Monday Morning Lecture Series – Key Industry Insiders Talk at JMSC

A series of Monday morning lectures by key industry insiders will kick off after Reading Week.

Organised by the JMSC’s Director of Broadcasting Programme, Jim Laurie, the lectures were arranged for his undergraduate Introduction to Television class but will also be open to other students.

CNN Anchor Kristie Lu Stout

Speakers include TV correspondent Adrian Brown; CNN anchor, Kristie Lu Stout; Head of Bloomberg Asia Pacific, Parry Ravindranathan; veteran RTHK journalist, Cliff Bale and radio and television producer, Jim Gould.

“Part of my teaching philosophy is to bring in people in the industry to speak to students,” said Laurie. “People on the front lines of radio and TV News if you will.”

The series will kick off with a lecture on Reporting for Television: Conflict and Disaster 2011 on October 24.

“Each year I do a lecture on television war and conflict reporting,” Laurie said.

“I do a lecture on the Vietnam War — my time there in the 70s — on to my experience in Bosnia in the 90s and end with Afghanistan 2001 — the last conflict I covered.”

“This year I asked a younger correspondent, Adrian Brown, to pick up the story with his TV reporting this year from Egypt, Libya and the natural disasters in Japan.”

Adrian Brown

Brown is a correspondent for Seven News Sydney and SBS Australia. Born in Britain, Adrian has reported events in Asia since 1989 for various broadcasters.

In this lecture, Brown will discuss what it takes to be a television reporter covering the globe in the digital era and how television field reporting has changed over the last 20 years.

The lecture on October 31 is titled The Future of Hong Kong Public Television.

“Public Broadcasting remains a hot topic in Hong Kong and around the world,” said Laurie.

“I wanted to hear from those in the industry locally – hence a seminar on public broadcasting with three stalwarts from Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK).”

Cliff Bale

Cliff Bale has worked at RTHK since 1983. Currently the Head of the English radio newsroom, he is also a long-time member of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and was involved for several years with the RTHK Staff Union, pushing for the broadcaster to be separated from the government.

Jim Gould worked for BBC Radio for many years and produced for the BBC 24 hour news channel in London.

He worked for the television production side of RTHK from 1995-2004 before transferring to RTHK radio.

Chris Dobson freelances in the TV department of RTHK. He assists in the production of The Pulse, a weekly current affairs TV show hosted by Steve Vines.

On November 7, the Head of Bloomberg Asia Pacific, Parry Ravindranathan will speak about the world of TV Business News in a lecture on Financial News Wars.

Ravindranathan joined Bloomberg as a senior executive in January 2010. Before that, he held various positions at Al Jazeera English, CNBC-TV18, and CNNI.

He will discuss the competitive world of financial news as Bloomberg, CNBC, FOX and other TV business news channels vie for audience share in Asia and around the world.

CNN anchor Kristie Lu Stout will talk about The Impact of Social Media on Television News on November 14.

Lu Stout began her career in Asia as an early employee of the Beijing-based internet site Sohu-com and worked for Reuters new media division in China.

Today, she is the popular, nightly anchor of  CNN’s prime time News Stream — a one hour news programme powered by the smart use of technology that aims to give viewers a better understanding of the world.

“My view has always been that students need to hear from the people who are active in broadcasting to gain professional first person accounts of a rapidly changing industry,” he said.

The lectures will be open to all students on a space available basis.