On August 29, an online summer workshop was jointly held by Research Center of Journalism and Social Development of Renmin University of China, the School of Journalism and Communication of Renmin University of China and the Chinese Association for History of Journalism and Communication. With the theme of “problem awareness and methodology of academic research on journalism and communication", the workshop focused on the problems such as how to establish self-conscious problem awareness, how to match problems with methods, and how to turn the research on hot spots into meaningful academic achievements. A hundred experts, scholars, teachers and students from Journalism colleges of home and abroad gathered online for discussion.

Address

The summer workshop was presided over by Professor Wang Runze, vice president of School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China, President of Chinese Association for History of Journalism and Communication and executive director of Research Center of Journalism and Social Development of Renmin University of China. Professor Cai Wen, director of Research Center of Journalism and Social Development of Renmin University of China, delivered a speech.

On behalf of Research Center of Journalism and Social Development of Renmin University of China, Professor Cai Wen welcomed all the experts and students attending the meeting. She said that it was the first time that the workshop of “problem awareness and methodology of academic research on journalism and communication" had been held in an online form. At present, the crisis faced by the whole human being needs to be fully communicated and understood. Journalism and communication has become a "prominent subject" that more and more people are concerned about and interested in. The theoretical innovation of this discipline meets the expectation of the country and the goal that researchers yearn for and may achieve.

Lectures: Problem Awareness of Journalism and Communication

Huang Dan, senior liberal arts professor at Zhejiang University, believes that academy is not a skill. At present, there are three problems in the academic field: 1. we can't ask questions; 2. we can't ask new questions; 3. we don't know whether the questions are valuable. To solve these problems, first of all, we should read a lot to find the problem and change the way of asking questions and keep asking. Second, don't question about relation unless necessary. Finally, the significance of solving the problem must focus on the particularity of the problem. Instead of taking the problem as a case, we should prove a general conclusion.

Yang Baojun, professor of School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China, said that the problem stems from research. First, the truth of learning was very simple, and the truth of discovering problems was also very simple and common sense. Second, problems came from research. The more research you did, the more questions you had, the more likely you were to find valuable problems. Third, research was to find problems, methods and answers. The purpose of learning was to create your own ideas ultimately. As for other sources of problems, Prof. Yang Baojun pointed out that problems came from reading, observation, thinking, communication and writing. As researchers, we should read more and think more to find our own stable interests.

Professor Wang Runze summarized the lectures of Professor Huang Dan and Professor Yang Baojun, and pointed out that they had a common point, that was, learning was not a skill, but a life, a realm and a pursuit. Both professors emphasized reading. Many of the western classical theories we read were aimed at a certain problem in western society. If we clearly understood the background of classics, we could understand its orientation in a more comprehensive way.

Professor Shan Bo, director of Center for Studies of Media Development of Wuhan University, took "problems of cross-cultural communication from interdisciplinary perspective" as the theme of his speech. He pointed out that cross-cultural communication originated from globalization but also faced with the challenges of it. With social mobility, people adapted to culture in order to survive, which led to the question of "how can cross-cultural communication be possible". Different disciplines question in specific situations formed the question frame among subjects, groups, languages and cultures, which led to multiple question awareness.

Professor Sui Yan (Dean of the School of Journalism of Communication University of China) and professor Sui Yan (director of the National Center for Communication Innovation Studies, Communication University of China) discussed four understandings about the problem awareness of research: first, the problem awareness should not stop at the summary of the superficial problem, but should look for the academic root and regularity behind the problem; second, it still could not be seen a good article if the new problem was not written well, but the old problem could be if it was explored with new ideas; third, similar problems could be raised repeatedly, but it should be raised from different perspectives, such as introducing or integrating with the perspective of other disciplines; fourth, common sense problems often reflected the essence of life, and academic research could not only pursue fashion but ignore common sense and essence.

