The first “International Multimedia Workshops for Ethical Reporting on the World’s Most Underreported Issues” attracted journalism educators from throughout Asia, including China, Singapore, India, the Philippines, Thailand, Mongolia and Taiwan.

Directed by Rich Beckman, professor and Knight Chair in Visual Journalism at the University of Miami School of Communication, the workshop was designed to inspire educators across Asia to begin teaching and utilizing multimedia in their work.

The Knight Center for International Media is dedicated to developing effective communication across borders and to devoting new media to reporting underreported stories of global significance. “The goal is to work with educators on developing course assignments and content related to the mission of the Knight Center and to empower them to begin the necessary curriculum changes in their journalism and communication programs,” Beckman said.  “The result will be a new generation of journalists adept with multimedia knowledge and capable of gathering and telling stories in whatever form necessary.”

Using knowledge acquired at the workshop, participants will now begin working with their own students to create stories focusing on issues such as poverty, urban migration, environmental sustainability and gender equality. Participants were taught hands-on multimedia reporting techniques by professionals and practitioners in the field. Significant time is also dedicated to guiding the development of multimedia stories on underreported issues and establishing standards for ethical reporting of these stories.

Workshop participants are expected to return to their classrooms and begin developing multimedia stories on underreported issues in their cities.  These stories will become part of the Knight Center’s World Cities anchor project.  The World Cities project will draw attention to some of the most urgent issues of the time through research, multimedia training and the production of compelling media products.

The Knight Center for International Media expects to create a connected network of 100 universities and colleges around the world through a series of multimedia workshops over the next five years.

“Multimedia content developed through this network will create a valuable body of journalism focused on global issues that affect us all but fail to find consistent coverage in the media,” said Sanjeev Chatterjee, Knight Center’s executive director and vice dean at the University of Miami School of Communication.

The next workshop will be held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa, for teachers and trainers from across Africa in September 2009.

The University of Miami is one of the nation’s leading research universities with more than 15,600 undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. Founded in 1925, UM has grown from its main campus in the city of Coral Gables to include the Miller School of Medicine campus located near downtown Miami, the internationally renowned Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science campus on Virginia Key, and the South and Richmond campuses in southwest Miami-Dade County. Over the past 5 years, UM’s selectivity in undergraduate admissions has increased dramatically, as have the undergraduate programs, with a multitude of opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research.  In addition, the University is committed to strengthening its graduate programs by increasing the number of Ph.D. candidates across the disciplines and schools. For more information on the University of Miami, visit http://www.miami.edu.