On December 29th, the “832 Project” research group of School of Journalism won the title of “Excellent Team” at the commendation meeting themed “Youth Serving the Country”.
This series of research and interview project of Renmin University of China called “China’s Poverty Alleviation History” aims to record the achievements in the form of oral history, by interviewing the key figures who have experienced poverty alleviation in 832 former national-level poverty-stricken counties.
Based on this project, the School of Journalism has created a series of brand activities as students’ social practice. Led by full-time teachers and counselors, students with expertise in writing and photographing are selected to form research teams and conduct interviews in rural areas, thus cultivate talents in journalism and communication that truly “understand China”.
Yan Yan, a leading teacher of the School of Journalism said, “The ‘832 Project’ has given me a brand new academic life. Before this, I spent my whole life on campus, from primary school to doctoral graduation, and my understanding of society was only based on theories, data and models.” The project has led scholars like Yan and others to broaden their academic horizons through face-to-face dialogue with grassroots workers.
Song Hang, a doctoral student at the School of Journalism who participated in this year’s project, said, “Poverty alleviation is an economic issue, but what role can communication play in the process is the topic we want to focus on.” Each time after the research, participants would have an academic report, proposing certain topics for open discussion.
Song has participated in the project several times and has visited 15 counties over the years, “Most of the people, including the residents in the city, have no way to experience the various lives and emotions at the grassroots level.”
In addition to social research, students participating in the project will be fully involved in news gathering, video recording and editing.
Undergraduate student Qiu Xinyue said, “From theory to practice, as well as the project-based working mechanism help us quickly acquire the professional knowledge. And because we are constantly communicating and correcting, our media literacy also improved a lot.”
“We listened to the interviews and re-edited the draft again and again, and we spent most of those weeks editing late into the night in a cafe.”
The process is also an exercise of students’ physical ability and strong will. Yan said of her students, “Oftentimes the weather didn’t agree with the students when they got off the bus. They would go to the hospital in the middle of the night, and the next day they still came to work. We were worried about them and wanted to send them back home, but they refused and wanted to finish the journey with the team.”
The “832 Project” is by far the largest and most extensive social survey and practice in the field of poverty alleviation research. Since it launched in March 2021, more than 2000 students and teachers have visited 65 former national-level poverty-stricken counties, covering 19 cities in 5 provinces, and have interviewed more than 800 people.
So far, the project has many results, including more than 50 research reports, 33 micro-documentaries, tens of thousands of photographs and thousands of hours of video material.
picture source: School of Journalism