At the end of March, the papers of several DCom students were accepted for presentation at the IAMCR 2023 Annual Conference. Some students shared their experiences with the teachers and unveiled this academic journey. They are SUN Shitong from Media and Communication Studies (MCOM) Year 4, and LI Xin, TANG Ziyun and ZHAO Yuhan from Public Relations and Advertising (PRA) Year 3.

LI Xin, TANG Ziyun and ZHAO Yuhan from Public Relations and Advertising Year 3

    IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research) is the preeminent worldwide professional organisation in the field of media and communication research. It aims to support and develop media and communication research throughout the world. It particularly encourages the participation of emerging scholars, women and those from economically disadvantaged regions. The members promote global inclusiveness and excellence within the best traditions of critical scholarship in the field.

Learn by Doing: Explore Infinite Multiple Academic Universes

Looking back on the process of academic research, SUN Shitong’s most impressive experience is “learning by doing,” and his selected article is his Final Year Project (FYP). He mentions that in the research process, at every step he may encounter new tests at the knowledge level, and he needs to further enrich his academic reserves to deal with it. Supervisor Dr. DING Runze also says that the FYP is still an important academic training in university, not the end of the course. In the process of exploring the topic, students still need to further learn skills such as research analysis and format specification, in other words, “Learning by Doing.”

The PRA junior students, who researched media and the winter Olympics, also share similar experiences. They say that this is the first time for them to conduct complete academic research, and it is a new learning process from writing the abstract to the final summary. Under the guidance of LIU Liming, PRA Instructor, they continued to read, write, and revise, and finally produce satisfactory results.

In terms of topic selection, several groups of students either broke topic prejudices, or focused on blind spots in the field, demonstrating the open and inclusive academic thinking of UIC DCom students. Novelty contains opportunities. PRA students studied the media representation of sustainable development in the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games by the Western mainstream media through qualitative content analysis. At that time, there was not a lot of relevant research on this angle. Prejudice is taboo. SUN from MCOM set out to explore how Chinese young men perceive and interpret gender representation in Japanese adult videos. Facing controversy, he believes that these are “not a problem”. For him, it is happiness to delve into issues that are rarely explored in the media field.

Dr. DING Runze (left) sharing his ideas with SUN Shitong (right)

 Dr. DING says that academic research itself is diversified, and the freedom of content and open-mindedness at this level may help students continue to broaden the boundaries of research and explore the multiple infinite “academic universe”.

Down to Earth: The Process and the Experience are of the Greatest Significance

    For taking part in the conference, according to the PRA students’, the information of the conference was mainly provided by Mr. LIU in June of 2022, who guided them to start to research and continuously polish and improve it. Students who studied Paradoxical Equality mentioned that it is beneficial for students to pay attention to the Media Academic WeChat public account to learn more information about academic conferences and journals. Mr. LIU says the students he advised for these four accepted articles all came from the PRA Reading Seminar they attended before. After the seminar, they began some academic efforts based on their interests. Last year, they presented their research at the Asia-Pacific Communication Forum hosted by the University of Macau. The articles submitted to IAMCR are an “upgrade” based on their previous presentation. LIU is proud of his students: “It is not easy to reach the leading international conference in communication studies in junior year, and what they have worked on behind the scenes is far more than I have seen.”

    SUN Shitong, a senior at MCOM, also had a similar process: his FYP was developed from the group project of a previous course, and was submitted to the IAMCR annual conference under the suggestion of Dr. DING Runze. SUN applied for the student research grant from the Faculty at the same time. “The delivery time of this conference is just around the time when we submit our FYP, which is very suitable for senior students to try.” Dr. DING says.

    He also emphasizes that submitting articles to the conference is just the icing on the cake for the academic experience, and students are not encouraged to blindly prepare for the meeting. He believes that one must have a down-to-earth, step-by-step and rigorous attitude in research with great concentration, and should not “aim too high”. Compared with the results of being selected for the conference, the experience along the way is the most worth pursuing for the students. Blindly participating in the meeting may hold back a lot of energy of the students, and the gain outweighs the loss.

Look for Direction: Interests Light up the Beacon Light

    In May, junior DCom students will also face the topic selection of FYP and the mutual selection of supervisors. As senior, SUN Shitong chats with his supervisor Dr. DING about their own stories for reference and discussion.

Dr. DING and Sun were interviewed together.

    In September 2022, SUN, who was interested in media and gender issues, happened to be assigned to Dr. DING, who had just come to UIC, and Dr. DING was a scholar specializing in related fields. The two hit it off. SUN said frankly that during the preparation of his FYP, he often encountered big and small confusions, and Dr. DING always help him sincerely and in a timely manner. He is both a teacher and a friend.

    Regarding the FYP, they mention that students can start with their individual interests and hobbies, flexibly choose topics and forms according to their future development plan, and get to know supervisors in related fields in the programme, so they can ask for advice in advance. Dr. DING repeatedly emphasizes that students should really understand themselves; “do not involution”.

    Spring and summer alternate, and it is another graduation season. The seniors will walk out of the ivory tower soon with the blessings and expectations of their teachers, and the juniors will also start their graduation countdown. But no matter where they are, there are always DCom students who study hard, keep improving, and open the next door to the unknown “academic universe”. As teacher LIU Liming says: “I hope students will hear diverse voices at the conference and feel more inspired.” He would like to close with a quote from Nico Carpentier, a well-known scholar in communication studies he greatly admires and who serves as the president of IAMCR: “Participation is not enough.”

Reporter | ZHOU Yujiazi

Correspondent | YUAN Weinan, Katherine HAO Shuang

Photos | YUAN Weinan