Holding my lumbar pillow, my new student-friend, “Snappy,” lets me take her photo.

Mr. Joke Returns to China

Our traveler returns to China this summer for a month of teaching, lecturing and learning at industry and university sites in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing. Last summer, during his Fulbright to Beijing, he was once introduced to a formal conference as “Mr. Joke,” a moniker that has stuck. Following is the record of Mr. Joke’s reprise.

Following my first lecture, I received this e-mail from one of the students  who called herself  “Snappy.”

Good evening,Jock.

Really nice to meet you and attend your lecture today.

And thanks for your humorous talking styles. 

I am Ye Yu,and also Snappy.

Remember me or not?

Hope you enjoy your visit to Chongqing,especially to our school.

It’s a hot day,isn’t it?

Please do take your umbrella or cap while staying outside.

Or,you will get sick.

It’s amazing to see that you have a camera with hands today.

And after class,I visit the official website of UNC.

Then,I recognize you are also an expert on photojournalism.

And  I am keen on photos,besides news photos.

Therefore, communicating with you about photos is an opportunity to learn something.

Taking pictures around me indeed memorizes my daily experiences.

Questions are follows.

Q1. What role do pictures play in newspaper?

Q2. What features does photojournalism possess,comparing to words? 

Q3. Is there any ethical principles while using photos in news stories, according to your experiences?(toughest one)

If you’re exhausted or your schedule is bombarded with task, you can reply to me later.

But I am 100% sure you will give responses to me because you promised me in today’s class even orally.

Really appreciated for reading my letter.

After your responses,I will reuse some of your opinions in my thesis.

Hope you won’t refuse my doing so.

Thanks a million.

Looking forwards to your reply.

yours,

Ye Yu 

Mr. Joke Returns to China

Our traveler returns to China this summer for a month of teaching, lecturing and learning at industry and university sites in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing. Last summer, during his Fulbright to Beijing, he was once introduced to a formal conference as “Mr. Joke,” a moniker that has stuck. Following is the record of Mr. Joke’s reprise.

The bright-eyed kid named Zheng Ruolan stood up in the classroom of 50 and confidently grasped the mobile mic to ask her question.

“What is the future of community journalism in China — if we in China have no sense of community?”

The community journalism class listens as my colleague, Prof. Ren Li, introduces me before my first class. (Jock Lauterer photo)

I responded, “Do you think that the Chinese people should have a sense of community?”

Yes, she nodded.

“Is that something that you would like to see happen?”

Yes, her head bobbed up and down, eyes bright.

“Then BE the change in China you want to see,” I said, (apologies to Gandhi). “It is your generation that will shape the new China.”

THESE TEACHABLE MOMENTS

It is for teachable moments like this that we do what we do. And it is for moments like these that I returned to China this summer to teach community journalism.

Today I found myself in a sixth floor (no elevator, no air conditioning) classroom facing 50 enthusiastic journalism majors who peppered me with questions (in excellent English) during a two-hour introduction to community journalism in the U.S.

We flew here Sunday after the four-day workshops concluded in Shanghai, and as a new leg of the Chinese Community Journalism Roadshow took a 1,000-mile turn to the direct west, deep into the interior.

No shabby provincial outpost, Chongqing boasts 23 million residents and several universities, including my host academic unit, the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, where my colleague Associate Dean Li Ren teaches community journalism and where he and his students started their own community newspaper last year, the Huixing Journal,  as a teaching device, not unlike the Carrboro Commons or the Durham VOICE.

So we have much in common.

The staff of Huixing Journal, ready for two weeks of fun: front row, left to right: Han, Chen Ying and Helen; back grow, Liang, Feather, Zhang, Betty, Karlla, Abe, Deng and Prof. Li.

MY BAND OF ANGELS

Prof. Li’s newspaper staff is my core target group to teach. But it goes both ways. It is they who fetch me, escort me about town, instruct me in Chinese culture and social mores, ask endless big questions and basically hover around me like a band of angels, treating me like some beloved old uncle. How cool is that? Yesterday afternoon they showed up at my hotel for our neighborhood walk armed with bottled water and snacks. When we step off a curb at a traffic crossing, they are there to grab my elbow. I am totally spoiled.

