GLOBAL BUSINESS JOURNALISM NEWSLETTER
December 2024
Events are moving quickly on the Tsinghua campus, and the semester's classes wrap up this week. So while students complete their final projects and fret about finals, let's take a look at some of the events of the past month.
The Tsinghua journalism school has hosted more than 100 Chinese journalists for three weeks of in-depth professional training organized by GBJ co-director Hang Min and conducted by our j-school faculty. Professor Lee Miller has taken the Chines journalists to the Bloomberg Beijing bureau, while GBJ co-director Rick Dunham has coached them on the latest multimedia, social media and AI tools.
Global Business Journalism students have heard from a continuing stream of VIP guest speakers, both in person and online. Our social media team, led by first-year student Jacky Ma, has refreshed our content across our platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. And watch for our new Xiaohongshu channel in coming months.
In the next few weeks, we'll be focusing on recruiting students for the incoming class of 2025-2026. So if you know any highly qualified college students or young journalism professionals who would benefit from everything that GBJ has to offer, please encourage them to apply.
Now, the news ...
Award-winning LA Times duo reflect on rapidly changing news industry
The dynamic Los Angles Times multimedia duo Hailey Branson Potts and Mark Potts gave GBJ students an insight into the evolving journalism landscape on Dec. 9.
The Pulitzer Prize winners spoke of tough budget cuts at a time when relevant video content is growing increasingly important.
”Times are changing,” Mark Potts said. ”I think the thing that big news outlets are struggling with is that social cycles are meant to be in closed loops” on social media platforms, not news websites.
He pointed out that traditional media outlets want their viewers to continue watching their clips on their company's website, but fewer and fewer people are doing that.
”We want to make stuff that people watch, and people watch stuff on Instagram and TikTok,” Mark Potts said.
Hailey Branson Potts, a reporter with the L.A. Times for over 13 years, also spoke to students about navigating the rapid transformation of digital storytelling.
Her work has ranged from coverage of the San Bernardino shooting to weather devastation in Nebraska. Over the years, the speed of news reporting has been a constant theme in Hailey’s career, with the pace accelerating as digital media and social platforms reshape the industry.
”The social media team has become so important in this era of news,” she said. To serve readers, reporters must deliver concise, distinctive flashes of information in real time.
But she also sees risks with the rapid change.
“It’s a tricky landscape right now,” Hailey reflected. “We’re seeing news break on social media, but there are fewer guardrails” in a time of increasing disinformation and social media rumor-sharing.
Branson Potts is now doing more varied work on any given day. She might be writing, posting to social media and updating a live blog, all at the same time.
“That’s what makes the industry both fun and challenging,” she said.
2. Professor Wang Feng is at the center of a media summit in Beijing
Global Business Journalism professor Wang Feng braced the cold weather to moderate a summit in central Beijing on the future financial outlook for China.
The Hong Kong-based Editor-in-Chief of FTChinese.com shared his main takeaway, in avatar form, from the summit with us:
Is it the real Feng Wang or is it AI?
At the 2024 FTChinese Annual Forum held in Beijing, experts and economists shared their outlook for China’s economy amidst continuing headwinds and the challenges posed by global trade tensions. Despite the government’s recent stimulus policies, speakers at the forum expressed skepticism about their effectiveness in immediately boosting domestic consumption.
”The general public still don't feel confident enough to spend money,” Wang said. ”So the stimulus policies haven't trickled down to actual spendable income increase.”
Financial experts remain cautious, suggesting that significant improvements in consumption and economic stability may not materialize until later in 2025. With limited fiscal resources, local and central governments are struggling to generate sufficient funds for large-scale stimulus packages. As a result, China’s growth rate will be affected.
”For 2025, people are actually saying 4% growth would be realistic,” Wang stated. ”Whatever the government says, in reality, it’s probably 4%.”
Wang said some entrepreneurs and business leaders argued at the conference that innovation and adaptability would play key roles in overcoming the economic challenges ahead.
”Economists are always cautious and pessimistic, but the actual entrepreneurs and business people have their own ways of making things happen,” he said.
3. GBJ graduate Millie Lee from Korea shares her favorite Christmas memories of Tsinghua – and offers advice
With final exam week looming, 2024 graduate Millie Lee sends her well wishes and positive energy to push current GBJ students through the end of the semester.
Hear her talk about her best Christmas memories from Tsinghua below:
Let these Christmas memories from GBJ graduate Millie Lee help cheer you up during final exam week.
Millie Lee, who graduated in July 2024, is now working as an ESG consultant at a startup in Busan. She credits the GBJ program’s emphasis on writing, global business topics and internship experiences as instrumental in securing her current position.
"I received several job offers, and my current employer was particularly impressed with my background in journalism and my graduation portfolio on cryptocurrency in Korea," Lee said.
