ASSIGNMENT ONE:
PROVIDE THE INFORMATION BELOW

Name: Li Aike(Echo)
Mobile phone: 13604206636
Email: echory313@yahoo.com.cn

Add photo here:

Personal Web page: No

Blog address: No

Survey:

Career goal:

What do you want your job to be in 20 years?
I have not figured that out yet. I'm interested in a lot of things, such as media, education, and even politics and diplomacy. So maybe I'll become a media manager, a professor, or a spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry after 20 years. But who'll know? Things change. So I think I 'll just learn anything I'm interested in as much as I can to get prepared for the future and see what will happen.
In 5 years?
Mainly a student, but perhaps part-time jobs related to my major.
When you graduate?
In July, 2008. But I would like to pursue my postgraduate degree.
Are you interested in a career in journalism?
Yes.
How can this course help you reach your goals?
To know more about the foreign media as well as culture and to improve my English language ability and writing ablility.
Goals for this course:

Are you interested in producing for this course:

Podcasts? Yes. That'll be interesting.
Video segments for YouTube? No.
Newspaper or wire stories? Yes.
A Blog? No.
A regular news broadcast? Fine.

Guests:

Would you like guest speakers from any particular professions?
OK.
Experience:

Please briefly describe any work you have done in the news media.
Newscaster and journalist for my high school TV station.
How many television packages have you produced at this school? (Please include links if possible)
One.
Do you have any production skills necessary to run a news broadcast? Please list.
AdobeAudition.

News Habits:

Which foreign and Chinese newscasts do you regularly watch?
CCTV1 7pm News.
How familiar are you with foreign news broadcasts? Can you watch them at home? Over the Internet?
Not very Familiar, because I don't watch them regularly.
No,I can't watch them at home.
Yes, but not very often.
Please list some strengths and weaknesses of foreign news broadcasts compared to Chinese broadcasts.
Strengths: the content is more fresh, more informative, and more entertaining;
the style is more free and casual;
the newscasters have professional journalism background.
Weaknesses: take their value as the only truth and judge the whole world with it.
What newspapers and news Web sites do you visit regularly?
Sina.
Do you read the Washington Post and the New York Times? (Hint: You should)
No. (But since I should, I will.)
ASSIGNMENT TWO

Please paste the broadcast script you wrote in class on Sept. 10 based on the news wire report here.

German Chancellor Angella Merkel meets Chinese President Hu Jintao. Both sides agree that Iran should not have nuclear weapons, and decide to resolve the conflict by diplomatic means. They discuss in great detail about the possibilities of a diplomatic solution for Iran. Merkel also says they want to direct the efforts of the international community more strongly to reach this aim.


ASSIGNMENT THREE
Please paste the Obituary assignment here.

Former China’s Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, owner of ECHO TV, Li Aike, died at the age of 88 on the night of August, 18th. . ( Visual: a lot of images of Li Aike flying out from the center of the screen and a picture of her in front of ECHO TV Building as the last one.)

Li Aike was born in March 13th 1989 in Anshan, a city in northeastern China. (Visual: the city of Anshan, including the city’s central square and the Central Hospital where she was born.) She had proved her talent of art since she was very young. (Interview one of her cousins) “She won the first place in story-telling competition held by Provincial Ministry of Culture in 1996.” (Visual: her cousin showing the picture of her) At the age of 15, she was enrolled by Communication University of China, majoring in the Art of Broadcasting and Presenting in English. (Interview her college classmates) “She was very hard working, and won scholarships every year.” After she finished her master degree in International Journalism, she was enrolled by the Foreign Ministry of China and became the 5th China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman 10 years later. (Visual: video of her Press Conference.) Then, she decided to get back to the area she was most interested in and ran a TV station named after her English name. (Visual: video of her working in her TV station.)

She was survived by her son and daughter, and three grandchildren. (Interview her children and grand children in her house) “My mother was wonderful and open-minded. She said children are human who have freedom, and never gave us pressure to become somebody.” “Grandma’s great.”

