Journalism is in the end-phase of a massive change worldwide. Lunchtime O’Booze (before your time) is no more. Most, but not all, newspapers now have massively reduced reporting staffs. Think of it as the Internet effect.
The one exception is, perhaps, China. It experimented with a training program is about, again, to experiment with a program again for training journalists.
Spearheading this crusade is Li Xiguang, seen here, the executive dean of the journalism school at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Li was among an early batch of students who attended the original Western-style journalism program instituted by Deng Xiaoping.
Li Xiguang said, “My classmates at that time included people who are now the head of the People’s Daily, the head of the State Council’s Information Office and the editor-in-chief of the Xinhua News Agency.”
China Digital Times reports that Li’s efforts to put together an international journalism program at Tsinghua University are seen by some as an indication of China’s future media strategy.
It is to be hoped that the course focuses closely on the way that the Internet bring news immediately to the attention of the public. And, indeed, that the Internet plus 3G phones is the fastest, most powerful, news dissemination system that has ever existed.