Missouri Journalism Interns at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Blog about Experiences

MoJo Beijing and Beijing Experience 2008 Blogs Offer Stories, Photos and More

Greg Bowers Print and Digital News Faculty Larry Powell Strategic Communication Faculty

Links

2008 Beijing Olympic Games Beijing Experience 2008 BOCOG China Central Television CCTV MU Feature: YouTube Columbia Missourian DallasNews.com Lindsey Toler Blog MoJo Beijing National Stadium Olympic News Service Olympic Village Photobucket Renmin University of China University of Missouri

Columbia, Mo. (August 8, 2008) -- As the 2008 Summer Olympic Games kick off in Beijing, Missouri School of Journalism students are detailing their experiences with blog coverage for news media outlets throughout the United States, as well as being featured on television throughout China.

The logo of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.

The student interns at the Beijing Olympics wear uniforms while they work for the Olympic media operations.

Missouri Journalism students show their excitement during a tour through Beijing.

About sixty Missouri Journalism students departed for Beijing on July 1 and are working as volunteer interns for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, which take place Aug. 8-24. Renmin University of China, one of China's premier educational institutions, is housing the student-interns during their two-month stay.

The MoJo Beijing blog, a one-stop shop for students' Beijing coverage, is now available through the Columbia Missourian, the School's community newspaper used as a training lab for students. Students regularly post updates, featuring topics such as an Olympic countdown, Beijing's architecture, Chinese culture, food and more. The blog also includes a link to the "Mizzou Olympic Team" Photobucket site, where visitors can see photos taken by the students.

The Beijing Experience 2008 blog, created by radio-television journalism students, takes visitors on video tours of the city and shares students' personal experiences with food, culture, and, of course, the Olympics.

Senior Lindsay Toler has created a blog for neighborsgo.com, a reader-generated publication of The Dallas Morning News. A lifelong resident of the Dallas area, she has been writing about her experience since before she left the United States. Toler also made an appearance on China Central Television, (CCTV), which was featured on an Olympic Blog on DallasNews.com.

CCTV also featured the Missouri School of Journalism and its students in a special program that aired on May 7. The clips portrayed the excitement of the 60 Olympic interns, in addition to an interview with University of Missouri Chancellor Brady Deaton. The crew highlighted moments of an evening reception that Chancellor Deaton and his wife, Anne Deaton, hosted on May 1 for the participating students. Across the globe, CCTV operates through six satellites and is China's only 24-hour English television channel. It boasts 45 million subscribers outside of China.

During the Games, the students are working for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) to collect news content for the Olympic News Service. The interns will collect flash quotes from athletes as they answer questions from print and broadcast journalists in mixed zones after sporting events. The quotes will be written up in press releases and will be distributed to media outlets throughout the world. MU is one of 13 international universities to train students to become Olympic News Service volunteers.

The students interning at the Beijing Olympics belong to all six of the School's emphasis areas: newspaper; magazine; strategic communication; radio and television; convergence and photojournalism. The interns will work at the gymnastics, road cycling, archery and field hockey sporting events.

Students also are assisting professional photojournalists in the tennis and cycling events, staffing media centers at the tennis and archery events and working alongside professional journalists in the Olympic Village and National Stadium.

Larry Powell, assistant professor of strategic communication, and Greg Bowers, Columbia Missourian sports editor, accompanied the students to China and oversee their progress.

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