The Interview with Professor Holli A. Semetko
Interviewee:
Professor Holli A. Semetko, MSc PhD(LSE), MBA(Emory)
Candler Professor of Media & International Affairs, Emory University
Interviewers:
Ryan Zhao (Studying in two-year international journalism graduate program)
Maggie Lee (Studying in three-year international communication graduate program)
Photographer:
William Song (Studying in three-year international communication graduate program)
R: As students, we’ve been dying to know what motivates you to do research in media and politics and what first inspired you to choose this field?
S: As a child I grew up with television and I found watching television news fascinating. Television and politics was often the basis for our family dinner table conversation. In high school I had already decided I wanted to be a lawyer, and then in college my perspective shifted. Then as a graduate student at The London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), media and politics emerged as a focus given the circumstances in the country.
R: We know that you received degrees from institutions in the U.S. and the U.K. Can you share something about the difference between the two systems? From your undergraduate studies in the U.S. to your graduate and PhD studies in the U.K., where have you gained the most？
S: It would be difficult to say that I gained more from one or another system. The summer before my senior year at Albion College, I was one of a handful of students accepted into a summer program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. We were to study graduate-level data analysis in a program led by Dr. Jon Miller who was then at Northern Illinois University, conveniently located in an area surrounded by cornfields so there was nothing to distract us! It was the first time I was working with survey data and it was a lot of fun. I decided I wanted to do more in this field which was described as political sociology. I turned down a PhD scholarship offer from University of Chicago to instead take a one-year intensive MSc program in political sociology at LSE. I studied very hard and I was fortunate to receive a mark of “distinction” on the M.Sc. exams, which means one is top of the class. My professors encouraged me to apply for a national scholarship to do the PhD at LSE and my proposal focused on the influence of the media on the rise of a new political party. It was a fascinating time to be doing field research in Britain and it is a privilege to be an LSE alumnus. I never regretted not to going to law school. I really enjoy my work.
R: Since you have taught in both Indian and Chinese universities, what is your impression on Indian and Chinese students?
S: They are very talented students. It’s very competitive in India and China because of the sheer numbers of domestic students taking university entrance exams.. In India there is insufficient capacity in the higher education system to support the many students who want to go to college and it is also very difficult to gain admission to the existing institutions. It is also very difficult in the U.S to get into top universities such as Emory where I’m based, but in the U.S. there are more options for students. Students admitted to the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay (IIT-B), for example, have scored in the top 1% on national college entrance exams. China has more universities serving the Chinese college-age population. But in India, they simply don’t have enough capacity to serve the population. Now they are starting to build more institutions of higher education, including private universities, but it takes time. As a Fulbright-Nehru scholar, I was based in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, as well as affiliated with the School of Design and Shenoy Innovation Studio, and the Shailesh J. Metha School of Business at IIT-B. I found that whenever I gave lectures, the students would ask great questions.
M: Did your experience in India influence your research?
S: Definitely. I intended to conduct research on how companies in India were developing strategy for their “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) projects, given India’s pioneering legislation mandating CSR spending for companies of a certain size in various areas of national development. While there is over a century of history of corporate philanthropy in India, for example by the Tata and the Birla family group companies, this pioneering legislation brings in many younger firms and an estimated 16,000+ companies. There were nine national development goals originally for CSR project spending in 2013, now modified under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to eleven goals in 2015. Companies that make a certain amount of money have to spend two percent of their net profit (averaged over three years) on these projects each year, with a rigorous and transparent decision-making and reporting process.
As you know, CSR is often described as sustainability. I’m now doing some research in China and India on The Coca-Cola Company which is a global leader on sustainability. Coca-Cola’s projects include “5 by 20” to economically empower 5 million women across the Company’s global value chain by 2020; water stewardship, to safely return to communities and nature an amount of water equivalent to what they use in production and to improve water efficiency in manufacturing operations; and recycling bottles, plant-based plastic, cans; and more. Coca-Cola is integrally linked to the community it serves and becomes a part of the national and local culture hiring locally and acquiring local partners. The Coca-Cola Company may have been born and registered in the U.S., but it becomes part of each nation, each locality, each culture, in which it operates. In terms of sustainability or CSR, Coca-Cola in China now has a preapproved process in place so that whenever there is a disaster, the bottlers can immediately activate delivery networks and services to get bottles of fresh water to people in need. With the devastating typhoon in October 2015, for example, local Coca-Cola bottlers and delivery trucks were quickly on site helping many people to potentially experience a moment of happiness in a very difficult time.
R: There are still many problems in the Indian economy, the huge income gap and poverty, how can corporations help to improve the situation?
S: The problem is that many people are in need of training to obtain the skills needed in the job market. Many companies are involved in training which they refer to as “skilling” in India. For example, Future Group, one of the largest Indian retail companies, is launching food courts in malls and shopping areas that require people who know how to operate these facilities. Infrastructure, Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS), another major Indian firm launched in the 1990s, has received awards for training programs including “skilling” in computer science and repair, accounting, catering, etc. These are just two companies that I know well from many companies involved in “skilling” India’s workforce.
