Brooke with students
(On the Media)

Brand China

Last summer, as the Olympics approached, China was making the final preparations for the PR push of the century, pitching brand China to the world. Meanwhile, young urban Chinese were sorting out new identities and advertisers everywhere were revving their engines, preparing to sell to the fastest growing consumer market in the world. OTM visited China last spring and returned with these stories which originally aired in June.

On the Media in China was made possible by a generous grant from the Freeman Foundation.


Journalism With Chinese Characteristics

There is real investigative reporting in China, it’s just not done under a free press flag. Instead, practitioners mind an unstated set of rules, keeping themselves safe by employing tactics like using excessive jargon and exploiting government rivalries. It's an evolving dance requiring ingenuity, subtlety, courage and a willingness to be fired every day. Plus, a conversation with the former host of ‘At Night You’re Not Lonely,’ a call-in radio show that dispenses hard-won wisdom to the factory girls of Shenzhen, a city in flux.


China Vision

How the world sees China, and how China thinks it is seen by the world may make all the difference as time marches on. The West cannot afford to hold on to kung fu, Confucius, and chopsticks as our big ideas about China. Modern art, fashion, and the young urban elite have a new story to tell; if anyone’s listening. Plus, Brooke talks with the author of “Wolf Totem,” a best-selling novel and Chinese conversation piece about resisting and revering Mongolian wolves during the Cultural Revolution.


in the worksIn the Works

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highlights from past showsHighlights from Past Shows

War Crimes

December 26, 2008

In just the last two years over 6,800 people have been killed. 24 journalists have been murdered and 7 have vanished. This isn’t Iraq, but Mexico’s war on drugs - and the scale and severity of the violence is escalating. Vicente Calderon is a longtime Tijuana journalist and Amy Isackson is a longtime San Diego reporter, they’re collaborating on an ongoing series that seeks to bring home the war happening in our backyard.


I'll Shoe You

December 19, 2008

Throughout this week’s flying shoe coverage, the comedic details of the debacle dominated headlines. But humor couldn’t dominate the essential moral. Bob ruminates on what the hurling of the footwear revealed about the extent of Iraqi discontent and of President Bush’s denial of the same.


On the Media is funded by The Bydale Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Overbrook Foundation.

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