Before I arrived at West Texas A&M as a faculty member in the Department of Communication, I was teaching in Seoul, South Korea. I had really great cable television service, so I kept up with the day’s events through several English-language news networks and programs: the BBC, CNN International, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Arirang TV (based in Korea) and China Central Television (CCTV).

As someone who spent my entire career as a journalist before moving into teaching full time, it was a great opportunity for me to compare CCTV’s coverage to that of other networks, especially when the topic was related to China.

One particular episode stands out. The summer of 2009 marked the twentieth anniversary of the Chinese government’s violent response to protesters in Tiananmen Square. To remember the event – and to further protest the government’s response – thousands of marchers filled the streets of Hong Kong as the anniversary neared. It was a major event and nearly all of the news networks covered it throughout the day.

China’s CCTV, however, did not. Its evening newscast not only ignored the events in Hong Kong, but also made no mention of the Tiananmen Square anniversary.

I wasn’t surprised.

CCTV is the Chinese government’s broadcaster, so you can be sure that it will not air a news report on any topic contrary to the government’s point of view. The Chinese Communist Party uses CCTV’s English language channel for public relations purposes (or for propaganda, depending on your point of view).

So how does this story relate to a thesis?

During a previous semester at West Texas A&M, I served on a thesis committee in which the graduate student (who was from China) was examining how Chinese audiences respond to a particular television program. Part of his thesis included a history of CCTV. However, it lacked consideration of CCTV’s problems with censorship.

This raised some questions for me that I have yet to answer. On one hand, a solid academic thesis would require some analysis of CCTV’s problems with forthright journalism. On the other hand, I presume anyone in China can read his thesis. Could that analysis cause problems for a Chinese citizen who was returning to China to begin his new career? Another of my Chinese students, when asked for her thoughts on this question, answered “yes.”

How does a faculty member – or a thesis committee – balance the desire for a thorough thesis against the desire to protect a student from potential political and personal retribution, particularly when that student plans to settle down back home?

I kept my recommendations intact, but this issue still nags me. Perhaps I’ve exaggerated any possible repercussions such research might cause for him because I’m still not familiar with how closely China might be paying attention to its thousands of citizens who get an education in America. However, I’m keenly interested in any points of view readers are willing to share.

Butler Cain is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at West Texas A&M University. He is a member of SPJ’s Journalism Education Committee.

SPJ Journalism Education Committee Meeting Minutes
Aug. 16, 2011
Conference call at noon Eastern/9 am Pacific time

Members attending: David Burns, George Daniels. Kym Fox, Mac McKerral, June Nicholson, Renee Patrina, Jeff South, Nerissa Young, Eileen Solomon, Amber Rossner, Bill Oats, Neil Ralston, Becky Tallent.

The meeting began at 12:05 pm (Eastern) with a discussion on the status of gathering syllabi and best practices materials for new journalism professors/instructors.

Jeff recommended we make sure we are not fragmenting our efforts with other groups and suggested we make sure to link with other groups – such as NewsU and IRE – who also offer syllabi to new faculty. The committee essentially agreed there cannot be too many resources and that it is good to get a conversation going in a constructive way. Jeff volunteered to build the syllabus link information and Amber suggested we put a call out to all our colleagues for their best syllabi and practices of which they are proud and will want to share. We agreed it should be a broad sweep of all journalism classes, not just be limited to writing and editing.

Kym said the state of Texas has passed a law requiring all syllabi to be online and that each syllabus must be within three clicks of the home page. Kym said she will send a copy of the law to the committee.

Last year, the committee agreed to offer mentors to new SPJ faculty advisors to help develop student chapters. George said he had several people at the AEJMC conference last week express an interest in either being a mentor or being mentored. From the committee, Mac, Jeff, Neil, Kym, Nerissa and Becky volunteered to act as mentors. George recommended and the committee agreed this year be used as a pilot project, starting with five mentors/mentees in New Orleans. George said the pairs could exchange emails and have phone conversations twice a semester, and then the committee could build a promotional strategy for the project.

The third item, articles and Toolbox columns for Quill, Jeff said Dorothy Bland had expressed an interest in doing a Quill Toolbox on two items: one was why teaching journalism is still so important due to the critical thinking required and how that is important in today’s world. Another column she suggested is one on diversity and the importance of bringing students of color into journalism/helping them stay in the profession despite cutbacks. Everyone agreed the second column is a better fit with the Diversity Committee.

Mac and George discussed the rule that writers for the Journalism Education Committee need to be a member of the committee, although the Diversity Committee has no such rule. It was recommended the education topic Dorothy wants to write might be a better fit for a full Quill article.

In discussions about future Toolbox columns, Mac is working on the next column; Eileen volunteered to write a column on schools changing curriculum; Amber volunteered to write a column on how to use Intercollegiate and Interscholastic online news networks as a resource; and David said he would like to write a column on schools donating equipment to other universities (such as his school’s recent donation to Baghdad University). Mac’s column is due August 18; Eileen’s column is due October 20, and other deadlines are yet to come from Scott Leadingham.

In discussing the committee’s blog, we agreed to post the minutes of the committee meeting and to post stories of SPJ education committee-related events. In addition, we agreed to post information from other groups with links. All committee members will receive username and password information so they can post on the blog.

