25 MA students  from Hong Kong Baptist University, specialising in Financial Journalism, attended the CMC study trip “Financial and Economic Reporting in the UK” from 3 January until 10 January 2010. The delegation was lead by Prof Huang Yu, who took his PhD at the University of Westminster under Professor Colin Sparks and is Head of Department of Journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. Among highlights were visits to the Financial Times, London Stock Exchange, BBC and City of London. The trip was designed by Dr Zeng Rong and managed by Alja Kranjec.

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China Central Television was the venue for a 2-day Workshop on British journalism organized by China Media Centre in October 2009. Speakers were Hugo de Burgh, CMC Director, Kevin Sutcliffe, C4’s Head of Current Affairs, Steve Hewlett, presenter of BBC’s The Media Show, Zhang Jie, Editor of CCTV’s News Investigation and Yang Rui, Presenter of CCTV’s Dialogue.

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A one-day CMC seminar was held in the Houses of Parliament to address the implications of China’s management of its environmental challenges for government policy and British business. It was hosted by the All Party Parliamentary Group on China and sponsored by Norton Rose. 170 people attended, from business, the policy world and media.

One of CMC’s research themes, along with regulation, journalism and innovation in the media, is the relationship between media and environment. This seminar is one of several initiatives connected with this theme, including a workshop at Caijing magazine in  Peking, producing a report on journalism and the environment for International Media Support and being knowledge partner for the October Wilton Park Conference on China’s environment.

• Programme: 090625OnDayProgramme2x
• 306009 Speakers biographies

This is a conference of the China Media Centre for the APPCG, with Knowledge Partner, Norton Rose LLP. With assistance from the Chinese Embassy and Chinadialogue http://www.chinadialogue.net/

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Representations of China in the UK Press

Speaker: Prof. Colin Sparks
Date: Wednesday 18th November, 2009
Time: 2.00-4.00 pm
Venue: MHW_A4-4 Harrow Campus,
University of Westminster

Abstract:

The Chinese government, together with many ordinary Chinese people, particularly students, are frequently angered by the way in which China is portrayed in the western media. This anger, however, is a response to the coverage of particular incidents and is not based on real knowledge of how China is covered on a day to day basis.

This presentation reports on a project that made a start on a more systematic study of the subject. The analysis covers the UK national press reporting of China during 2008 and presents data on the frequency and distribution of stories. It also reports a more detailed qualitative study of China in the elite and popular press, demonstrating that analyses concentrating on small-circulation up-market newspapers risk seriously misrepresenting the ways in which China is portrayed in the press. The seminar will be in English but some of the material is available in translation.

Biography:

Prof. Colin Sparks has worked with and advised the European Union, Unesco, the Open Society Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the British Council, Universities in the US, Europe and East Asia, and many other organisations, academic, official, and non-governmental. He was one of the founders of Media, Culture and Society, and he continues to play an active role as managing editor, as well as editing issues on a regular basis. He was also a founder of the European Institute for Communication and Culture. He has organised several of its colloquia, and edited themed issues of its journal Javnost/The Public.
His current research interests include the comparative study of media systems undergoing rapid change. He is particularly interested in comparing the media systems of post-communist countries with those of other societies that have moved away from different forms of dictatorship towards more democratic forms of political rule. His other major current interest is in theories of media and communication.

(more about Prof. Sparks, see http://chinamediacentre.org/about/staff/colin-sparks/ )
If you have any inquiry about CMC events,  please contact Miao Mi at m.mi@my.westminster.ac.uk.

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The Director spoke on China and joined the Chinese Ambassador Ms Fu Ying on a panel which also included the Lib-Dem Leader in the Upper House, Lord McNulty, and the Shadow Foreign Affairs Secretary Michael Moore MP.

WILTON PARK

The CMC partnered Wilton Park (an Executive Agency of the Foreign Office) with a conference called Working in China on Sustainable Growth — The Climate Change, Environment, Energy Nexus. The Vice Chancellor, Prof Geoffrey Petts, Visiting Professor Hu Zhengrong (Deputy President, China Communications University), Prof Hugo de Burgh and Dr Zeng Rong participated and represented University of Westminster. For further information please click on the link below.

