Meet the Journalists
Nancy Benson (Journalism Faculty)
Journalism Associate Professor Nancy Benson has addressed free press issues and conducted journalism training workshops in the developing democracies of Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia since 1998. She has worked with radio stations in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Czech Republic and Bosnia-Herzegovina to develop station identity and news product. In Southeast Asia she has trained print and broadcast journalists from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. She also trained Burmese radio journalists living in exile in Thailand and India serving the exile community as well as those still living within the borders of their former homeland.
Professor Benson has not limited her international reach to her work outside the classroom. She launched an international reporting course at the University of Illinois that involves a semester-long study of a developing country. A critical component of her course is a three-week reporting trip to the country students have researched. This year ten journalism students are traveling to China, two years ago Benson took her journalism students to Peru.
Benson was awarded a Knight International Press Fellowship (2000) by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and helped ICFJ develop a curriculum for a private journalism school in the Republic of Georgia. Benson also worked with the Independent Journalism Foundation in New York to help found a journalism school in Slovakia.
She was a Benton Fellow at the University of Chicago. Benson joined the University of Illinois faculty after moving back to the United States from Italy, where she was a Public Affairs Officer for the United Nations World Food Programme. She is an award-winning broadcast reporter who currently co-hosts Radio Health Journal, a nationally syndicated weekly one-hour radio program.
Michael Koliska (graduate student)
My story
Story One: The importance of soybeans. Originally from China soybeans are now a vital U.S. export item to China. I am looking at how Illinois is helping China to increase soybean production.
Story Two: China is helping some African states economically by engaging in deals without strings attached. Yet some of these arrangements cause political tensions because the leaders of African states like Sudan show a disregard concerning human rights.
Ted Land (undergrad)
My name is Ted Land and I am a senior in Broadcast Journalism. I hope to someday work as a TV reporter. I’ve interned at both networks and local news stations and will use every skill I’ve learned while on this ultimate journalism assignment overseas in China.
My story: Exporting E-Waste
The city of Taizhou is fast becoming an environmental tragedy where poor farmers-turned-scrappers make a living by melting circuit boards and other discarded computer parts in order to extract bits of metal. My story traces how discarded computers in Central Illinois end up in one of the most polluted and poverty-stricken regions in China. There are companies that purchase old computers from businesses and then ship them overseas to China where they end up in places like Taizhou where women and children strip the computers down with their bare hands. The toll this is taking on the environment and public health is devastating.
Elizabeth Murray (undergrad)
HELLO...My Name Is....Elizabeth
But you can call me the “other Liz”...I am a graduating senior here at the University of Illinois crossing the finish line of this life race commonly known as an undergrad degree, and as of May 13th I will have a piece of paper to prove it. My passion in life lies in broadcasting, radio to be exact, and I can’t wait to stretch my wings, jump some ponds and find out more about China’s One-Child Policy. While in China, I hope to explore what this policy means for my generation, more importantly women just like me. I also hope to mirror their thoughts with the thoughts of the first generation One-Child Policy Chinese citizens, their grandparents and parents, and the direct positive and negative effects on both. For fun I work at the Illini Radio Group here in Champaign as an on-air jock for MIX 94.5 and EXTRA 99.1...I told you I love radio : ) I guess that is all for now, more later including a picture (if I can get it to upload that is).
My story
Over the past two decades China as a country has dealt with a government that strongly encourages, and in some cases strictly enforces family birth control policy. How do Chinese citizens view the policy? How are the parents of these only children going to fare in retirement? Is there a generation clash?
John Paul (graduate student)
John Paul is a lecturer and graduate student in the Department of Journalism at the University of Illinois. He teaches TV2, the capstone course for all broadcast journalism majors. TV2 teaches students about television news reporting and storytelling and newscast production. In addition to teaching and being a grad student, John works at WILL-TV, the PBS station at the University. He is the senior producer at VideoWorks at WILL, a video production unit. John also hosts many of WILL’s public affairs programs including political debates. He spent nearly 25 years in local TV news at WCIA-TV in Champaign.
My story
The Chinese economy is "white hot" with annual growth averaging 10%. That's more than double average global economic growth. The buying power of the Chinese workers is growing too. More and more U.S. companies want to take advantage of the surging Chinese economy by selling their products there, by manufacturing in mainland China or by buying raw materials from the Chinese. In this report you'll hear why China is so attractive to businesses in Illinois and how much Illinois trades with China. The report will profile three Illinois companies--big and small: Caterpillar, Cim-Tek and Littelfuse. Each of the trio is finding a way to make China a part of its daily operations.
