China Media Centre

The China Media Centre was launched in 2005 by Jeremy Paxman, Presenter of BBC’s Newsnight, and Sun Yusheng, Vice-President of China Central Television (CCTV). It was set up within the University of Westminster’s Culture and Media Research Institute (CAMRI).

The China Media Centre (CMC) exists to study the world’s largest media system. Funded initially by a grant from the Quintin Hogg Foundation, the China Media Centre has provided for itself since 2007 by winning consultancy contracts from the British, Danish, Chinese and Swedish governments plus sponsorship from British companies for specific activities. Its first client was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The Danish and Swedish governments have employed CMC to deliver workshops in China under their media freedom programmes.

China Media Centre activities have also funded scholarships, fee-waivers, conferences, seminars and research visits, as well as day-to-day administration so that today it is able to connect the Chinese and European media in three ways:

• Scholarship: research including team projects and individual publications, as well as regular series of seminars, workshops, annual conferences, debates and innovative curricular development, both independently and in collaboration with practitioners and scholars in China.

• Dialogue: a forum in the UK, promoting discussion on the different media systems and networks into the information channels of China. CMC provides consultancy to leading Chinese media organisations and are contracted by European governments projecting their media in China.

• Professional development: China Media Centre, through its China Professional Leadership Programme, is the focus for large numbers of Chinese visiting scholars, practitioners and students who are working, or will work in their country’s media and for whom their first experience of abroad is London and the China Media Centre.

When originally set up, CMC’s courses were focused largely on media, but the course portfolio has evolved and has diversified such that there are less in media and more in creative industries and innovation. CMC’s main portfolio today is in entertainment TV, where it brings UK and Chinese creatives together to the benefit of both.

CMC currently runs three to four Summer Schools per year, where groups of 30+ third or fourth year undergraduates from partner universities spend three weeks in the UK learning a mixture of theory and practice skills.

China Media Centre is lead by Hugo de Burgh, Professor of Journalism in the Communications and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster. He worked for 15 years in British TV and is an authority on investigative journalism. His books and articles on China and its media have been published widely. He is writer presenter of The West You Don't Know, a 7-part documentary series which was the first commission by CCTV of foreign-made current affairs programmes. He is the author or editor of 10 books; his most recent books are: China’s Media in the Emerging World Order (2nd Edition, 2020) and (co-edited) China’s Media Go Global (2018). Earlier books include The West You Really Don’t Know (in Chinese, 2013), China’s Environment and China’s Environment Journalists (2012) and Investigative Journalism (2nd Edition, 2008). He is SAFEA (National Administration for International Expertise) Endowment Professor at Tsinghua University.

References

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/sites/default/public-files/general-documents/China-Media-Centre-Brochure.pdf

External links