015 graduating class of the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University.
I am honored, on behalf of the faculty of the Global Business Journalism Program, to congratulate you on your successful completion of graduate studies at the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication graduation.
It indeed has been an adventure – a voyage of discovery – for all of us. You represent the best of China and the best of the world.
Over the past eight years, students from more than 50 countries have studied together, worked together, gotten to know each other here in the Global Business Journalism Program at Tsinghua University. Ours is a vibrant tapestry of cultures and ideas. You have been exposed to new perspectives, whether they are from the minds of brilliant Chinese professors or veteran international journalists who have plied their trade at the highest levels in the United States and around the world. All of us have gained a better understanding of the rapidly changing world we are inheriting, the rise of China and the rapid transformation of its economy, the complicated dynamics of our interdependent global business world, the rapid transformation of our own world of journalism and the imperative to learn new multimedia and data skills to compete in the emerging journalism marketplace. You have been tested with rigor. You have passed the test. I am so proud of you.
Eight years ago, the Global Business Journalism Master’s Degree Program was just a dream, an idea conceived by some exceptionally creative souls at Tsinghua University in Beijing and at the International Center for Journalists in Washington. In just a few years, it has gained tremendous respect throughout China and around the world, attracting renowned international scholars and Pulitzer Prize winning journalists to work with our students and share their wisdom and their skills.
From the beginning, the GBJ program has been nurtured by the invaluable and incalculable support of Bloomberg News, with its unprecedented gift of ten of its priceless terminals, a series of guest lecturers and events, and a wonderful faculty member named Lee Miller.
One of Tsinghua’s finest, Zhang Sihan, is heading to Columbia University to pursue a dual master’s program in journalism and public policy.
And special thanks to my partner in the program, Dr. Hang Min, for her support, her wisdom and her guidance in making the GBJ program an invaluable resource for global journalism. Under her leadership, we have offered some of the most advanced classes in communication theory, as well as practical, advanced skills that will help our graduates succeed in their chosen field of endeavor, whether that be global business journalism, business, journalism, or something else somewhere on this globe.
By setting exacting standards and requiring rigorous coursework, the GBJ Program has helped to improve business journalism in China by training a new generation of highly qualified journalists specializing in economics and business. Our Chinese graduates now work at some of the most important media outlets in China, such as China Daily, Xinhua News Service, CCTV, and Radio Beijing, as well as at important international media outlets such as Bloomberg News.
That is a testament to the quality of our alumni. It also is a testament to the iron will of friends in the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication who have exhibited an unwavering commitment to our success and our continuing growth. Dr. Shi Anbin has been a champion of our cause and a special mentor to me as a newly minted college professor. Thanks, Dean Shi, for everything you have done to make GBJ what it is today, and thanks to Dr. Jin Jianbin and other school officials for their support.
Of course, as all of us know in business journalism, you can’t have an entrepreneurial venture without some venture capital. I would like to thank our founding sponsor, Bank of America, for its steadfast commitment to the program since 2007.
I would like to close by quoting from my favorite philosopher, who happens to be my grandfather, Barrows Dunham. Despite a turbulent professional career that included an unwelcome appearance before the U.S. House Un-American Activities Committee and a spot on the American blacklist during the Red Scare Era of the 1950s, my grandfather, a distinguished philosophy professor and internationally acclaimed author, never lost his sense of patriotism or optimism.
“Even now,” he once wrote, “we ourselves are determining the future, not by knowing what it will be, but by conceiving what it can be.”
None of us know what the future will hold. But with the knowledge we have gained at Tsinghua, the support of our families – and, yes, the Global Business Journalism family – we can conceive that better future.
Congratulations to the Tsinghua Global Business Journalism graduating class. Good luck to all of you. Thank you.
The Interview: Rude, crude, sexist, racist … with a modicum of political propaganda value
Posted: January 28, 2015 Filed under: Dunham's Discourses, Rick in the news | Tags: CCTV, CIA, Dennis Rodman, Dialogue, Hollywood, Kennedy assassination, Kim Jong Un, movies, Netflix, North Korea, racism, Roger Ebert, sexism, Shi Anbin, Stalin, The Interview, The Love Guru, The Manchurian candidate, Tsinghua University 1 Comment
Discussing “The Interview” on CCTV.
Like many a TV pundit in our 24/7 news world, I was asked to comment on the movie “The Interview” before I saw it. My words of purported wisdom aired on CCTV’s “Dialogue” program on Jan. 2.
Now, through the wonders of Netflix, I’ve finally seen the movie that launched a thousand schemes. Here’s what I thought:
It was rude, crude, puerile, tasteless, sexist, racist, unsophisticated … and better than I thought it was going to be.
You can guess that this isn’t my kind of movie. I don’t like potty jokes. The movie’s fixation on the bodily functions of the North Korean dictator, not to mention the human orifices of its protagonist, are suitable for seventh grade boys, not (chronologically) adult moviegoers. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the execrable movie “The Love Guru“: “This film could have been written on toilet walls by callow adolescents. Every reference to a human sex organ or process of defecation is not automatically funny simply because it is naughty.”
But “The Interview” offers much more to loathe. Its treatment of every one of its female characters as sex objects is odious. Its replaying of decade-old Hollywood Asian stereotypes is retrograde racism. Oh, the movie also was way too long and self-indulgent.
Those are some of the less objectionable elements of “The Interview.”
I don’t know about you, but I have a fundamental problem with a movie about the assassination of a living leader. It just crosses a line in my mind. Imagine what Americans would say if a Pakistani … or French … or Chinese … or Canadian “comedy” centered on a plot to kill the U.S. president. I don’t care how odious a leader is. You just don’t make a movie about assassinating living characters. (Remember how “The Manchurian Candidate” disappeared for two decades after the Kennedy assassination. And it was fiction.)
One more thing: “The Interview” is completely unbelievable. I am a big believer in “suspension of disbelief” for Hollywood fantasies. I’ll play along with the far-fetched concept that a CIA “babe” convinced two sex-crazed journalists to join an assassination plot. But they lost me when they got to the North Korean palace and kept talking openly about their assassination plans. OK, buddy, if the movie is about this paranoid North Korean dictator, don’t you think that he might just have been bugging your room and listening to your every word? Don’t you think you might be a wee bit careful discussing your murderous plans in loud voices? That may have gone over the heads of the potty-humor gang, but the other 99.9 percent of us are going to have a problem with it.
“The Interview” may be without redeeming social value, but it does have a bit of political propaganda value. The movie was at its best when it skewered the Kim dynasty for its gulags, its decision to focus on nukes, not nutrition, its overblown rhetoric, its paranoia and personal quirks. The transformation of the Kim Jong Un character from personable Dennis Rodman road show buddy to Stalinesque maniac was, from the perspective of political propaganda, quite effective.
I can understand why (alleged) North Korean hackers didn’t want the world to see this depiction of their dear leader. But I still can’t buy a movie that makes the dear leader into the dearly departed leader.
If you want to see the segment of CCTV’s “Dialogue” program in which I discuss “The Interview” with Tsinghua University colleague Shi Anbin, here’s the URL: http://english.cntv.cn/2015/01/03/VIDE1420295520064235.shtml
CCTV Dialogue program on “The Interview”
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