Telecommunications professor Chris Flook and communication studies instructor Nicole Johnson will take a group of students overseas this summer for Ball State's second immersive learning program in China.
"What we're trying to do is have our students learn how the Chinese view us as Americans and how they are depicting Americans in media," Flook said. "Our hope is that students will come back from this experience with a good idea of how the Chinese view us."
A blog set up to showcase the students' work while abroad says the trip's focus will be on studying how the Chinese attempt to portray their culture in the Western world in all different forms of media including advertisements, movies, television, text and other forms of communication.
The group will spend six weeks in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong with students in the communications department taking in Chinese media and studying the relationship between China and the United States.
Flook said the trip's goals are more important now than ever given the growing relationship between the United States and China.
"Obviously the U.S. and China have a very unique relationship. It's very different today than it was 20 years ago," Flook said. "This is something [students are] going to need to know about — how people in other cultures view us."
Flook added that the group from Ball State will be continuing a relationship that Ball State has been creating with Hong Kong Baptist University in hopes of furthering exchange programs for both universities.
The group will receive a grant from the Ball State Rinker Center for International Programs to help meet the trip's financial requirements.
Flook said anyone interested in China or the subject of the study are encouraged to consider joining the trip.
The trip's blog can be found at bsuchinaimmersion.com. Students interested in participating in the study should contact Flook at caflook@bsu.edu.
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