Liz Reising (undergrad)
Hi all, I’m Liz...a junior majoring in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Illinois. I’m a certified sports geek, constantly reading Deadspin & watching ESPN....obsessing over Brady Quinn & the Cardinals, but watching anything and everything. I hope I can work in sports journalism after I graduate. It’s not too surprising that my story in China is focusing on sports, the Olympics to be exact. I hope to speak with Olympic officials, capture the mood as Beijing prepares for the world’s eyes to be on them, and talk to Chinese sports fans about their passion for sports. I plan on contrasting the 2008 Olympics with Chicago’s plans to receive a bid in 2016 and the passion Midwesterners have for their sports teams. I’ve previously worked at WHOI-19 News, in Peoria, Illinois, and done some Production Assistant work with ESPN on Monday Night Football & Sunday Night Baseball. This summer I’ll be interning at WICD-Channel 15. I’m pretty excited about our 13 hour plane ride...bring on the in-flight movies and the Uno (featuring Cardinals baseball players).
My story
My story will attempt to contrast the efforts in Chicago to obtain an Olympic Bid with what Beijing has done to receive its first ever Olympic Bid. I hope to speak with Olympic Officials, city planners, journalists and local students in an effort to understand the planning, excitement, and impression the Olympics have made on cities like Beijing and Chicago. I also hope to contrast the passion of Midwest/Chicago sports fans with those in Beijing: do the Olympics “stir the soul” and what will they bring to the city of Chicago?
Tom Rogers (WILL AM 580 News Director)
Tom has been WILL's News Director since 1998, with responsibility over the station's newscasts and long-form news programming. He also anchors AM 580's midday and All Things Considered newscasts. Tom has covered a wide range of stories for AM 580, many involving education, and he contributes reports and essays for the monthly program Sidetrack. In his tenure Tom and WILL have won numerous Associated Press and Public Radio News Directors Inc. Awards for news coverage. A native of LaPorte, Indiana, he was previously news director of radio stations in LaPorte and Elkhart, Indiana. Tom graduated from Butler University in Indianapolis, where he began his career helping manage the college radio station and working as a part-time reporter in commercial radio.
My role...
As WILL AM 580’s news director, I’m one of two “professional” members of the China group, along with Professor Nancy Benson. But in a way, I’m a student too—I’ve never been to Asia, and I’ve never been to a nation where not just the spoken language, but the written one will be completely unrecognizable to me. And though they’re classified as students (they’re working on graduate degrees), two colleagues on the trip are also colleagues at WILL—John Paul, who’s familiar to many local TV viewers for his work at WILL and WCIA, and Michael Koliska, a part-time AM 580 reporter who also has reporting experience in his native Germany. If you pay attention to AM 580’s sports stories, you may also recognize Sam Unger, who as an undergraduate student has filed many sports and news stories for us.
On this trip I’ll be helping students organize their stories to fit into a two-hour documentary to air on AM 580 in July. I did the same with journalism students who produced pieces for the documentary “Assignment: Peru” in 2005, though I didn’t travel with them to South America. But this time, I’ll be able to more closely work with students on their pieces—imagine the difficulty in reaching that last-minute necessary source abroad when you’ve already returned home!
While I’m there, besides submitting occasionally for this blog, I’ll produce pieces for AM 580. I hope to produce a profile of a local teacher of gongfu (astute 1970’s TV aficionados know it as Kung Fu) who’s returning to central China to continue his training, which he has maintained since the age of 5. You can see Demitri Daniels’ picture below, teaching class outside his Urbana school. I also have a scheduled interview with the head of the state of Illinois’ trade office in Shanghai, and I hope to examine the UI-China link in education.
I say “hope” because I—and the rest of the class—are quickly learning the challenges of lining up sources and honing down story ideas in a foreign country with unfamiliar languages and cultural protocols. As I said, I’m a student too!
Julian Scharman (undergrad)
My story
I will examine the effects of US labor outsourcing in the northern illinois suburbs, where a predicted multi-million dollar Motorola Assembly and Development Plant would have been developed , resulting in a low-level unemployment vacuum. I will also examine the overseas development of outsourced labor on the coast of china as well as it's shift to the in-land. Other research areas will include: Motorola's decision to develop an in-house education system to train and prepare overseas workers for higher-level management and technician positions; the future of Chinese involvement in US-labor relatoins (are there other countries in runner-up positions to offer the United States cheap forms of labor?).
Lauren Thorbjornson (undergrad)
Hello! My name is Lauren Thorbjornsen and I am a senior (soon to be alum in 2 days) at the University of Illinois. I majored in broadcast journalism because writing is my passion (and I am nosy) so it’s the best profession for me! After graduation and our trip to China, I am not entirely decided on where my next step in life will take me. I’m looking to do some travel writing and/or documentary work before I plan on going to graduate school in international relations. That will hopefully bring me closer to my dream of being a foreign correspondent (and it looks like Maria hopes the same!). Clearly, I love to travel!
I think China will be an incredible experience that will test and develop my reporting skills. My story is about migrant workers in China – meaning workers who move from rural communities into the cities to make money to support their families. In the United States, its easy to move from Mahomet to Chicago; you make the decision and go. In China, however, the move from rural to city is anything but easy. These workers face a registration system that forces them to pay more money for not being an official city resident, inadequate/non-existent health care, limited access to education, poor living and working conditions, and separation from their families for all but two weeks of the year. On the trip, I hope to get a glimpse into these people’s lives who are contributing to the China’s booming economy. My story will be a challenge but I’m ready for it… China, here we come!
