A Brown Bag Lecture Series co-sponsored by the International Media and Communications Concentration, SIPA

"Medals or Muddles: Assessing Media Coverage of the Olympics"
Xiaobo Lu, Professor of Political Science, Barnard College
Minky Worden, Media Director, Human Rights Watch
Kefu Li, Coordinator of 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games news coverage for NBC
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 918
No Reservations Required

“How the Media Handle Tibet”
Robert Barnett, Director of the WEAI Modern Tibetan Studies Program, Columbia University
Orville Schell,  Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society
Tseten Wangchuk, senior broadcaster, Voice of America, Tibetan language service
Wednesday October 8, 2008
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 918
No Reservations Required

“Chinese Lessons: Roadblocks on the Way to China's Superpower Status”
John Pomfret, Outlook Editor, Washington Post
Monday, October 27, 2008
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 918
No Reservations Required
Also Co-Sponsored by the APEC Study Center

“Factory Towns: Portraits of Modern China”
Peter Hessler, staff writer for The New Yorker and a contributing writer to National Geographic
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 918
No Reservations Required
Also Co-Sponsored by the APEC Study Center

“Is China As Strong As It Seems?”
Rob Gifford, London Bureau Chief, National Public Radio
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
12:00 PM-1:30 PM
International Affairs Building, Room 918
No Reservations Required
Also Co-Sponsored by the APEC Study Center

Brown Bag Lecture Series to examine the responsibility of media in Reporting China

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.