Burks in Bangkok
Acting chair spreads the gospel to Thai journalists
By
Greg Gangitano
OF THE SLUG! STAFF
American journalists aren't the only ones scratching their heads over the impact technology will have on the future of journalism. Around the world journalists and journalism educators are trying to prepare future generations for the 21st century and its dynamic technological climate. And many of them are looking to the United States - specifically the new- media capital of San Francisco - for direction.
That's why Journalism Department Acting Chair John Burks, an astute observer of the Web journalism scene, flew to Bangkok in December to share his insights on new media. Burks was among the main speakers at the Second Journalism Academic Annual Conference on "Thai Press in the Next Century."
"My colleagues and I at San Francisco State are aware that we are preparing our graduates for a most uncertain media future," Burks told an audience of about 150 Thai, Indonesian and Cambodian journalists and journalism educators. "Our solution is not to declare print or the Internet or broadcast news the winner. Instead we are creating a brand-new kind of student publication to replace our present line-up of student newspaper, student magazine and student online news site."
Chavarong Limpattamapanee, secretary general of the Reporters' Association of Thailand and organizer of the conference, said he invited Burks to speak after visiting San Francisco State and seeing how the journalism department was changing its curriculum.
"What we're doing is seen as revolutionary and radical," Burks said, "but definitely heading in the right direction."
Among the most important facets of the department's new curriculum is the merging of the department's three publications - newspaper, magazine and online site - into a single entity that publishes in different formats. The Golden Gate Xpress, which will publish a weekly newspaper with a magazine-style feature section and an online site updated several times a week, will premier at the beginning of the Fall 2000 semester. Burks explained that faculty decided to move to a print-and-digital publishing format after four years of curriculum revision planning with guidance from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Technological change wasn't the only thing on the minds of conference participants. When Burks said one of the most pressing concerns for American journalism is damaged credibility, the Southeast Asians nodded their heads. Though the climate is different in Thailand - the government doesn't control the media but there is no formal equivalent of the First Amendment - the public is skeptical of the press. And Thai journalists fear that if they don't correct this problem, the government will intervene.
Burks spent much of his time in Bangkok meeting with small groups of journalists eager to hear about the American experience. But he did occasionally take a break from discussing global perspectives on contemporary journalism. One evening, during a karoake dinner, he charmed a small audience of Thai journalists by singing scat jazz and blues tunes with lyrics like "If the blues were whiskey I'd stay drunk all the time."
"The words of the song had them in stitches," Burk said with a grin. "There was this great keyboarder who had a Count Basie sound. When I was through, everyone wanted to know how to sing scat."
Read John Burks' speech.