Just as with my American students, I learned their names, Chinese or “American,” on the first day, by coming up with idiosyncratic identifiers…as in Liang Feng who has the most charming dimples, and her name “Liang” reminds me of my wife’s name, Lynne. And “Helen” reminds of an old song titled “Helen in my Dreams.” “Feather” dressed in a Native American outfit could easily pass as a Lakota. So there you go.

Then there’s “Karlla” the video diva from Harbin; photographer “Han,” the lone guy who I call “Dude;” “Deng,” who doesn’t use an American name but is as cute as the proverbial speckled pup in a red wagon; “Abe,” who is tall and looks like she could be a model; “Dong,” the lead editor who calls herself  “Betty” is thus Betty-Boop;  the art director “Zhang,” who personally drew me a campus map; “Chen Ying,” who is from Guangdong Province near Hong Kong; and “Wang,” who calls herself “Jeannie,” tall and sophisticated, wants to go into corporate law.

There is also a student video crew shadowing my every move. Making a documentary about the visit, Prof. Li tells me. Those kids include Tong, Ivy and Li, the latter of whom has worn a black designer T-shirt every day and thus is dubbed “Calvin.”

I had to travel halfway around the world to get to know better someone from just down the road.

Fellow American and newspaperman Bill Horner of Sanford, North Carolina, USA, had been recruited to come to China with me last week to lecture on the growth of community journalism.

Bill Horner III talks to Chinese journalists in Shanghai, while wife Lee Ann looks on. (Jock Lauterer photo)

It’s a topic he knows well. He’s the third-generation publisher of a “relentlessly local” and highly successful, money-making, award-winning daily newspaper in my home state. The Sanford Herald was founded in 1930 by his grandfather, Bill Horner Sr., the man Bill III idolizes and models after.

I thought I knew my neighbor pretty well. But it wasn’t until we got to Shanghai and I heard him speak that I realIzed the impact the newspaper and his grandfather had on him — and why China was so important to him.

“My grandfather traveled to over 100 countries,” Bill told the gathering over 100 local civic and governmental leaders at Shanghai University last week, “And he always said that China was his favorite country.”

Bill, along with wife Lee Ann, team-taught with me and Associate Professor Chen Kai of Beijing’s Communication University of China at a workshop on community journalism co-sponsored by the university and the Xinmin Evening News. When asked by one of the attendees at the workshop what was his favorite thing about China, Bill replied quickly, “the PEOPLE!”

And that made me think. Yes! The people of Shanghai. What an amazing resource. And it took my neighbor, Bill, to call my attention to that fact.

After one workshop, a young reporter thanked us, saying that before the conference he and his co-workers felt like they were “stumbling around in the dark” and that the workshop had been like a “bolt of lightning” to show them the way.

I’m happy to have been a small part of that light. And proud to be a better friend to my old friend Bill, who came to China to better know his long-dead and dearly beloved grandfather and namesake, and thus be closer to the man who was his mentor and role model.

Reflecting on his trip, Bill called it “a once in a lifetime experience.” And then upon thinking a second, he exclaimed, “No! A once in a LIFETIME experience!”

Thank you, Shanghai, for bringing me another friend.

The Community Journalism Roadshow goes to Shanghai: me and Bill Horner III flank the convention banner. (Photo by Lee Ann Horner)

During the Shanghai conference on community journalism, Sanford Herald Publisher Bill Horner III  is flanked by Prof. Chen Kai and a translator who called himself “Al Pacino.” (Jock Lauterer photo)

It’s a long way from Sanford to Shanghai. And Sanford Herald Publisher Bill Horner could only dream of ever visiting his grandfather and namesake’s favorite country.

Yet there he was, 9,000 miles from home, strolling with wife Lee Ann along the vividly illuminated waterfront of Shanghai, touring the ancient sites of the Middle Kingdom and rubbing shoulders with newspaper people, like himself, from half a world away.

