On
May 30, 2023, Missouri Teaching Week of School of Culture &
Communication of Xi'an Eurasia University kicked off. During this
Teaching Week, the School of Culture & Communication invited a
professor of media convergence from the Missouri School of Journalism
housed under the University of Missouri to give lectures on Fundamentals
of Multimedia News Reporting and Convergence Journalism Reporting. On
the basis of the discussion of cutting-edge issues in the industry, this
Teaching Week integrated the curriculum of the Missouri School of
Journalism into the teaching of a wide range of professional courses. It
adopted the form of pre-workshops to enhance students' participation in
international professional classes, so as to maximize and deeply
penetrate international cooperation resources into teachers' lectures,
professional courses, and student experience.
Fan
Rong, Assistant Dean of the School of Culture & Media, mentioned in
his speech at the opening ceremony that "The international program is
added to bilingual courses for the purpose of providing students
cutting-edge professional knowledge and cultivating students'
international vision". This course also arouses students' interest in
learning by combining theory with practice and in the way of going from
the elementary to the profound, helping them have an in-depth
understanding of the fast-evolving news communication environment and
better cope with the needs of modern journalism.
In
the one-week course Fundamentals of Multimedia News Reporting,
Professor Rice gave a basic explanation of news writing and
interviewing, basic principles of multimedia narratives, basic
photography and video skills, and audio and video editing skills through
a detailed analysis of the main forms of reports such as text,
pictures, audio, and video. Through a large number of case studies and
software practices, students were taught how to write news reports
suitable for multimedia platforms and how to combine text, pictures,
audio, video, and other media forms to tell vivid and interesting news
stories. Later, Professor Simons spent a week introducing the definition
and development trend of convergence journalism. She lectured on the
advantages of convergence journalism reporting and various media
platforms, the principles and operations of convergence journalism
reporting, mobile device media news reporting and editing, etc., to help
students understand and master the interviewing, shooting, clipping,
production skills and art of convergence journalism reporting and learn
how to use multimedia platforms such as paper, video, audio, photos, and
data visualization platforms for news reporting.
This
year marks the 14th anniversary of the comprehensive cooperation
between the School of Culture & Communication of Xi'an Eurasia
University and the Missouri School of Journalism of the University of
Missouri in the United States. Over the past 14 years, Teaching Week has
highlighted forward-looking topics and the latest developments and
trends in the journalism sector. Such a wide range of academic lectures,
practical activities, and cultural experiences help students open the
door to the future of journalism. Under the close cooperation between
the two sides, the School of Culture & Media has made remarkable
achievements in frontier discipline development and international talent
cultivation. By sharing teaching resources and experience, the two
schools learn from each other and grow together, which not only achieves
the goal of jointly improving teaching quality and academic research
but also provides a broader international exchange platform for
students.
Today,
the Missouri Teaching Week of the School of Culture &
Communication, Xi'an Eurasia University has become a national academic
brand. In 2022, in response to the university's "local
internationalization" strategy, the School of Culture & Media
launched bilingual classes on network and new media majors to be
dedicated to creating an international learning environment for students
and providing them with international cutting-edge professional
education. The bilingual professional course is a characteristic
curriculum requirement for students of the bilingual program of the
School of Culture & Media. International teaching topics and design
cases are adopted for the course, aiming at cultivating students'
international vision and understanding the cutting-edge knowledge and
practical content of the discipline.
As
an international characteristic activity of the School of Culture &
Communication, Missouri Teaching Week is of great significance to
students' personal growth and career development. Teaching Week is
carried out in the form of face-to-face teaching by foreign professors
and student practice workshops, which exposes students to a wider range
of discipline knowledge and cutting-edge research results. Exposure to
diversified learning opportunities and educational resources not only
enables students to broaden their academic horizons but also greatly
improves their academic development, practical ability and comprehensive
competence. The Missouri Teaching Week Bilingual Program of the School
of Culture & Communication will place more emphasis on strengthening
academic exchanges and cooperation between China and the United States
to cultivate journalists with a global perspective. The program focuses
on cultivating students' practical ability while teaching them academic
theories. Through this program, students can have an in-depth
understanding of the status quo and challenges of the journalism
industry by visiting news organizations and interviewing sites through
news reporting practices and think deeply about important topics such as
journalistic ethics, responsibility, and social impact.
In
the future, the School of Culture & Media will continue to
introduce international advanced teaching concepts and methods, further
expand the scope of exchange fields and deepen cooperation projects,
provide students with more practical opportunities and academic
resources in terms of student exchange programs, joint research
projects, academic conferences, and other aspects, and cultivate their
global vision and cross-cultural communication skills to meet the needs
of the increasingly globalized journalism industry.
As
an epitome of promoting China-US educational exchanges and cooperation,
the School of Culture & Media of Xi'an Eurasia University will
continue to deepen its cooperation with the School of Journalism of the
University of Missouri, so as to stay committed to jointly cultivating
more journalists with global vision and cross-cultural communication
skills and make greater contributions to the progress and development of
the journalism industry.
Some Courses of Teaching Weak
Fundamentals of Multimedia News Reporting
Convergence Journalism Reporting
Digital Media Strategies & the Consumer Decision Journey
Artificial Intelligence’s Applications to Journalism & Communication
Data News and Sensor News
Big Data & Data Journalism
Some Professors of the Program
Brad Best
Caleb Heinzman
Amy Simons
Dr. Ernest Zhang
Steve Rice
Fergus Pitt