Report on Wilton Park Conference WP1000 Final 281009

CONFERENCE ON BRITISH JOURNALISM

CUC and CMC are holding a conference in Beijing in October 2009. CMC is supplying 2 celebrity UK journalists Stephen Hewlett and Kevin Sutcliffe (paid for under the IMS contract) and its Director to speak at a CUC conference in October 2009. Steve Hewlett both presents The Media Show and writes regularly for The Guardian. He has a terrific track record as reporter and producer as well as in newspaper journalism.  Kevin Sutcliffe is Deputy Head of News & Current Affairs at C4 and has been responsible for the renaissance of the investigative series DISPATCHES. CUC has undertaken to provide an audience of influential media managers from the mainstream

FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR

Copyright by Frankfurt Book Fair

EU Commissioner Orban and Chinese Minister for Culture, a French Diplomat and the CMC Director are the speakers at the EU-China Forum at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 15 October.

STATE COUNCIL

The highest-level ever delegation from China’s State Council Information Office undertook a three week course designed for the China Media Centre by Simon Goldsworthy and Visiting Professor Trevor Morris, experts in branding and PR. Among the highlights were a colloquy with Lord Bell and senior figures at Chime Communications plc; visits to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Cabinet Office, the BBC and the Guardian Newspaper; talks about advertising from Sir Chris Powell and on the use of new media from former Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson MP; and a lecture in Edinburgh from John Brown, a PR expert who formerly shared an office at Scottish TV with his brother the current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and CMC Director Professor Hugo de Burgh.

SUMMER SCHOOLS

The China Media Centre has held its first 2 Summer Schools for Chinese media students. In July this was directed by former Reuters Editor Paul Majendie and in September by TV producer Dr Richard Wright. The students both learnt about the European media and undertook practical tasks, making TV features under the direction of Journalism Head of Department Geoffrey Davies. Both summer schools were managed by Alja Kranjec, who hopes to hold at least two each year from now on.

INNOVATION 1

In October CMC launches another first, a course specially designed for Chinese TV executives by Dr Zeng Rong entitled Innovation, creativity and programme development in UK television. This course is full; if successful CMC expects to offer it twice each year.

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“Oxford may be rueing the day it decided to enter its researchers into the communication [category], the institution was beaten by… Westminster” – Times Higher Education Magazine

“A media studies department at a former polytechnic is among the top-rated academic centres in Britain in the latest official rankings of the quality of university research. Sixty per cent of the research published by the school of Media Arts and Design at Westminster University… was rated as “world-leading” by the Research Assessment Exercise”. – The Times

Communications, cultural and media studies research at the University of Westminster has been shown to be “world-leading” following the announcement today of the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results.

Researchers across a broad range of subjects at the University, which is a leading post-92 institution, have had their work shown to be of international quality in the latest assessment of UK university research activity. Nearly 80 per cent of Westminster’s research was found to be of a quality that is recognised internationally for its “originality, significance and rigour”.

Art and Design, Architecture and the Built Environment, Geography and Environment Studies and Law also stood out for the international quality of the research.

Sally Feldman, dean of the University’s School of Media, Arts and Design, said: “This is a fantastic result and a reflection of the excellent scholarship, research and practice that characterises our work here at Westminster.”

The RAE, the first since 2001, highlights Westminster’s traditional strength across a broad range of research activity, said Vice-Chancellor Professor Geoffrey Petts.

“This result highlights that the University of Westminster is producing research of international quality across a broad range of subjects, with communications and media studies world-leading in their work.

“We were assessed in 20 areas of work, which is an indication of the breadth of our work as well as the quality. It is also an indication that our research is being recognised for its potential to make a real difference in the world.

“I’m delighted Westminster was found to be so strong, especially as we are one of the group of universities created in 1992 that have traditionally received less funding than longer-established, research-led universities.”

The RAE, the first since 2001, saw 159 higher education institutions submitting their research to the Higher Education Funding Council for England for assessment. Over 200,000 individual pieces of research work were submitted.

—-From the website of University of Westminster.And here is a related article written in Chinese, from Chinese news media.