“A community is all about relationships,” he told a seminal conference on community journalism, held at Shanghai University, May 15-18. Using photographs from the April 2011 tornado as an example of how his newspaper helped his community, Bills said, “We have to be connected together as a people in order to survive events like this tornado.”

Bill’s presentation was yesterday’s keynote address at the “Workshop on Sino-US Community Media: co-sponsored by the Community Edition of the Xinmin Evening News and Shanghai University.

The Horners pose in front of the workshop banner in Shanghai. (Jock Lauterer photo)

As Bill’s warm-up act, I tried to provide a broad overview on the state of American community journalism. As has been well documented, US community papers have survived the Great Recession in far better shape than their big-city cousins – a fact not lost on the Chinese. That, and the exciting news of Warren Buffet’s putting his money where his faith is – in communities with a strong sense of community.

My colleague, Associate Professor Chen Kai (Karen) of the Communication University of China, served as my translator for yesterday’s event, but she had lost her voice to laryngitis, and was forced to deliver the translations in a hushed whisper. This rendered my message all the more compelling and somehow intimate, as conference-goers leaned forward to catch her words.

.

RE-ENTRY OF THE 600-LB. GORILLA

The issue of press freedom was everywhere in this room, an uninvited guest, the 600-lb. gorilla.

During a Q & A session, a Chinese journalist asked Bill Horner, “Do you have to obey the orders of the regulator?”

I could see Bill taking his time to compose his response. Then he said evenly, “In our country, there is no regulator.”

You could hear the proverbial pin drop.

• Other speakers delivered impassioned addresses, and this one, translated for me, struck a real chord. Prof. Li Liang Rong of Shanghai’s highly –respected J-school, Fudan, U. told the gathering that while the current state of community newspapers in China was in its infancy, the main problem is that many of such newspapers are illegal, according to the Chinese system of newspaper regulation through licensure. (I’m told that the government isn’t issuing any more newspaper licenses, in an attempt to control what’s already out there.)

Rong insisted the way forward should be nurtured by local governments allowing these local papers to grow and flourish. This would mean a fundamental change in existing press law in China.

Currently, if local governments disapprove of the content of the newspaper, that government can fire the reporter, the editor and even shut the paper down.

Knowing this sword of Damocles is hanging over them, Chinese editors and journalists are prone to self-censor.

Thus, he said, the future of community newspapers in China remains tenuous at best. Nevertheless, it is a worthy goal because he believes in the core mission of the community paper to help build community and serve as a “platform for deliberative democracy.”

Then he told a story that illustrates graphically the lack of community  in Chinese society.

He told us that he has lived in his apartment for 10 years but doesn’t know his neighbor across the hall.

Pleased with how the workshop has gone, organizer and Shanghai community newspaper editor Zhou Chen, pointing, toasts his guests at a celebratory dinner. (Jock Lauterer photo)

Three men in Shanghai, at their leisure. Jock Lauterer photo

Mr. Joke Returns to China

Our traveler returns to China this summer for a month of teaching, lecturing and learning at industry and university sites in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing. Last summer, during his Fulbright to Beijing, he was once introduced to a formal conference as “Mr. Joke,” a moniker that has stuck. Following is the record of Mr. Joke’s reprise.

China stretches across my couch — from Xingjian’s arid deserts in the west to the prosperous cities of the south, to the political heart of Beijing in the north, to the glittering neon-lit waterfront of modern Shanghai in the east— the old National Geographic map sprawls on the pillows like a crazy quilt piece of art, punctuated by highlighted blobs of colors marking few places this traveler has been. And the map, its vastness and mystery, tells me, ‘Stranger, how little you know of me… and what challenges and adventures await!”

The Back-Story

What am I doing in China — a former small-town newspaper owner-publisher turned University lecturer?

What could I possibly have to offer the world’s largest country, the second largest economy, and a land of 1.3 billion people, force-fed by a state-controlled media system?

Therein lies the tale.

When in 2008 I received an email from an unknown Chinese scholar in Beijing requesting a year of study with me at Chapel Hill, I thought to myself, “Why bother?” and dismissed the notion…until the following year when Associate Professor Chen Kai wrote again informing me this time that UNC  had accepted her as a Visiting International Scholar, and that she intended to spend the year studying American community newspapers, and that I had been assigned as her mentor!

