Program News

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.

From Human Trafficking to "Fracking," 2012 International Reporting Fellows Tackle Key Global Issues

The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) announced that 10 U.S. minority journalists will take on important social-justice and economic issues in this year’s International Reporting Fellowship program. The 2012 Fellows, chosen from 128 applicants, will cover a range of key issues, from the latest routes for smuggling people from Mexico into the United States, to a comparison of natural gas extraction called “fracking” in Poland and Pennsylvania.

Text-and-Mobile News Network Opens Coverage of Rural Indonesia

In a rural corner of Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province, indigenous people can now send out the important news in their communities, thanks to a groundbreaking cell phone-based network officially launched this month by Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry Surjadi.

The new service – which opens up a part of the country previously cut off from news coverage – had its public debut at a press conference on February 15 in the provincial capital of Pontianak.

Knight Fellow Looks at What's Ahead in Health Journalism

Knight International Health Fellow Mercedes Sayagues talked with IJNet recently about the challenges that exist for health journalists all over the world. At the top of the list, she says, are topics that are taboo - difficult to report because editors are often worried about publishing or broadcasting content that might be offensive. But she also sees hope in digital innovations that can make it easier to get important information out quickly.

Lancement D’une Plate-forme en Ligne Pour Des Blogueurs Qui Couvrent L’élection Présidentielle au Sénégal

ICFJ et le Centre d’études des Sciences et Techniques de l'information (CESTI) ont lancé une plate-forme d’information en ligne pour les blogueurs sénégalais qui couvrent la campagne électorale et l’élection présidentielle au Sénégal. La plate-forme est hébergée par le site du CESTI et vise à créer un espace permettant aux blogueurs de diffuser et de partager leurs articles sur la campagne électorale qui a débuté le 5 février et qui se termine par l'élection présidentielle dont le premier tour est prévu le 26 février.