Professor Cai Wen, director of Research Center of Journalism and Social Development in Renmin University of China, said that journalism research had strong applicability and should pay attention to finding problems in journalism and media practice. When determining the specific topic, we should consider the feasibility more comprehensively, such as whether the researchers had mastered the scientific and effective research methods, whether they could get the support from external, for instance, contacting the relevant media, professionals and the most important parties, obtaining the required data, etc. In addition, the knowledge structure, work experience and time guarantee of the researcher were also important factors that need to be considered.

Sub Forum: Discussing about the Awareness of Journalism and Communication Problems

In the afternoon, three sub forums were held in turn. Teachers and students from several journalism colleges and universities fully exchanged academic points, creating an academic space of co construction and sharing for the participants.

Sub Forum 1: Knowledge Map of Journalism and Communication Research

The theme of Sub Forum 1 was the knowledge map of journalism and communication research. The speakers were Zhou Maojun, Professor of School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University; Di Ming, doctoral students of School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University; Wang Fangfei, lecturer of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalian University of Technology; Jiang Mengmeng, master of Dalian University of Technology; Liu Ranran and Wang Ruilu, doctoral students of School of Journalism and Communication of Renmin University of China.

The sub forum was presided over by Professor Deng Shaogen, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China. The moderator was Professor Zhang Yuqiang from Communication University of China.

Professor Zhang Yuqiang said in conclusion that we would study the problems with academic value and significance. Taking the cooperation between scholars as an example, we should pay attention to the status of cooperation among scholars, why the cooperation was in such a state, whether the cooperation in this field was different and unique compared with other fields, and why this situation occurred? We could also further ask the purpose of cooperative research, which needed a lot of literature support behind these thoughts. Only by refining it into conceptual questions could we make contributions to the academic research.

Sub Forum 2: Problem Awareness of Journalism and Communication Research

The theme of sub forum 2 was the problem awareness of journalism and communication research. The speakers were Gao Haitao, associate professor of Beijing printing University; Du Kaijian, postdoctoral of School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China; Wang Yuanjing, lecturer of School of Journalism and Communication, Guangxi University; Han Xiu, lecturer of network new media, School of Culture and Communication, China Women's University.

The sub forum was presided over by Professor Chang Jiang, School of Media and Communication, Shenzhen University. The moderator was Professor Zhu Chunyang, School of journalism, Fudan University.

Professor Zhu Chunyang commented on the four articles one by one and pointed out the problems of each article on the basis of affirmation. He believed that we should have courage to respond to the existing theories and controversies, instead of taking the existing research conclusions as the space to relax. Literature review in the paper was of great significance. High quality literature review would help to find problems and then respond accordingly, which was equivalent to making academic contributions.

Sub Forum 3: Research Methods of the Frontier of Journalism and Communication

The theme of sub forum 3 was research methods of the frontier of journalism and communication. The speakers were Yan Qing (associate professor of School of Journalism and Communication of Jinan University), Zhou Shuhuan (postdoctoral of School of Communication and Design of Sun Yat-Sen University), Wang Chaoqun (lecturer of Journalism Department of School of Humanities of Hunan University of Science and Technology) and Li Hongjiang (PhD student of School of Journalism and Communication of Renmin University of China.

The sub forum was presided over by Professor Xu Xiangdong, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China. The moderator was Professor Li Biao, School of Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China.

Professor Li Biao made a summary after commenting on the paper, and proposed that the new communication environment needs new things. At present, the research methods of communication are traditional and based on the mass communication environment. Therefore, it would be difficult to explain the current community and emotional communication with the previous theories and methods. At present, the transformation of communication science was mainly about the subject subjectivity which was needed to establish a sense of belonging. But we needed to reconstruct our discipline using the perspectives, methodologies and theories from other disciplines for reference.

The summer workshop project, jointly organized by Research Center of Journalism and Social Development of Renmin University of China, the School of Journalism and Communication of Renmin University of China and the Chinese Association for History of Journalism and Communication, aimed to promote the spread of academic knowledge and create an academic space of co construction and sharing for the researchers of Journalism and communication. It attracted more than 500 teachers and students online to participate in.