Why me? Because she had stumbled across my book, “Community Journalism, the Personal Approach,” in her university library (the Communication University of China in Beijing).

Why Community Journalism? Because even with a state-controlled media system, community newspapers are being launched, under the radar, illegally and in something of a shadow media ecosystem. And with the burgeoning growth of the Web and blogs, there is much interest in the development of a local news reporting — as a new revenue stream for existing newspapers, as a way to generate new interest in local affairs, and most importantly, as a way to achieve that old and elusive Chinese goal: the Harmonious Society.

Bill Horner lectures in Shanghai as wife Lee Ann, center, listens while Prof Chen Kai translates. Jock Lauterer photo

In the US, we would call that “civic engagement,” namely that individual citizens realize their single importance, become involved, and

In the U.S., we call that “civic engagement,” the process by which individuals embrace their role as stewards and caretakers of their local affiars. Of course, we believe that an informed citizenry is vital to the maintenance of a free society…to the maintenance of a robust community.

But there’s the rub, isn’t it? The concept of “community” is largely unknown to many Chinese, especially in the cities where growth from rural areas is exploding. And the concept of the “watchdog press” is also foreign to their way of thinking.

Into the Breach

So how could I say no?

Prof “Karen,” as she called herself, arrived on campus in August 2009 with her 12-year-old son, Coco (Frank) — and almost immediately we began targeting what I call “Great Good Papers” across the state.

Over the course of the year we visited the Chapel Hill News, the Daily Tar Heel, the Carrboro Citizen, the Shelby Star, the Sanford Herald, the Spring Hope Enterprise,  the Fayetteville Observer, the Washington Daily News, the Greenville News-Reflector, the Carolina Weekly Group in Huntersville and the Pilot of Southern Pines. At each paper, she conducted exhaustive interviews with publishers, editors and reporters. During that time she also accompanied me on my annual summer Community Journalism Roadshow as I led workshops at the Caswell Messenger in Yanceyville, the Montgomery Herald in Troy and the Louisburg Journal.

Prof. Karen’s extensive observations, notes and photos turned into the seminal book, published in Mandarin last year, titled “Introduction to Community Journalism in the U.S.”  by the Nanfang Daily Press. I am honored to have served as project director and having written the foreword.

I threw myself into the project because I came to believe that such a book would fundamentally alter the landscape of Chinese understanding of community journalism.

Skyping China, student-to-student

According to Prof Chen, Chinese professionals had gotten their stereotyped and inaccurate impression of American newspapers only anecdotally and indirectly — not directly from visiting American scholars and practitioners— especially those with whom they could establish personal relationships. And about community newspapers, they knew almost nothing!

The publication of that book led directly to a Fulbright last summer to Beijing, where I taught at three universities and met with industry leaders.

“Our” book also led us to another scholar, intrigued by the notion of community journalism. Associate Professor Li Ren, associate dean of the School of Global Journalism at Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing, contacted us.

And soon a full-blown Skype relationship had been initiated —not just between we three, but also between our classes. Live Skyping across 9,000 miles, face to face with fellow students, journalists and colleagues.

To my way of thinking, Skyping represents a stunning life-altering way of communicating, teaching and learning. To my knowledge, our Sino-U.S. student-to-student Skyping sessions were the first-of-its-kind in our school.

All of this leads to the summer of 2013 and our current lecture trip, headlined by the inclusion of Sanford Herald Publisher Bill Horner III and his wife, Lee Ann.

Each summer for the last 12 years, the Johnny Appleseed Community Journalism Summer Roadshow has brought “Journalism 101″ to 175 small newspaper newsrooms across the state from Murphy to Manteo (from the Cherokee Scout to the Outer Banks Sentinel). Led by Jock Lauterer, founding director of the Carolina Community Media Project, the Roadshow is a public service outreach initiative supported by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at UNC-Chapel Hill. This month, the ol’ perfesser visits the little mountain town of Burnsville where a sure-’nuff newspaper war is going on, and the new kids in town have already won national kudos.