In new business, George said last year’s resolution (which was rejected by the resolutions committee) has been revived and the resolutions committee has asked for a resubmission. George will send a copy of the resolution to the education committee members for review before sending to the resolutions committee.

Acting in his role as resolutions chair, Mac said for people attending conference, we should know there is a resolution calling for a change in the way committee chairs and members are appointed. Two other resolutions on the horizon are calling for a reinstatement of the Helen Thomas Award.

The meeting adjourned at 12:50 pm Eastern/9:50 am Pacific Time.

Larry Baden, Mary Cox, Eileen Solomon pose with SPJ V.P. For Campus Affairs Neil Ralston after their meeting Thursday at Webster University.

ST LOUIS– While in town for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference, SPJ Vice President for Campus Affairs Neil Ralston and George Daniels, campus adviser at-large visited Webster University.

The students and faculty at the school in Webster Heights community of St Louis recently received a charter for new chapter.

The SPJ Chapter will be based at Webster’s School of Communications.

Eileen Solomon and Mary Cox will serve as the co-advisers of the new chapter.

Soloman and Cox along with Program Coordinator Larry Baden met with Ralston and Daniels August 11 to talk about programming ideas and membership strategies.

SPJ Executive Director Joe Skeel addresses those attending the Advisers Breakfast at the AEJMC Conference in St. Louis Friday.

ST LOUIS– More than two dozen SPJ campus advisers and journalism department heads met SPJ Executive Director Joe Skeel for breakfast here at the AEJMC Annual Convention Friday.

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is the nation’s oldest and largest organization for journalism educators.

In 2010, SPJ renewed its affiliate membership in AEJMC.

Friday’s Advisers breakfast was designed to connect new advisers and veteran advisers to help strengthen SPJ’s campus chapters, which are greater in number than PRO Chapters.

In many cases, the lack of a faculty adviser can be the biggest barrier to having a functioning campus chapter.

The Journalism Education Committee is launching a campus advisers mentoring program. Several of the advisers at the breakfast will be either mentors or mentees.

Advisers received information about the upcoming Excellence in Journalism Convention next month in New Orleans and other training opportunities for both college students and their chapter advisers.

Several members of both SPJ’s National Board and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Board also attended the event.

Are you a new SPJ advisor to a student chapter? Do you need help?
The Journalism Education Committee is now providing advising mentors to new advisors – faculty with multiple years of advising chapters who can provide encouragement and a good ear for listening to problems. To get started, contact me here or at rtallent@uidaho.edu.

As journalism educators, we are all in search of new and engaging ways to help our students learn and grow as reporters, writers, editors and critical thinkers. In this space, we’ll open the web to educators from all over the country to share what has worked, and what hasn’t worked, in their classrooms. Your “best practice” doesn’t have to be long or involved (but it can be), it just has to be real.

I’ll go first. One of my favorite best practices is a lesson I borrow/adapt from a Diversity Across the Curriculum session at the Poynter Institute. I assign my students to visit a neighborhood gathering place for an hour or so, to observe with all of their senses, and then to write a descriptive piece using dialogue, sensory details and their own insights. The pieces don’t have to be long–500 to 800 or so words–but they do illuminate characters, writing styles and even some subtle biases that can be addressed from an instructional standpoint during future class meetings. The best part, for me, is that my students love this assignment. It offers them a chance to be anonymous, to be creative and to be immersed in their reporting.

Have a best practice to share? Email me at elissa.sonnenberg@uc.edu so I can add you to the blog!

Here are the final minutes of the tele-meeting that the committee held on Aug. 19, 2010. A draft of the minutes had been circulated by e-mail; this version incorporates suggested changes.

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Minutes of telephone meeting of the SPJ Journalism Education Committee, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009

The meeting began at 4 p.m. EST. The following people were present for all or part of the meeting:

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From today’s issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education:

The College News Network isn’t much: a bare-bones Web site, expenses totaling $17, and a single advertisement that covered every penny.
 
But the Ohio University undergraduates who founded the college-journalism content-sharing cooperative hope the new wire-service-style Web site can help fill a hole in the student press.

The Web site is Dave Hendricks and Ryan Dunn’s answer to the demise of UWIRE, a popular service that had aggregated articles from student newspapers across the country before it went mysteriously silent this fall.

Here’s the entire Chronicle article.

Prosecutors in Illinois have subpoenaed the “grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages” of Northwestern University journalism students who investigated whether a man convicted of murder three decades ago had been wrongfully convicted.

According to a story in The New York Times, the prosecutors want to know whether the students, part of the Medill Innocence Project, were offered grades or other incentives to turn up evidence in favor of the man’s innocence.

The Cook County (Illinois) Circuit Court is scheduled to hold a hearing this month on the issue.

On Tuesday, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications said it “strongly urges the judge responsible for this case to quash the subpoena and direct prosecutors to investigate the evidence uncovered by the journalism students in a timely and unbiased way.”

AEJMC said the prosectors’ request for subpoenas was is inappropriate for three reasons:

1) The Medill journalism students should be protected under the Illinois state shield law;

2) If the court grants the prosecutors’ request, journalism students involved with similar projects would think twice about criticizing governmental actions if personal information, such as grades and e-mails, could become public; and

3) Journalists should not be treated as instruments of the State.