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QUT to host China media conference

The changing face of China's creative industries will be the focus of the 2007 China Media Centre Conference to be hosted by Queensland University of Technology.

The conference is titled China| East Asia| Media |New Media.

The event will be held on July 5-6 at the QUT Creative Industries Precinct at Kelvin Grove campus and will bring together leading international scholars, industry experts and creative practitioners.

Conference organiser, Dr Michael Keane, a senior fellow at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), said China was pushing to make its film, television, advertising and new media industries more internationally competitive.

"As the 2008 Beijing Olympics close in, the media in China are witnessing a new phase of commercial activity," he said.

"China is mounting a claim for a leading role in the global and regional cultural economy, drawing on its long tradition as the centre of East Asian culture."

Dr Keane said that the most common image of China in the world economy was that of a factory, manufacturing cheap components for international markets such as toys and electronic devices.

But he said this stereotypical image was likely to change.

"The conference will look at media, both old and new, from print to blogging," Dr Keane said.

"The focus will be on China but we will look at the bigger picture.

"We have received papers from Taiwanese and Korean scholars interested in China's creative industries."

Dr Keane said the conference would also build on the success of the 2005 Creative Industries and Innovation Conference held in Beijing, which was initiated by QUT Creative Industries.

Keynote speakers include Michael Curtin from Global Studies Centre, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of Playing to the World's Biggest Audience and Jing Wang from MIT, the author of Brand New China: Advertising, Media and Commercial Culture.

The conference will include a business forum, exhibitions of digital animation from China and Australia, and a special panel focusing on the Beijing Olympics.

The event is supported by co-sponsors University of Westminster (UK), the Annenberg School of Communications (Pennsylvania, US), Global Studies Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison (US), and the Chinese Communication University of Communication (Beijing).

For more information visit http://cea.cci.edu.au or contact Dr Keane at m.keane@qut.edu.au

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