“Great journalism happens in Podunk.”

At the front door of the Yancey County News in Burnsville, Susan and Jonathan Austin display their awards while Gus and Maddy look on. (Jock Lauterer photo)

Austin, 51, along with his wife, Susan, is living that mantra. No sooner had they launched their dream project community weekly in the quaint N.C. mountain town of Burnsville than all hell broke loose.

In a nutshell: they busted the county sheriff’s dept.

The lead headline of the Yancey County News, Vol. 1, No.1, dated Jan. 13, 2011, read:

YANCEY VOTE FILES SEIZED FOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

Their fearless watchdog reporting has not gone unnoticed. In only their second year, the Austins have garnered unprecedented national attention for their exposure of corrupt officers in the county sheriff’s office.

This spring the Austins were honored with two of the nation’s top awards for ethics in journalism: the Ancil Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism and the Edward Willis Scripps Award for distinguished service to the First Amendment.

Pretty heady stuff for a 15-month-old fledgling weekly.

“I was shaking,” Jonathan concedes when he got the congratulatory email.  And he adds with satisfaction, “We beat out Bloomberg.”

At a 1,200 circulation start-up weekly. A mom ‘n’ pop shoestring operation with two dogs in the front office. How cool is that.

Jonathan concludes, “It’s been the most fantastic and energizing year and half of my career.”

A STANDOFF IN A TWO-NEWSPAPER TOWN

To be fair, when the Austins launched their paper in the winter of 2011, theirs wasn’t the only paper in town. The Yancey Common Times Journal, is a widely read 7,000-circulation award-winning and respected weekly.

The folks at the Times Journal are confident they will weather the competition.

“We’ve been through a few newspaper wars,” says Times News Editor Jody Higgins, who herself launched the Yancey Common Times back in 1990. Her paper eventually merged with the competition Yancey Journal in 1995, and now is majority-owned by Bob Tribble of South Carolina under the heading of TRIB Publications, Inc. However, keeping it local, both Higgins and Times Journal publisher Pat Randolph have part ownership in the paper.

And, mind you, the Times Journal as won their share of awards too. Jody told me, via e-mail. “I just counted the awards on our walls — there are 30. But the “award” I like best is a poster (with handprints, names and drawings) up there with the real awards from the K-1 class at Bee Log Elementary thanking us for teaching them why a community newspaper is important. I also received the Governor’s Volunteer Award for assisting with teaching journalism at the high school and for writing a grant to get equipment and set up a broadcast journalism program for the high school.”

However, when it comes to hard-hitting investigative reporting, the two papers take a vastly different approach; the Austins have been far more aggressive in their watchdog-style reporting and are willing to risk it all to report negative details about those in power. Predictably, not everyone in Yancey County is a fan of the News’ take-no-prisoners style of community journalism.

TAKING THE RISK

Be that as it may, the Scripps-Howard judges praised the Austins, writing that the Yancey County News had “exposed absentee ballot fraud, ethics violations, abuse of arrest powers and the theft and illegal sale of county owned firearms – all during the newspaper’s first year of operation and despite risks both financial and physical.”

It's not the most cluttered editor's office I've ever seen, but Jonathan's is a close second. (Jock Lauterer photo)

The Scripps-Howard judges continue: “It is clear that the Yancey County News has had a significant impact on the rural North Carolina community it serves  (pop 17,000). In the short time since its founding, the newspaper has established itself as a check on local government by providing its readers insight into the practices of their elected officials.”

The Ancil Payne Award for Ethics judges called the Austins’ work “classic public interest journalism at great personal and economic risk. Shortly after it began publication, the paper reported a state investigation into elections fraud involving the sheriff’s dept. that other local papers had ignored. Also in 2011, the paper reported that the chief deputy, who many revered for his tough-on-crime attitude, was pawning county-owned firearms for personal gain. To take on the powers that be in a rural community where citizens are afraid to speak out against local law enforcement is very brave. To stake your livelihood and personal safety on it is above and beyond. This is an extraordinary example of serving the public good.”

