Fulbright grant to support community journalism training in China

UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media senior lecturer and Carolina Community Media Project director Jock Lauterer will travel to China during summer 2012 as a Fulbright Specialist to help foster community journalism.

Lauterer will spend two weeks in May at the Communication University of China in Beijing lecturing and holding workshops for students and media professionals to help develop community journalism in China.

The concept of community journalism will be new to many of the students, so the grassroots-level course topics will include defining community journalism, its importance and ethical reporting on the local level.

He will work present with professor Chen Kai, a former visiting international scholar at the J-school and author of “An Introduction to Community Journalism in the United States” published in January 2012. With Lauterer serving as adviser, Kai’s book examines 10 North Carolina community newspapers that include the Spring Hope Enterprise, The (Southern Pines) Pilot, The Fayetteville Observer, The Daily Tar Heel, The Carrboro Citizen, The Sanford Herald, Washington Daily News, The Shelby Star, The Chapel Hill News and the Carolina Weekly Newspaper Group of Charlotte.

Lauterer and his community journalism students also connected with Chinese journalism classes via Skype during the spring 2012 semester.