School of Journalism Renmin University of China (Beijing) 2012/4/6

Introduction We are students from Journalism School of Renmin University of China located in the capital city Beijing. Our course is named as Interviewing & Reporting in English. Prof. Zhong Xin is our instructor. This course means to help the students to better understand Western journalism practice by closely reading news stories of mainstream media. It will also help the students to practice news interviewing and reporting in English.

Introduction We are so happy to join this international project. We believe such exchange will help us to learn from each other and better understand each other. This plan is based on discussion of the class this morning meaning to share our understanding about the social responsibility of media in disaster and our handling of this specific case with the U.S. students. This is a brief idea of our plan. We will work on a more detailed one next week.

Introduction Next Monday(April 9), Mr. Tom Rochon, the president of Ithaca College will visit Renmin University of China. We look forward to more cooperation and exchange with you.

CONTENTS This presentation have the following parts: 1. Our understanding about the social responsibility of media in disaster 2. What we plan to do before the breaking of the dam: check with related departments about the potential disaster and widespread early warnings; 3. What we plan to cover after the dam broke Friday afternoon( rescue and relief focused actions). 4. What we plan to do after the major stage of rescue(more in- depth analysis, more reflection, more investigative stories on the possible human mistakes to avoid future disaster and reduce the damage ) 5. How we should balance the natural disaster reporting ( public service) and sports coverage ( profit making event).

 The social responsibility of media in disaster prevention and mitigation  Basic mission To Get the signs and examine the potential disaster with authority and related experts in the prevention phase; To Inform the public of the danger; To Report the true situation of the disaster after it happens to shape the responses correctly; To prevent secondary disaster by reporting; To convey information to help domestic and intl. aid to people in need ; To examine this disaster and try to prevent future disaster.

What the media should do Report to the news director as soon as we got the twitter information and inform him about the possible disaster and special report; Ask the news anchor in the location to contact the local department of hydrology, dam management department to learn more about the situation. Then, Send cameraman and a crew to the scene if the news director said “ yes, let’s cover it”. Confirm with authority about the possibility of dam breaking. Inform the public via different media platform about the severity of the situation and the plan for downstream evacuation.

What to do More reporters arrive the scene as soon as possible To report the disaster thoroughly; To identify the difficulties and needs of the area; To Mobilize the community to join the rescue and relief.

What to do Thinking about why the disaster happened Evaluate the performance of governments and organizations in the relief process Find out disaster prevention and reduction methods

In China, CCTV-news is likely to have non stop coverage about the disaster, while CCTV-Sports will continue the sports game coverage. But if the disaster situation is very serious ， CCTV- sports may stop the sports coverage to show the condolence. Public service instead of profit making is more important at the moment.

Before and after the dam breaks The media should: 1. Identify the information in need first. Basically, the situation of the potential and real disaster; The right methods to reduce the damages; 2. Make best use of different media platforms to keep the public informed. E.g: Television to inform the people at home Internet to inform and interact with internet users; Radio to inform and mobilize the drivers; Mobile phone to inform and mobilize all the phone users.

That’s all for now. Thank you very much for your attention.