Reporting China

LECTURE SERIES

(September 2008 – November 2008)

As China moves closer to becoming a major force in world affairs, the media has begun playing an increasingly important role in providing the lens through which China is seen by outsiders. This is part of a wider trend across the political spectrum: as forms of news media proliferate, the way journalists and columnists report the news becomes more critical in shaping public and political responses to that news. At the same time the shift of post-Cold War politics from ideological debate to managed displays of symbolism puts journalists in the front line in explaining and characterizing events, policies, personalities and trends in the contemporary world.

Against this background, crucial debates – such as whether China is a hidden Communist enemy waiting to dominate the world, or whether it is a new form of single-party capitalist state without expansionist intentions – will be decided for most people not by study or research, but because of the pictures painted and words chosen by editors and journalists in the field.

China remains one of the last foreign countries where major US and European newspaper and broadcast companies still post correspondents, and one where their expertise in language and history is still expected to be of a very high standard. These people, as the eyes and ears of the western world, will play a vital role in guiding the Western public towards a better, more nuanced understanding of an emerging China. “Reporting China,” co-sponsored by WEAI and the International Media and Communications Concentration at SIPA brings some of them to Columbia to discuss their views and the role of the frontline media in interpreting a fifth of the world to the U.S. and its allies.

This series was co-sponsored by the International Media and Communications Concentration at SIPA. Additional co-sponsors listed for individual events below.