MEET MADDY AND GUS

Just off the square and across from the ice cream shop, the little office of the Yancey County News stands modestly, with its wide-open front door, blocked only by a baby-gate to keep the two “newshounds” Maddy and Gus, from straying out of the newsroom. Hardly the sort of storefront you’d expect from national award winners. Or maybe it’s exactly as it should be.

I had to ask Jonathan, Why Burnsville? There’s already a good paper here. But it had been a dream of his for 30 years, he said; his late dad lived here, and while Jonathan worked at the Hendersonville Times-News, the Statesville Record and Landmark and did a stint with the bigs at CNN.com in Atlanta — in the back of his mind there was always that dream cooking….how about starting a feisty little kickbutt weekly up in Burnsville?

An honors newspaper rack at the local ice cream shop. (Jock Lauterer photo)

The formula has worked.  The News is a handsome “long tabloid” format paper, printed in Boone by the Watauga Democrat, with large attractive front page photos depicting “relentlessly local” content such as the high school prom night, a monster bear killed by a local bow-hunter, the Relay for Life event, a big truck wreck or a banner photo of the high school’s FFA club off to a national convention.

GROWING THE PAPER

So what’s next for the Austins?  How can they ever top 2012? I’m sure they’d like to grow their circulation and advertising, because after all the awards and glory, a newspaper is a business with a bottom line just like any other business.

But I have an idea that the Austins also need to spread their mantra of “great journalism in Podunk.” So I’m having them come to UNC this fall to talk to my community journalism students. And the Austins need to be a part of next spring’s North Carolina Newspaper Academy; perhaps a session on fearless investigative reporting on the local level.

Wouldn’t that be a hoot? Stay tuned. I’m sure we’ve not heard the last of Jonathan and Susan Austin. Oh, and Maddy and Gus.

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012

Headline: Mr. Joe to Sanford! A huge success with daughter Kate, who is a delightful kid, translating so effortlessly – and Publisher Bill Horner III going way beyond just being hospitable, spending three hours with us, answering all of Zhou’s many detailed questions – and then taking us and a crew of Heralders, including fave Editor R.V. Hight, ad director Gina Eaves and circulation director Jeff Ayers out to lunch for more substantive talk.

What a day!

Zhou and Kate listen intently as Advertising Director Gina Eaves explains about the Herald's high school graduation edition — something that doesn't exist in China.

At the end of the day he invites Bill and me to Shanghai next summer for more talk, perhaps even a conference on Community Journalism. How cool is that?

I was particularly gifted to be able to spend one hour down and back  conversing with my new pals: Mr. Joe in the front seat and daughter Kate in back, leaning forward between us, translating our chatter with ease.

It was on the return trip to Greensboro, while brainstorming, that we came up with the notion of setting up a Sister Newspaper Exchange between Zhou and Bill’s respective newspaper groups.

So while today could have been just a  “one-and-done,” instead now it’s turning into one for the ages.

When I asked Bill what his take on the experience was, here is what he sent back:

Our gathering in Sanford: front to back, left to right): Herald Advertising Director Gina Eaves, Lee Ann Horner and Sanford Herald Publisher Bill Horner III (back row) Herald Editor R. V. Hight, Kate-Zi Qi Zhou, Jock Lauterer, Xinmin Evening News Editor Zhou Chen and Herald Circulation Manager Jeff Ayers.

Immediately after they left, we were all talking in our shop about how enjoyable it’d be to do it again – and soon. Jeff, my circulation manager, told me later in the afternoon that he’d love to have “just a day” to spend talking to Mr. Joe about marketing newspapers and reaching potential readers.

We’re not sure what’ll transpire next, but knowing that Kate will be in college nearby, and knowing Mr. Joe’s keen interest in Professor Karen’s book, has us hopeful for more time with Mr. Joe in the future.”

Bill Horner III
Publisher, the Sanford Herald, Sanford, N.C.

TUESDAY JUNE 12, 2012

How entirely fitting that this summer’s 12^th annual Community Journalism Roadshow kicks off with a Chinese connection in the Old North State.

