What do you get when you mix USCET’s programming skills with great journalistic minds, a room packed with 500 attendees and an online audience of over 5000 viewers? The supremely successful TED-style talk that was held on February 19th at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, that’s what. USCET’s Training of Trainers Conference ended on a high note with public talks discussing the latest trends in data journalism in China and globally. The talks were streamed on Tencent, China’s premier web portal, resulting in over 5500 people participating in the event. The audience included students, faculty, journalists, designers, programmers, and media industry professionals from across China.
The stellar line up of Chinese and international speakers included Rufus Pollock, founder and president of Open Knowledge Foundation; Xiaoqian Wang, founder and editor-in-chief of DT Finance; Pili Hu, whose Data for News program earned the prestigious international SOPA 2016 Excellence in Infographics Award; Jonathan Soma, the director for the LEDE Data Journalism Program at Columbia University Journalism School, and Zhiyi Liu, the executive director of the highly popular Daily Toutiao that is at the forefront of big data analysis in China. The speakers inspired the audience of the merits of freedom of information, shared examples of how ordinary citizens in China are using big data in service of their own community, provided tips on how journalists and editors can use data and new platforms to enhance traditional journalism, and much more. At the end of three captivating hours, the speakers encouraged this highly diverse group of audience to use numbers as a tool for developing socially relevant stories.
The TED-style talk was the pinnacle event after a week-long workshop tailored for journalism professors who are teaching the fast-emerging field of data journalism in China. The intensive, hands-on training aimed to not only teach technical tools of the field, but also focused on teaching methodologies, how to collaborate with other disciplines to design data journalism programs, and international best practices in curriculum design. In addition to classroom training, USCET also organized a two-hour training via the Chinese social media mobile platform, WeChat. Over 80 people participated in the training on data visualization remotely via their phones.
This was the first activity that USCET conducted under the new NGO Management Law. USCET planned the activity with its partner, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, over a three month period. After extensive paperwork and a flurry of approval stamps, USCET was permitted to conduct the workshop and its associated activities. This achievement was a testament to the resilience of our partners and USCET’s continued dedication to the advancement of the journalism field in China.
如果你将USCET的活动组织能力与接触的新闻思想、500名在场观众、5000余名在线观众结合，会得到什么？答案是2017年2月19日在北京大学深圳研究生院举办的一场非常成功的TED式演讲。USCET的教员培训会议演讲以一场关于中国及全球对数据新闻研究的最新流行的讨论闭幕。讨论由中国的首要视频直播网站腾讯直播，吸引了5500多名观众观看，其中包括了来自中国各地的学生、教员、新闻记者、设计师、程序员、以及媒体行业专家等等。
此次演讲邀请了海内外讲者，包括开放知识基金会创始人路福斯·波洛克（Rufus Pollock）、DT Finance创始人兼主编Xiaoqian Wang、胡辟砾，其数据新闻项目荣获2016年亚洲出版业协会卓越新闻奖卓越数据图像奖、哥伦比亚大学里德数据新闻项目主任乔纳森·索玛（Jonathan Soma）、以及位于中国大数据分析第一线的今日头条的执行总监刘志毅。讲者向观众讲述了信息自由的益处，分享中国一般民众使用的服务中如何用到大数据，并就记者和编辑该如何使用数据和全新的平台加强传统新闻写作的技巧。在充实的三小时的结尾，讲者鼓励来自不同领域的观众以数字为工具叙述有关社会的故事。
本次的TED式演讲为新闻学教员培训工作坊画上了圆满的结尾。中国新闻学发展日新月异，工作坊为新闻学教员量身打造帮助他们适应在该领域教学。工作坊提供强化实操培训，内容除了相关领域的技术工具以外，还包括教学理论、如何与其他领域人员合作设计数据新闻项目、以及国际上最佳课程设计等。USCET还在微信上组织了两小时的在线培训。一共有八十余名学员通过手机参与了本次在线数据可视化培训。
本活动是USCET在中国NGO新法颁布后策划的首个活动。USCET与北京大学深圳研究生院合作为此活动进行了三个月的策划，跨过重重审核最终获批被允许举办本次工作坊以及相关活动。这对USCET与国内机构合作的重大成就，我们将继续努力为中国新闻领域发展做出贡献。