According to her will, 30 percent of her heritage will be used to set up a charity fund to help the Chinese children in need. Her funeral will be held on August 25th at her house and each visitor should bring a lily according to her will. (Visual: pictures of her from teenage to her prime.)

ASSIGNMENT FOUR
Write three pitches that you and some classmates can actually produce with the time and resources available to you.

The audience will be English speaking You Tube viewers. Your pitch should offer them something they cannot see elsewhere. This means slice of life and human interest stories are OK, but try to come up with some hard issue pieces or stories related to breaking news as well. Foreigners love to hear about: The Olympics, counterfeit or dangerous products, the environment and global warming, martial arts, student trends, China's economy, interesting tourist destinations, and anything unusual or surprising. Think about a story you would like to hear about in another country, and try it here.

Also think about the big stories in the world, and look for a Chinese connection. Are there Iraqi students here? Does China have an Islamic insurgency? What do Chinese students think about the US presidential race? Who is in charge at the Palestian Embassy here now that the Palestinians have split amid civil war?

Your pitch should include the names of the people you plan to interview, and the shots you plan to include.

1. The Mid-Autumn Day (a traditional Chinese festival) is coming, I would like to find out how Chinese people are celebrating it. I would like to interview professor Yao Xiaoou who studies Chinese ancient literature and go to a supermarket to interview people who are buying mooncakes (traditional Chinese food for this festival).
2. A college student of Peking University accuses Microsoft for violating privacy.
I would like to interview this student Lu and Microsoft PR official Li Kejia.

This could be good. It has impact, since people around the world use Microsoft. It is also practical. But for this to be a good pitch, I need more details about the accusation.

3.The dream of the new generation of Chinese female college students. Many Chinese girls who have received higher education want to be happy housewives in the future rather than women with sucessful career, which is rather different from the last generation. I would like to interview college student Wu Jieyu and professor Zhao Jinqiu.

This has good potential but needs some study or statistics to back it up and put it into context.

ASSIGNMENT FIVE

Thursday, September 21st, Final Analysis

“Pig Disease in China Worries the World-Lack of Data Impedes Research” leaves us a mysterious overall impression at the very beginning. After heated discussion, we found that the author herself could be a “sly” or a master in her writing and reporting skills. She never mentioned her opinion directly in the article, however, she made us believe or at least suspect that the Chinese government and researchers may lag behind in dealing with public health problems and research process, respectively. Actually, based on our understating and group discussion, what the writer tried to express is that both the information channels of the Chinese government and scientific studies ought to be more open, instead of remaining in the present relatively closed state. She intended to point out the regime or the institutional behind the scene of this news event. She gave us the examples of the agreement on the tissue samples and the withholding of information to support her opinion.
Questions or Comments for the writer:
1.The beginning of the story is very sensational and attract the readers' attention immediately. But in the third paragraph when the writer say "wiping out the entire herds", this may not be very accurate.
2. In page two, the author conclude that diseased pig already have entered the food supply both directly and indirectly. However, thoughout the whole passager, he fails to provide any evidence, no matter investigations in markets or interviews from hospitals, showing whether this is real or just a rumor.
What we have learned after analysing this news story?
1. Going through this news story, we find several points that are not valid, the author just gave his conclusion based on his own understanding of this issue. From this point we know that when we form our own news story, we should give clear sources, which can make the news more reliable.
2. After reading the whole passage, we can feel a kind of bias between the words, although the writer didn't express her feeling directly. This bias can be seen from some sentences and words she used. So we should try to avoid using inproper words in our news story. To give clear source is also a way be object.
3.The logic of this article is clear. She write it in inverse-pyramid structure. It makes the story to be complete and attractive. That is something we should learn.


I agree in general with your remarks. However, rather than calling the reporter sly, I would suggest she is carefully and openly building a case, rather than indirectly giving her opinion.

As far as the wiping out entire herds observation goes, I think she back this up with the first-hand observations of the empty pig stalls, as well as the scientific report. However, I agree she is very cagey or tricky with numbers, and I think we should ask her why that is.