Europe-China Media Exchange

ISD, in partnership with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has launched a Europe-China Media Exchange initiative, aimed at creating opportunities for senior journalists from Europe and China to gain an informed insight into each other’s societies and understand how the attitudes and actions of each are interpreted by the other.

ISD has long recognised the key role played by the media in informing public opinion and influencing public diplomacy across critical fault-lines in international relations. It has considerable experience of organising dialogue between high-level members of the media through international conferences, in particular, the M100 Sanssouci Colloquium in Potsdam between 2006 and 2009.

The Europe-China Media Exchange was launched in October 2011 with a visit by senior European journalists from France, Germany and the UK to their counterparts from across China in Chengdu. It is envisaged that this pilot project, funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, will lead to annual Media Exchange Tours alternating between China and Europe, in which groups of up to 15 journalists from each side will meet and work together for up to a week. One goal is to create an alumni network of senior figures that can be in regular contact; another is to upgrade the participants’ knowledge about each other’s challenges and perspectives. In a wider context, the project also aims to garner greater insights into the interplay between the domestic and foreign policies of China and Europe and to consider the role played by the media on mutual relations and public diplomacy.