The UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium, entitled “Media, Communications, and Information in an Era of Global Crisis,” took place on October 30th, 2020. This is a yearly event held every autumn co-hosted by three universities: the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies at the University of Tokyo (UT), the Department of Communication at Seoul National University (SNU), and The College of Communication at National Chengchi University (NCCU). In the past, one of the three universities has invited faculty members and students from the other two universities to its own campus for the symposium, but this year’s symposium was replaced by an online gathering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 38 participants from the three universities took part in the symposium enthusiastically sharing their ideas on research and experiences under the pandemic.

This year’s symposium consisted of two main parts: student presentation sessions after the opening remarks delivered by Professor Noboru Koshizuka, Dean of the GSII, and a plenary session followed by the ending remarks made by Professor Shin Mizukoshi. The student presentation sessions in the former part included three sub-sessions titled respectively “Body and Pandemic”, “Media, Journalism and Gender”, and “Space, Technology and Policy.”

The subsequent plenary session discussed various responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic along with other destabilizing factors in the current situation. Questions and general discussions were introduced by brief presentations given by teams of students from each university. The UT team shared the current situation of the university under COVID-19, especially focusing on knowledge production and transfer, new communication tools used in the university, and international students’ lives under the pandemic. The presentation given by the SNU team covered the recent diffusion of fake news on health related to the pandemic by introducing the case of the 8.15 rally in South Korea. Lastly, the NCCU team presented how political figures in various countries have associated their political agenda with the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 to gain hegemony.

Text: LEE Minjoo (Project Assistant professor)
Proofreading: David Buist (Project senior specialist)

Comments from the participants:

ZHAO Xinshu (PhD student)

I really appreciate this opportunity to present my research in front of fellow graduate students and faculty members from three universities. Prof. Buist, our instructor for the class International Conference Presentation, is very resourceful, amiable, and trustworthy so that I could communicate my insecurities with him and find a solution together. Although a veteran teacher myself, attending the class and the ensuing symposium allowed me to confront my weaknesses in articulating and conveying ideas effectively to an academic audience. I have also benefited from the teamwork that was required as part of the plenary session, through which I befriended graduate students working on very diverse research projects from tourism policy to artificial intelligence. It was definitely a rewarding experience.

This year’s symposium was different from previous ones in that everything was moved online like most academic conferences currently held worldwide. As an old saying goes, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Although the thrill of global travel and sampling of local culture were rendered quite impossible at this time, we nevertheless found ourselves thinking and responding to each other’s concerns under the pandemic. It is during this trying time that communication, partnership, and educational entrepreneurship are especially needed – everything that the annual UT-SNU-NCCU symposium represents.

Ichiro Watanabe (PhD Student)

The UT-SNU-NCCU symposium was rich in diversity of participants’ nationalities and research fields. As a researcher, it was a fresh experience for me to give a presentation in such a forum keeping in mind how to make my research interesting to the audience. In the plenary session, I could hear from students from Taiwan and South Korea about how they are feeling and what difficulties they are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the current situation where people’s access to each other has been restricted, we could hear each other’s real voices, which was a great benefit of the symposium. Thank you very much for this valuable opportunity.

LENG Junxiao (PhD student)

The 2020 UT-SNU-NCCU web symposium was a very enjoyable academic event. In fact, it was my first time to participate in an English academic conference and played multiple roles as independent presenter, co-presenter and student commentator. The experience was amazing; not only did I gain valuable suggestions on my own research from a broad audience, but very much enjoyed working with my fellow students and Professor David Buist in preparation for the plenary session. I also felt surprised and excited to meet students and faculty members from diverse backgrounds, which exposed me to some interesting fields of knowledge and ideas I was not familiar with. Last but not the least, despite the COVID-19 situation, the web symposium went on very smoothly thanks to the great efforts paid by the technical personnel, who enabled this vibrant and inspiring connective event.