The UT-SNU-NCCU Symposium “RISK, MEMORY AND DEMOCRACY: Key Communication Issues in East Asia” was held at National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taiwan on November 16th and 17th, 2018. This symposium has over 20 years of history since the University of Tokyo (UT) and Seoul National University (SNU) first started the symposium. NCCU joined the convention in 2016. The symposium aims to share awareness toward research topics between Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The symposium consisted of two sections; one was a faculty session, and the other was a student session, in which faculty members and students respectively gave oral presentations on their research.

Faculty Session
Prof. Atsushi Tanaka from UT presented solutions toward effective evaluation planning as well as communication of disaster information with reference to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Prof. Naoya Sekiya from UT presented his international comparative study on risk perception after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power stations.

Prof. Chiung-Wen Hsu from NCCU presented her study on residents’ awareness about disasters with reference to a massive explosion that happened in the Cianjhen and Lingya districts of Kaohsiung city, discussing possible solutions to residents’ neglect of disasters. Prof. Yi-Chieh Lin from NCCU presented her research on changes in the production and consumption of tuna in Donggang in relation to the “Bluefin Tuna Cultural Festival” that is held annually in Donggang town.

Prof. Eun-Mee Kim from SNU presented her research on the diffusion of online-news articles, revealing relationships between types of media (unidirectional vs bidirectional, open vs closed) and types of online-news (highly controversial vs moderately controversial). Prof. Kyu-Sup Hahn from SNU presented his research on voting trends in a highly polarized democratic society with reference to the 2017 presidential election in South Korea.

Student Session
After a lunch break, a student session was held, in which students from all three universities gave 10-minute oral presentations. Each student gave his or her presentation twice, each time before a different audience. This enabled them to reflect on their own presentation and also to obtain comments from multiple viewpoints.

22 students gave presentations: 7 from UT, 6 from SNU and 9 from NCCU. The　presentations covered various topics in the social sciences, including social media, online news, journalism, history of women, history of education, history of nations, entertainment, law, and disaster social science. During the 5-minute long question and answer time, the audience posed diverse questions on the basis of their own research topics.

Media Fieldtrip: Choco-TV
On the second day, the participants visited the office of Choco-TV, which is the first OTT (Over-the-Top) media service company in Taiwan; OTT refers to content providers which broadcast television contents not via infrastructure for television platforms, but via the Internet. Jerry Weng, who is a general manager and co-founder of Choco-TV, introduced the history of Choco-TV, its significance in comparison with other media services, and tips to create attractive TV programs. Since most of the participants’ research areas were closely related to media issues, many questions were asked and the discussion was lively. Among other topics, they discussed the importance of broadcasting from OTT not from authorized TV stations.

During breaktimes, participants talked about their research interests, future research plans and more casual matters. This visit will contribute to further friendship between NCCU, SNU and UT.

– Comments from Students

Wu Zihan (MA student)
This trip to Taipei was the first time for me to step onto the ground of Taiwan, which turned out to be a great chance for me to re-examine the history, society, identity and so forth in Taiwan. Such experience is enlightening and inspiring in the way of seeing and understanding Asian culture and history in a different light. At the same time, it lent us a perfect opportunity to discuss current affairs and social problems with students from different countries and regions; even the chat with the taxi drivers during the trip shed light on my understanding about what people there are actually thinking now, which helped to open my mind and deepen my horizons.
Meanwhile, as a student who took journalism and communication as a major when I was an undergraduate, the symposium represented itself as a chance to follow frontier knowledge in media studies by providing beautiful speeches from the professors and fascinating presentations from other students. The process of explaining my topic to students from different social and cultural contexts offered the opportunity to scan with fresh eyes and polish my own research in a more thoughtful manner.

Yang Yue (MA student)
The symposium held in Taiwan Chengchi University centered on communication issues in Asia. In addition to the report session, we visited Choco TV, an over-the-top media services provider, to understand how the media company functions practically. This experience enriched my knowledge not only on the service itself but also lent me insight on Taiwan and its business culture. The Taiwanese model of development strongly relies on a vibrant entrepreneurial culture and small but flexible companies. Choco TV, a start-up company with 30 employers, facing competition from mainland China, the US and other big Taiwanese companies, strives to survive in the market. Except for Choco TV, another prominent example is the current president Tsai Ing-wen’s father who built his business and wealth on the private-run car-repairing industry. The geographical　environment of Taiwan boosts the entrepreneurial spirit. Surrounded by the sea, Taiwanese people have low-risk avoidance; they put their words into actions, and they are not afraid of failure. That is why the founders did not give up because of failing 15 times before they came up with the idea of Choco TV.

Huh Duim (MA student)
Participating in the UT-SNU-NCCU symposium was an opportunity to understand the research concerns of information studies in different Asian countries. In presentations by faculty, I learned about various research topics in the three countries, such as circulating information on disasters and publishing and sharing information on digital platforms. These various examples related to a wide range of theories in communication and media studies. Also, students’ presentations from Taiwan and South Korea gave a deep impression. Their perspectives on making research questions and analyzing their materials seemed to be different from my own. After I had long conversations with the other participants, finally I realized that researchers’ concerns are related to their social and cultural backgrounds.

Maho Ishibashi (MA student)
The most important thing I learned from the Taipei symposium was the technique of presentation. In a class on international conference presentation, we were taught about the academic style appropriate for several situations, and the way of making slides, allowing us to learn about tips for attractive academic presentation which could also apply to presentation in Japanese.
In addition, although I could not speak English fluently, it was a very precious opportunity to consider my research with a wide perspective, because I had conversations with students who were studying in different environmental contexts of media, and I was able to hear interpretations that had never occurred to me. Furthermore, it was also an interesting experience for me to hear about the others’ research, such as research of professors, doctoral students and master students from other labs, which was not familiar to me in spite of their belonging to the same institution.

Hsin Yi Hsueh (PhD student)
It was my first time to attend an international symposium in my home country of Taiwan as a student studying abroad. As a presenter from the University of Tokyo, I tried to share Taiwan’s culture for my team workers who come from Japan, South Korea and China. Through this event, we extended not only our knowledge but also our international views. Besides, the most impressive thing from this symposium is that we put in a lot of effort to prepare for the presentation. Our whole team started to prepare our presentations 2 months earlier. It was valuable to attend the course given by Prof. Buist because we earned a lot of compliments from the other universities.

Shih-Fen Wang (PhD student)
I joined the symposium because I wanted to do the presentation in English and learn from other people’s different perspectives for my research. The best thing that I took away from my time at the event was that I had a great opportunity to interact with participants from different universities. For participants from Seoul, Taiwan and Japan the only common language for us to communicate with was English. Whether our English was good or bad, we actively gave feedback and encouraged each other. The one person who I would like to show my appreciation the most is Professor Buist. He systematically taught us presentation skills and guided us on how to make our　presentation slides have the most impact. Those skills and tips will benefit me for a long time.

Setsuko Kamiya (PhD Student)
The symposium in Taipei was a great learning experience on so many levels! Preparing my presentation for an international audience and also with the “Pecha-Kucha” style was more challenging than I had initially imagined, but it actually helped me develop a bird’s-eye view toward my own research. Being introduced to the research works of media and communication scholars in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan was a unique way to realize and appreciate our common academic interests, cultural similarities and differences. I really enjoyed the discussions with other participants and am grateful that they have given me valuable insights. Last but not least, I would like to appreciate the faculty and students of the National Chengchi University for their hospitality!