Today China comes to the U.S., bringing the Chinese-American Community Journalism Project full circle.

Zhou and his daughter, Kate, at the Sanford Herald. (Photo by Bill Horner III)

That’s how Zhou heard about my lecture series in Beijing in May – and how he learned about the Sanford Herald.

Remember “Mr. Joe” flew all the way from Shanghai to Beijing just to meet me back in May. And how we connected so thoroughly, even though we had to communicate via translator – we both knew, we both “bleed ink.”

Zhou is visiting his daughter, Kate, who just graduated from Burlington Christian High School as an international exchange student, living with a host family in Whitsett. N.C., just east of Greensboro off I-40. Kate, fluent in English after having studied in N.C. for two years, will translate for us on this cultural and journalistic exploration.

Who knows what adventures await?

UNC senior lecturer Jock Lauterer is on a two-week Fulbright to China to give lectures and lead seminars at three Beijing universities. He is the author of “Community Journalism: Relentlessly Local,” 3rd. Ed, and most recently was the project manager for Prof. Chen Kai’s groundbreaking 2012 book, “An Introduction to Community Newspapers in the U.S.”

May 31, 2012

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards” wrote Swedish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard.

And so it is with an experience like this. I have attempted to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, to faithfully record the events and narrative of my two brief weeks in China; a quick window into an ancient culture in a vast land in dramatic flux.

Back home again: grillin' out by the light of a shared moon. (Photo by Jock Lauterer)

I have to first thank the U.S. State Department’s Fulbright program for funding this trip and seeing the rightness of the project. My own school, led by Dean Susan King, former Dean Jean Folkerts and Dean Emeritus Richard Cole, all encouraged me to pursue this project.

In my home state of North Carolina, I must acknowledge the generous donation of time and expertise made by caring and dedicated community journalists that led directly to my adventure in China: Robert Dickson of the Carrboro Citizen, Kevin Schwartz of the Daily Tar Heel, Mark Schultz of the Chapel Hill News, Charles Broadwell of the Fayetteville Observer, Bill Horner III of the Sanford Herald, David Woronoff and Steve Bouser of the Pilot of Southern Pines, Ray McKeithan and Brownie Futrell of the Washington Daily News, Ken Ripley of the Spring Hope Enterprise, Megan Ward of the Shelby Star and Alain Lillie and Courtney Price of the Carolina Weeklies Group of Charlotte.

In China, a host of academics shouldered the task of making my stay productive while comfortable — notably, I must express gratitude to Xin Xin of the Journalism Department at the Communication University of China for the hospitality she extended me. Of course, without the hard work and dedication of my partner, Assoc. Professor Chen Kai, none of this would ever have happened: her study trip to N.C. in 2009-2010 that resulted in “our book,” and the Fulbright to China — were all due to her vision and dogged determination to introduce Community Journalism to China. I am forever indebted to her.

Connecting: a toddler I've never met before called me "Grandpa!" (Photo by Prof. Chen Kai)

On the last night in Beijing, the pollution abated, allowing a pale quarter moon to float between the zoomy downtown skyscrapers. Twenty-four hours later I am back in Chapel Hill, in the good old US of A. And this evening, as I slipped back into my routine — mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage, picking up the mail — something bright overhead caught my attention.

There in the Carolina blue sky, floated the moon. The very same moon that floats over Mr. Joe of Shanghai, Mr. Han of Cuandixia, Xin Xin and Prof. Chen of Beijing, and “my students” at Renmin U., Tsinghua U. and the Communication University of China. In that brief instant, 7,000 miles of physical distance and 5,000 years of cultural difference melted away.

May “Mr. Joke” always keep that vision of the same moon. For does it not shine on us all?

So here’s to next year in Shanghai, or Chongqing, or even Beijing again. There is much work to be done; and this little foray was but a beginning.

As Dean Emeritus Richard Cole has taught us to say:

“Onward and upward!”

One moon, over all. (Photo by Jock Lauterer)

Saturday, May 26, 2012

During my two weeks in China I gave eight lectures — and saved the best for last. Or I should say the best was saved for me until the last. My third of three presentations at the Communication University of China (CUC) attracted a loyal cohort of 16 kids, most of who attended the first two talks and wanted more.

