Chuck Roberts is a former CNN Headline News anchor now teaching media training in China for Missouri School of Journalism. Roberts came to Reinhardt University on Thursday, October 25. Roberts shared his stories about his efforts since 2010 to establish independent news broadcasting across China. His visit was part of the Year of China program at Reinhardt for 2012-2013.
Roberts and his teammates lecture across 34 provinces and broadcast centers in China. The nationally-recognized news veterans spend twelve days, six times a year, training producers, writers, anchor and managers as they initiate for-profit news programming to compete with CCTV, the government’s principal television outlet.
The CCTV now has about 3,000 T.V stations and even has their own versions of popular American shows like MTV.
Roberts is fighting against a government in China that is very strict about what can and can't be broadcasting in China. It is shocking that the government controls what people are able to see, hear and get on television as well as the internet. This is very different from American government, because we have unlimited access and the freedom to explore and create any type of media we want.
Roberts gave an example of trying to access Google while in China and only being able to access a minute amount of information about topics going on in the rest of the world. He also made a point that sometimes the government will completely block out Google and make it so that no one is allowed to access any Google information period.
Chinese government media will not criticize their own government for fear of getting shut down or worse severe punishment for everyone involved. However Roberts efforts goes towards making a private media that would allow for true opinionated media on the people's perspective of the government.
The censorship on media that China is faced with has caused an uproar, because most people in China especially the younger generation would love to have access to Facebook. Roberts talks about a time while in a conference meeting were the students who attended starting beating on the desk to show that they were eager to get access to Facebook. They had to be calmed down and they were ask to be polite while the speakers continued to speak on the topic of Facebook.
The students would spend 4 hours in the conference go on a break and then come back to spend another 4 hours attentively listening to the guest speakers from America. He stated that they were all very eager to learn about broadcasting. The attendees would go out and shoot their on broadcast productions and then return to compete for who presented the best show. The prize would be something simple like a CNN hat, but Roberts said they went crazy over anything that was from America, as well as the guest. Roberts implied that the students seemed to idolize himself and the other guest speakers as celebrities.Chuck Roberts efforts to bring broadcasting media and access to Facebook in China, is very notable and inspiring.
The Year of China Festival
The Year of China festival was a great introduction to the Chinese culture. I was able to get a hands on experience of Chinese Culture by visiting the workshops outside of the Hasty Student Life center. The workshops were on Chinese Tea,sessions on calligraphy using rice paper, brushes and ink, traditional Chinese music was playing throughout the festival and cultural food was also provided.
There were about five different tent workshops placed around the Hasty lawn, and each tent was very colorful and displayed Chinese artwork. It was fun to be able to visit each booth and get information about the unfamiliar pieces that were placed on the tables. The Chinese lanterns that were hung around the tents were very cute and the music really embraced the Chinese culture.
The workshops provided us with the opportunity to create our own art pieces, such as Rock balancing in which rocks are balanced on top of one another in various positions. Trying to stack the rocks required a lot of patience, because it is very had to get the perfect balance between each rock. There were also door hangers, that were available for us to create our own Chinese symbols or drawings on them.
One booth had a drawing and you could take a quiz and enter to win a prize. I was handed a quiz paper and you had to look over the Chinese information board that was posted on the table and figure out the answer to the quiz before your name could be placed in the drawing. I thought that was interesting because it challenged my friend and I to quickly find all the answers we needed.
Inside the glasshouse there was also traditional Chinese dancers. The dancers moved very quickly around the room and unlike dancers in the U.S., the traditional dancers used bright colored ribbons to make beautiful swirls and movements in the air.
The Gordy dining hall served Chinese cuisine and I was able to try eating with chopstick which was a big challenge. They served rice, sweet and sour chicken and even had little fortune cookies for us. When using the chopstick it was very difficult for me to pick up my rice, and most of my food ended up somewhere other than my mouth. However it was fun to try out the chop sticks and the cuisine was very good. I enjoyed attending the year of China festival and liked learning about their traditions.
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