There are different definitions of what constitutes poverty. There is no doubt that a tremendous number of people are living in poverty in India, yet at the same time there is a large, vibrant and growing middle class that is increasingly shopping online.
R：You know, Bangalore is the main outsourcing place for U.S. companies. However, the advantage of Bangalore is disappearing in outsourcing services. So how can they come up with new ideas or make innovations to attract more investments? And how can Zhongguancun, Beijing’s hi-tech district, improve its appeal for more foreign investment?
S: Bangalore, now known as Bengaluru, is becoming an aerospace and defense industry hub too. For example, Boeing is going to assemble helicopters there. Bangalore is also traditionally the software and high-tech capital, home to global Indian companies such as Infosys and Wipro launched over two decades ago. These companies also employ many people in countries around the world including the U.S. and have offices in many U.S. cities. Outsourcing to call centers in India was strong for some time but started to reverse a few years ago in two ways--by bringing jobs back to the U.S, and by moving out of India to lower-cost areas.
I’m a grateful customer for outsourcing to India which is known for strong technical support. When I had AT&T as my television provider, something went wrong and when I called for help late at night I heard somebody on the other end with a slight Indian accent. Having recently moved back to the U.S. from India, I was rather excited by the prospect that my call had been outsourced to India, and asked “Are you in India?” Usually when Americans ask such a question of a call center employee, the person at the other end of the line becomes ready to deal with an angry, possibly even bigoted, customer. The Indian gentleman hesitatingly and quietly admitted “Yes, Ma’am”. I then told him that we had just returned from living in India and that I was glad he was answering because I know that means he’ll solve my technical problem immediately. And he did. By the end of the call, he said, “Ma’am, I am going to give you a special discount for the next six months!” Companies still have call centers in Bangalore because Americans want service 24/7. Some Americans may complain about outsourcing, but at midnight when your TV stops working suddenly, you can’t always get someone locally to answer the phone.
Zhongguancun in Beijing is often described as China’s “Silicon Valley,” and is home to prominent Chinese tech companies such as Lenovo Group, Founder Group, and Stone Group founded in the1980s. There is already a major presence of foreign tech companies in Zhongguancun: Google Beijing, Microsoft Research Asia, Intel, AMD, Ericsson, Motorola, Oracle, Sony and more.
R: China is the second largest economy in the world right now but it doesn’t have the same status in the international communication domain. How can China improve its say in this area?
S: International communication is a very broad term, of which diplomatic crises, conflicts and wars are just one part. In terms of foreign policy, China has the rule of non-interference in the domestic issues of a foreign country. So it is natural that China is not highly visible based on that policy. While it appears that China’s policy is not going to change, at the same time Russia doesn’t have that policy. Look at the death and destruction in Syria and the current outpouring of Syrian refugees into Europe. The U.S. decided not to go into Syria as it did in the larger region in the past, in terms of sending troops over at the outset of the problem. Different governments take different positions that make them more or less visible, and vulnerable, in the broader domain of what might be described as relevant to the term international communication.
I do think there have been a lot of very good interactions between President Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama and that has been visible. You really do have to be specific about the audiences China is not reaching, because certainly the elite audiences in business, diplomacy and security are paying attention. There is no lack of visibility for China in the publications read in those circles. It’s the general lay audience that is less informed and it’s not just China facing this problem of visibility, it’s probably every foreign country if you look at the U.S. The paradox is that with the internet we have a growing number of media outlets but less foreign news in the U.S. It is harder to find foreign news nowadays and what little there is on TV news is quite often natural disasters. The U.S. audience is often more aware of disasters than social and economic policy in foreign countries. Some of the diplomatic visits still make the news, but others don’t. And still others get upstaged by imminent weather disasters—such as President and Mrs. Obama’s January visit to India for Republic Day which was largely missing from U.S. television news because of the long tail on the coverage devoted to the anticipated arrival of “Blizzard 2015” in the northeast.
In terms of international communication and China, right now I’m doing a study with colleagues here on China’s image international news. Typically the visibility and tone of the news on China may have a great deal to do with the news organization and news values. I would like to investigate whether other variables influence news and national image, such as diplomatic visits, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and trade. I have a student at Emory from Beijing who has built a database of China’s diplomatic visits in recent years and is now working on the other databases. I also have two more Emory students who are building the news databases from the Spanish-speaking countries in our study.
M: What qualities are important to be a good researcher in international communication and strategic communication?
S: One needs to be both outgoing as well as introverted. You have to have both qualities because you need to be able to work with data and be compelling in delivering the information to people about what you have found or what you are proposing should be done. You need to be persuasive.