My story
Millions of workers move from the Chinese countryside to the cities to make a living. They are faced with poor living conditions, virtually no health care possibilities, limited employment opportunities, and lack of education for their children. With an increase in construction in Beijing for the Olympics and other needs in Shanghai, there is an ever increasing demand for workers. The goal of my story is to better understand how these people play a role in China's economy and how their work is valued.
Sam Unger (undergrad)
Sam Unger received his B.S. in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Illinois in 2007. He has held internships at MSNBC-TV, WILL Radio and TV and most recently spent the summer in New York City working on NBC News’ Foreign and Domestic news desks. Throughout college, Sam served as a technical director for WILL-TV’s “YourWeather” program, and he worked for the department of journalism as a teaching assistant. He hopes to one day become a network field producer.
My story
My story will focus on the growing problem of air pollution plaguing many of China's larger cities and the impact it is having on the people, economy and the environment. In Beijing, I want to explain how pollution could impact the 2008 Olympics, and what measures are being taken to control pollution for the Olympics. Additionally, I want to report on the main causes of air pollution in China along with future methods for controlling pollution, including cleaner burning fuels and renewable energy.
Christine Won (undergrad)
Nihaoma! I’m Christine Won, a junior majoring in print journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I’ve been bugging Prof. Benson about this reporting trip ever since I found out the last class went to Peru two years ago. When I heard the destination was China, I was ecstatic. I aspire to be a foreign correspondent in Asia - mainly China and Korea. I speak Korean fluently but all I know how to say in Mandarin is, “Nihaoma!” But this trip is my doorway.
Last year I revisited my birth country, South Korea, and experienced for the first time, Japan, through the Roy W. Howard National Collegiate Reporting Competition scholarship, a 12-day all-expenses-paid study tour of the two country’s media outlets with eight other students. Last summer I also interned for The Daily Southtown in Tinley Park, Ill. and this summer will intern for WICD-TV in hopes of broadening my multimedia journalism experience. When my internship begins in June after we return from China, I’ll be a little more familiar with broadcast journalism after interviewing sources for our two-hour documentary for WILL AM 580 Radio.
’m hoping to interview several professors and college students from Shanghai, Peking and Tsinghua Unversities for my story on Internet in China. Internet is a relatively new phenomena in China, a side effect of its booming economy and technological advances, but how does that fit in with its communist government? One creative manner of censorship might be what the government is calling, and actively banning, “Internet addiction.” Teenagers wasting away their youth in front of the computer screen playing online games. Treatment centers for internet addiction, much like drug rehab centers, are springing up in Beijing and Shanghai.
In China, who knows where my story will take me. I hope to carouse hot spot “Internet bars” to talk with Internet users, see how excessive their Internet usage really is. For example, is it all that much more than the hours college students in the U.S. spend on Facebook or Myspace? Check back for updates ;D
My story
China is at the forefront of trying to control “Internet addiction” but how much of that is a certifiable mental disorder? I want to talk with students who have been diagnosed with internet addiction and Chinese psychologists who are treating it. I will also examine the use of developing technology by China’s University students differs from University of Illinois students.
Maria Zamudio (undergrad)
a little more about me then an average reader wants to know...
This summer will be one of challenges and exciting new experiences in my life. I’ll be graduating in a couple of days. My family is really happy because I’m the first person in my family to graduate from College. As if that was exciting enough, a day after graduation I’ll be traveling across the world.
My name is María Inés Zamudio. I’m a senior in News-editorial journalism with a minor in Latin American Studies. I’m excited about the trip because I will not be traveling as just as another tourist, I’ll be traveling as a reporter in training. I love traveling, its the only thing that keeps me sane. I’m curious. I like to know how things work and why certain things happen. This is why journalism is the perfect job for me. My dream job is working as a foreign correspondent.
During the trip I hope to gain as much experience as. I only have experience working in a newspaper, so working for radio is yet another challenge that I’ll be facing during this trip. I was a reporting intern at The Herald News, in Joliet Il.
This trip came during a perfect time in my life. I nearly didn’t even get to be part of this wonderful experience. I got accepted to the Chips Quinn Scholars program ( chipsquinn.org) . They have their summer scholars training program in Nashville Tennessee in May. For a week I was torn between choosing what I would give up. But thanks to the wonderful Chips Quinn staff I was able to do my training in January.
I’m really excited to work with radio and this website during this trip. I want to get as much experience in multimedia before I start my internship at the News-Leader, Springfield, Missouri this summer.
My story
My story examines the changes in the political landscape since events leading up to Tiananmen Square. I want to find out how students view the political changes taking place in their country. Are they even interested in politics? Or like U.S. students are they mostly concerned about getting a good education and good job. I also want to know how they view the face that China will present to the world in the 2008 Olympics.