• 英国大学媒体与传播专业接受官方机构全面考评，威斯敏斯特大学名列第一 (1)
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随着国际交流的日益深入以及中国广播电视事业的不断发展，近年来，西方大学的媒体、传播及相关专业一直是社会科学领域中最受中国留学生青睐的热门学科之一。2008年12月18日，英国官方机构公布了几年一度的科研考评报告 (Research Assessment Exercise，RAE)，其中部分内容对英国各大学媒体传播专业的学术研究水平进行了全面而详细的评估。威斯敏斯特大学（University of Westminster）以较大优势名列第一名，伦敦政治经济学院（LSE）和伦敦大学金.史密斯学院（Goldsmiths College）以相当接近的分数名列第二、第三。

作为英国政府高等教育质量控制的最重要的指标之一，RAE一直得到各个大学的高度重视。不仅仅因为它直接关系到政府教育拨款的数目、科研经费申请的成功率，更因为它关系着各院系对优秀教授的吸引力以及由此所影响的学生教育水平。有英国大学申请经历的人士会注意到，几乎所有大学在学生申请信息手册上都明确注明该校各个专业的RAE分数，以此为申请者提供重要参考。

上一次的英国大学科研考评（RAE）公布于2001年。威斯敏斯特大学著名媒体教授、《媒体、文化与社会》主编科林.斯巴克斯教授对最新公布的RAE考评结果表示深感欣慰。他说：“本次考评对我们来说是极大的鼓舞，它再一次证明了威敏媒体专业在英国以及世界的领先地位。为此，我们的每一位同事都非常努力的工作……”同时，他也指出，其实各个学校各有专长。金.史密斯学院的媒体文化研究，伦敦政治经济学院的新媒体以及媒体社会心理学领域，牛津大学的互联网研究以及谢菲尔德大学的政治传播学等等都非常出色。而威斯敏斯特大学的强项是英国及欧洲媒体历史与政策、受众研究以及世界媒体研究。尤其是对中国、中东以及东欧国家媒体的深入研究和探讨非常深入而有特色，比如由戴雨果教授领导的中国传媒中心在欧洲和中国都享有盛誉。他建议学生在申请英国大学的时候，尤其是攻读研究生学位的申请者，不要盲目追求排名，首先要明确自己的兴趣，然后在此基础上对学校进行选择。

本次RAE采用了与以往不同的计量方法。它对各院系提交的所有科研成果按五个级别进行打分。五个级别分别是：“4* ”世界领先水平、“3*”国际优秀水平、“2*”国际认可水平、“1*”国家认可水平以及“0”无级别。接受RAE评估的全部159所英国大学中，包括人文、社会、科学与工程在内的所有学科与院系，60%达到4*世界领先级别的一共有五个院系，威斯敏斯特大学的媒体专业为其中之一，再次肯定了英国大学在媒体学科领域的出色表现。而莱卡斯特大学的博物馆学以65%世界领先的评价获得总排名的最高分。

更多信息：

本次RAE评估把媒体传播专业与其他一些文化学科归在同一评价类别，比如博物馆学、创意英文写作等等。这样的分类显然有些笼统，有时造成误读。笼统分类的名单中，笔者把以媒体传播专业（不包括电影）为主的院系提炼出来。最右边的栏目GPA，是英国泰晤士报高教专栏根据RAE结果计算统计的综合得分。以下为各院系媒体专业前十名的大学：

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China Media Centre launched the new website today. It moved to the platform of WordPress, a powerful open-source software. Well, since the Prime Minister’s Office and CNN also chose it, why not us?

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China’s Media Handlers

学术研讨会：新闻发言人与政府公关

A key issue in modern public affairs, following the Tibet crisis and Sichuan disaster, and before the Olympics.

Who are the people who manage media relations in China? How do they work?

当今中国，谁在协调政府与媒体及公众的关系？他们如何工作？

2008年6月6日，中国传媒中心在伦敦举办了一场公开讨论会，讨论的问题集中在当代中国的政府新闻发言人制度，主要探讨在西藏事件、四川地震之后以及奥运会之前的阶段，中国政府与媒体的关系。

Steven Guanpeng Dong

Trainer of China’s official spokesmen for the State Council Information Office; former CCTV journalist and Lecturer at Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Communication

In the chair: David Hill, formerly Tony Blair’s Director of Communications, now working at Bell Pottinger Group

with Lord (Tim) Bell

Host: Professor Simon Jarvis, Pro Vice-Chancellor,

University of Westminster

Entry is free and open to all

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In his review, Professor de Burgh opposes Will Hutton’s negative assessment of China’s economic and political situation. Professor de Burgh argues that in order to understand the situation accurately an historical approach, which takes into account China’s unique political, cultural and social past is required.

The China Review is produced by the Great Britain-China Centre. which is the leading UK body in the development of non-governmental relations with China. You can log onto The China Review website to view Professor de Burgh’s article. Professor de Burgh has written widely on China – his most recent book is: China: Friend or Foe?

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