GLOBAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM NEWSLETTER
October 2023
By VICKI CHALERMLAPVORABOON
Global Business Journalism reporter
1. ONE BIG THING: STUDENTS MEET FAMOUS FIGURES IN MEDIA AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Two months in and our Global Business Journalism students have been booked and busy. Their Global Business Journalism experience is far richer than just listening to professors' lectures.
Students had the opportunity to visit three leading media companies' offices in Beijing during October – Bloomberg News, Edelman and social media giant, ByteDance. GBJ students got to explore the Bloomberg studio and conversed with GBJ alumni currently working at the world's leading business news and data company. (Read more about the Bloomberg trip.) Students also experienced a livestream studio facility at ByteDance, which owns the global social media platform TikTok.
Multimedia Reporting course students received advice from experts and leaders of journalism, including Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi, director general of the Emirates News Agency, CNBC correspondent Emily Wilkins, and former American television journalist Calvert Collins Bratton.
Al Rayssi told students of the global need for more and better news coverage of climate issues. Read more.
Wilkins gave students tips on telling stories in various media such as television, radio, print and social media.
Collins Bratton suggested telling stories of real people to humanize complex narratives.
Students in Professor Rick Dunham's Hot Topics course have heard from guest lecturers including Claremont McKenna College international journalism professor Terril Jones, a former reporter for the Associated Press, Reuters, Forbes and the Los Angeles Times, and Ali Tehrani, co-founder of a website designed to help journalists adapt artificial intelligence tools to create new business models. Jones (read the complete article here) discussed the state of China-U.S. relations and discussed how to decide what is newsworthy. Sometimes, he told the GBJ class, the best story is the "contrarian" angle.
Verbatim: “As a journalist, you should always look at alternatives to the story, not just what everybody is saying and what you’ve been hearing."
Indonesian GBJ student Irene Angelia was chosen to welcome Joko Widodo, the president of the Republic of Indonesia, to China. President Widodo was visiting Beijing to attend the Belt and Road Forum organized by the Chinese government. Irene was a selected as the representative of all Indonesian students based in China and was invited by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia.
Tudor Finneran, a GBJ student from the United Kingdom, was invited to take part in the global youth program of China's Belt and Road Conference. Organized by China Daily, the event took place in the cities of Taicang and Suzhou and examined the historical roots of the current Chinese government initiative.
“It was interesting not only because of the dialogue, exposure and cross-cultural interactions, but the scale and how it relates to the behavior of past dynasties and empires,” he shared.
2. END OF AN ERA: ROSE LI RETIRES
Li Hongxia, better known to the Global Business Journalism community as Rose, retired Oct. 19 after 15 years as international administrator of the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication.
GBJ co-director Rick Dunham lauded Rose for her dedication to international students and faculty, saying she "never lost her cool" and was "tireless" in completing the sometimes complicated bureaucratic processes needed to secure visas and other official permissions for program participants.
"Thanks, Rose, for your service to all of us in the GBJ program and for your humanity that transcends all borders," Professor Dunham wrote in a retirement tribute. (Read the full tribute.)
Rose has been succeeded as international administrator by Li Chengzhang. Chengzhang is a Global Business Journalism graduate and a former journalist for Caijing magazine and Barron's.
3. A SNEAK PEEK AT THE JOURNALISM SCHOOL RENOVATION
Global Business Journalism program leaders got a first look at the renovation project that has closed the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication building for the past year.
The hard-hat tour on Oct. 19 offered GBJ officials the first opportunity to see the new and enlarged Global Business Journalism classroom, which offers much more natural light and will feature state-of-the-art technology.
The new J-school building will feature a new coffee lounge and a sprawling fourth-floor conference and workshop area.
One safety measure: There will be a new stairway on the south side of the building to provide emergency exits and to ease overcrowding on the main stairway.
Good news! None of the historical features of the building have been damaged or destroyed.
4. A GLOBAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM FIRST: CHARMAINE MAGBUHOS BECOMES FIRST GBJ PARTICIPANT TO WED DURING TSINGHUA STUDIES
An enthusiastic group of Global Business Journalism students traveled to Qingdao to witness the wedding of second-year GBJ student Charmaine Magbuhos of the Philippines and Tsinghua Ph.D. candidate Ma Yibo of China on Oct. 2.
History was made: Char became the first GBJ student to get married during her studies at Tsinghua.
"I'm so happy that Char has been able to find someone who can be her friend and lover, whom she can depend on and who can depend on her," said Nguyen Ha Linh, a second-year Global Business Journalism master's student from Hanoi, Vietnam. "I hope that Char and Yibo will have a very happily ever after."
Read this post to see tributes from fellow GBJer Michael Ma of the United States and other friends of the couple.
5. NEW IN THE NEWSLETTER! GBJ SPECIAL SCOOP: EVENDER HSU
We are proud to introduce our newest feature – GBJ Special Scoop – dedicated to Global Business Journalism students. Behind their similar ambitions to become leaders in the future media world, our students have different stories to share.
For this scoop, we sat down with Evender Hsu, an international student from Malaysia.
Evender, who is the oldest child in her family, also considers her cats as her siblings. In an interview, she shares her experience of growing up in one of Malaysia’s busiest areas, as well as becoming a star in high school from sport teams to musical clubs.
Learn more about her story here!
6. PROFESSOR POTPOURRI: A CONFERENCE, A MARRIAGE AND OUR BIGGEST ANNUAL EVENT
Global Business Journalism professors and supervisors are regularly in the news. Here are some highlights from October:
Congratulations to Professor Chen Changfeng on the wedding of her son William and his fiancé Yige. William and Yige were married on Oct. 12 in a civil ceremony in San Diego, California, where they live.
Professor Fan Hong, one of the world's leading experts in place branding, recently attended the 7th Annual Conference of the International Place Branding Association held in Helsingborg, Sweden. A leader of the IPBA, Professor Fan deemed the conference "a great success."
Verbatim: "We had a wonderful time for three days with intellectual wisdom, friendship and warmth of the community. I am so happy and excited to witness the growth of IPBA and looking forward to the 8th conference next October in Thailand!"
The annual Tsinghua Business Journalism Forum has been scheduled for Dec. 1. Hosted by the Global Business Journalism program and the Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication, the forum features international journalism experts and business journalism professors from across China. A special guest this year is Patrick Butler, vice president of the International Center for Journalists. ICFJ is a founding partner in the GBJ program.
Share your GBJ stories with us. We'll include as many as possible in future newsletters. Contact us at GBJprogram@gmail.com or tsjcws@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.