After finishing her studies, Lee took a well-deserved break before landing her job at MarinaChain, a startup that specializes in AI-based ESG solutions.
Lee’s past work on the Chinese economy produced during her internship at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, and her graduation portfolio on the cryptocurrency market in Korea, were key factors in landing her current job. She even received a Tsinghua School of Journalism and Communication award for best portfolio when she graduated.
Looking back at her time at Tsinghua, she particularly values the practical lessons she gained from the program.
"I learned how to make myself more marketable and improve my writing, which ultimately helped me land multiple job offers," she said.
As for the future, Lee plans to continue building her expertise in the ESG field while embracing the challenges of working in a rapidly changing market. For now, she’s focused on continuing to grow within her role at MarinaChain.
Her advice for current GBJ students?
”Make the most of the Bloomberg Terminal while you have access to it,” she said. ”Once you graduate, you'll realize just how expensive the tool is. And don't skip office tours, especially those in China's fast-evolving tech industry. Those experiences were truly inspiring for me.”
4. Multimedia students conduct live TV workshop with Finnish TV reporter Mika Hentunen
Global Business Journalism students starred as international TV correspondents in a television workshop in the Tsinghua journalism school's new broadcast studio on Dec. 23. The volunteers from GBJ's Multimedia Reporting course simulated live television news reports with the help of Mika Hentunen, Asia reporter for YLE Finnish Broadcasting and Professor Rick Dunham.
The international students presented live "stand up" reports detailing the impact of the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump on their nations' economies, from Poland to the Philippines, and answered questions from news show hosts in the studio. One team of students even created a humorous take on economic news, trying to explain complicated concepts in a way that would both inform and entertain.
Hentunen, a veteran of more than three decades of reporting from six international
assignments, gave the students high grades for their economic knowledge, their camera savvy and their flair. With a little practice, Professor Dunham said, GBJ students will be ready to create their own video news shows.
5. International students participate in annual winter gala
Three international exchange students in Professor Rick Dunham's Multimedia Reporting course were among the performers in the Gala Night 2025 at the New Tsinghua Xuetang. One of the signature social events of the campus year, the gala showcases the musical talents of students from around the world.
Two Multimedia Reporting students Mariam Ahmed, an American-Dutch student and Maja Klein, a German national studying in the Netherlands, transfixed the crowd with a beautiful love song.
Kyoka Ishii, an exchange student from Japan who takes GBJ classes, was one of the members of the Tsinghua University Japanese Student Association that performed the Soran Bushi, a traditional Japanese folk dance. The Japanese group had been working tirelessly for six weeks, from its first audition on Oct. 19 through late-night practices starting at 10 p.m., following the end of the final evening classes.
"Externally, we were able to convey Japanese culture and the essence of Japan, and internally, it helped us become even closer as members of the Japanese Society," one of the performers told Kyoka.
GBJ students visit ByteDance, sample new apps
GBJ students in Professor Fan Hong's Corporate Communication course had an opportunity to sample Byte Dance's latest suite of business software products during a field trip to ByteDance headquarters in the Dazhongsi section of Beijing.
The visit included insights into e-commerce, a tour of the live stream studio, and hands-on experiences with AR and VR technologies. Students sampled other ByteDance apps, including:
Toutiao. A popular news and content aggregation app that uses AI to recommend articles and videos based on users' interests.
Lark (known as Feishu in China). An enterprise collaboration and communication platform, combining messaging, video conferencing, and document management features.
Xigua Video. A platform for long-form video content, catering to creators who want to upload videos of longer durations compared to those on Douyin.
CapCut. A video editing app that allows users to create and edit videos, offering tools like filters, effects, and transitions, widely used by TikTok content creators.
7. Faculty Q&A: Dai Jia sees major benefit in pursuing a master's degree abroad, embracing other cultures
Dai Jia is one of GBJ's most popular professors. In an interview with GBJ reporter Leila Worman, she strongly recommended the benefits of pursuing a master's degree abroad.
"Diversity is one of the foremost advantages," she said. "There are more diversified opinions among
students, and there is an opportunity to meet with and talk to people from all over the world,
which helps expose people to different viewpoints."
Professor Dai, who teaches GBJ students a course on Mass Communications in China, encouraged GBJ students to leave their comfort zones and explore the country during their two years in the program.
"Immerse yourself," she said. "Don’t be afraid to let go of your own prejudices, have courage, and learn to navigate the society."
>>> Read the full interview.
8. Catch up on other headlines from GlobalBusinessJournalism.com
Zuzanna Bialas' admission interview tips have been on the GBJ website homepage this month.
Here are some stories we've published on our website since our last newsletter about GBJ guest speakers and other topics, in case you've missed them:
Thanks for reading the December GBJ newsletter. We'll be back with more news and updates from students, alumni and faculty in 2025. If you want to be the first to read each GBJ newsletter, subscribe here and receive an email notification when a new newsletter is published.
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