I wanted to go to China to plant some seeds. Perhaps we succeeded. (Photo by Prof. Chen Kai)

After hearing the greeting from editor-publisher Ken Ripley of the Spring Hope Enterprise, the student broke into spontaneous applause. Here’s what Ripley said: ”

Dear Chinese friends —  for that is how I view all fellow journalists no matter what country — I am excited that you want to learn about community journalism and what we do in America. So much has changed in recent years. The technology. The business model. The expanded means of communication made possible through the internet. Even my small newspaper in a small town is affected by these changes. But one big thing has not changed and I hope never changes — our mission is to help our community, whatever size it may be, to see itself as it is and as it can be; to be a positive force for good on behalf of all its people; and to be a channel of honest information and open discussion through which caring people can determine their own affairs and the civic life of their community no matter what kind of government they have. As you begin, or continue, to practice your chosen journalism profession — big city, little town, internet blog — I hope you will love what you’re doing, and, if you love the people you serve, great things will be ahead in your future. You may or may not make much money, but you will be rich in all the ways that count. Best wishes from Spring Hope, North Carolina. — Ken Ripley

Next, I opened the floor to Q and A, and their questions were heartbreakingly sincere and naïve:

• “When you say ‘community’ what is that?”

• “How can we report when we might get fired for what we do?”

• “ How do you in the U.S. get your government permit to start a newspaper?”

• “Do you think China needs community newspapers?”

• “How much local news is too much local news?”

And my personal favorite: “How can I start my own community newspaper?”

Along with my Chinese colleague, Prof. Chen Kai, I tried to make a pitch for bringing community journalism to China.

Then Li concluded, “I agree the teacher’s remark that China needs you. What I want to add is that China needs more of its own Chinese teachers who can take actions to deal with their own problems.”

Keying on that last thought, I ended the lecture by telling “my kids” that China needs….THEM! And I can see in these bright eyes and eager faces that my seeds have landed on fertile ground.

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Students at CUC are impressed by the Daily Tar Heel. (Photo by Jock Lauterer)

I also asked them to pose for a class photo, and I got their email addresses and send out the picture, which also made an impression on them.

These two weeks have been like pouring water on parched desert ground and watching the flowers bloom. As a conclusion, you can judge for yourself if seeds weren’t planted. Here’s a sampling (many signed with their English names):

“Dear professor,

I’ve received your e-mail and I’m really very happy. All I want to say is THANK YOU. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us. Thank you for your sincere care to us Chinese students beyond national borders. Your academic passion and personal charisma touched me deeply. Actually, you taught me so much in that wonderful class….I will always keep you in my mind and pray for you in China.

your Chinese student, LiuKecen

“You have opened a window for us,” wrote Lou, followed by, “I’m interested in CJ. And I have learned lots of knowledge from your lecture. I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with you, my dear professor.”

“I do believe that your lectures have broadened my mind,” writes Crystal, who adds, “I’m waiting for more.”

Sheena wrote, “You have inspired me to think twice about the existence of community newspapers.”

She said she wanted her picture made with the ol' perfesser because I'd helped her figure out what she was doing in college — and perhaps with her career as a journalist. It don't get no better than that. (Photo by Prof. Chen Kai)

“I cherish your lectures a lot,” wrote Adam, a serious-looking lad who sat in the same front row seat for all three lectures, “What you have left me is not only a description of journalism, but also details about American democracy and the way U.S. citizens live their lives.” And after the first class, he spoke with me in private, asking what kind of GRE and TOEFL scores he needed to get into grad school at UNC!

Liu Chang wrote: “Dear Prof. Jock, Thank you so much for giving us such wonderful lectures for last 2 weeks and opening a window for us to let the sunshine in. I will always remember what you said in the class that China needs us to change and everyone can make a difference.  Although after the second class I went to you and seemed very (depressed) when talking about problems in China, I still hold Hope in my heart…” and she closed with, “At last, keep hope alive!”