Strategic communication is more of a recent term in the field of communication which is growing and adapting to the rapidly changing information environment. The term “strategic communication” has become ubiquitous because there are so many more available channels to target yet with limited resources. The question asked by political scientist and communication theorist Harold Lasswell in 1948 is today more relevant than ever: “Who says what, in which channel, to whom, and with what effect?”
You have to make decisions about what venue you should use to communicate with and why, starting with who your audience is. Given the range of Internet sources and social media platforms available, communication really has to be more strategic.
M: You mentioned data analysis so how can we improve this ability?
S: I think that’s the big challenge right now for everyone because we are looking at enormous volumes of data. We are constantly talking about “big data” and “predictive analytics.” Let me give you an example. I usually spend with a credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. In that way I have a record of my expenditures. What that means is that the credit card company has years of data on my behavior and if someone there wants to delve into it, they could arguably predict my every move. While that idea is a little disturbing, I have to admit that they provide excellent service so I don’t worry about it. They may be able to predict from individual data but it is the aggregate that matters, so our individual data is just part of a larger volume.
One of the biggest challenges now is how to make sense of this big data, how to realize the business opportunities to emerge from it, and how to realize other ways of thinking outside of the box in terms of what we can do with this data without sacrificing people’s privacy. There are many opportunities for companies to learn about new marketing, new venues for sales and for individual philanthropy because using credit and debit cards leaves a footprint. Imagine, though, the enormous amount of data is there on Tudou-youku, the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, or WeChat, the most popular Chinese social media platform that's gone global and combines the best features of everything already out there and more.
Today, individuals are empowered with smart phones and tablets to upload information and impact history in real time. The most interesting question now is how can we think about what we don’t know how to think about, how can we think outside of the box to the point that we haven’t even yet considered or imagined? That is where we are going in terms of rapid advances in technology.
Journalism and marketing as an industry has been and will continue to be at the forefront of sectors impacted by advancing technology, but eventually every other sector and industry will be impacted. With 3D printing, artificial intelligence and wearable technology, the manufacturing, construction, finance, and healthcare sectors are already feeling the change.
中文版
当初为什么选择研究政治与媒体？是什么促使您选择了这一领域？
电视是伴随着我长大的。我很喜欢电视上的新闻。小时候，一家人一起吃晚饭时，经常在饭桌上谈论电视节目和政治。
上了高中之后，我打算当律师，不过上了大学，我又改变了想法。后来，我去伦敦政经(LSE)读了政治学硕士及政府部门博士之后，就开始关注政治与媒体了。
您觉得美国的教育与英国的教育有什么不同？哪段经历带给您的收获更多？
很难讲哪段经历带给我的收获更多。大三暑假的时候，我有幸参加了一个由国家科学基金会赞助的暑期项目。那个项目在北伊利诺伊大学进行。我还记得，周围都是玉米地，没有什么好玩的地方，这也让我们参加项目的人更加专注于课程。当时，Jon Miller博士给我们上了一门研究生阶段的数据分析课。那是我第一次接触数据测量，觉得特别有意思。从那时起，我就决定要从事这个被称为“政治科学”领域的研究。后来，在申请学校的过程中，我拒绝了芝加哥大学硕博连读奖学金，选择了去英国读伦敦政经一年制的政治学硕士。在那一年里，我特别努力地学习，最后很幸运地拿到了全班第一名。因此，教授们就鼓励我去申请国家奖学金继续读博士。我的论文题目就是关于媒体对新政党崛起的影响。做这个领域的研究让我过得很开心很充实，能够称为伦敦政经的校友也让我感到非常荣幸。直到现在，我从不后悔自己当初没上法学院。我非常热爱我的工作。
您在中国和印度的大学都有任教，您对中国和印度的学生都有什么印象？
他们都特别得有天赋。在中国和印度，能上大学太不容易了，因为每年都有那么多人参加高考。在印度，能上大学尤其不易。尽管美国学生要上埃默里这种名校也很难，不过他们还可以上其他的学校。在印度，只有前1%的学生才能上印度理工学院这样的学校。中国的大学相对印度还能多一些。相对他们的人口来讲，印度的大学真得很少。尽管现在他们已经开始修建包括私立院校在内的更多的大学，不过这都需要时间。我在印度理工学院任富布莱特学者时发现，无论我什么时候做什么讲座，学生们问的问题都非常棒。
您在印度的经历有没有给您的研究带去影响？如果有的话，是什么样的影响？
当然有影响。当时，我打算做一项调查，这项调查是关于印度公司如何制定策略来完成“企业社会责任”计划。这一计划的开端是印度立了一部有开创意义的法律，规定企业要承担一定的社会责任，必须拿出一定数目的钱用来促进国家各个地区的发展。除去一些有着悠久慈善史的大公司，这一计划更是吸引了大约16000多家小企业的参与。2013年的时候，“企业社会责任”计划的钱用来实现九项国家发展目标，到了2015年，在莫迪政府的领导下，改为了十一项。具备一定经济实力的公司每年需要将2%的净利润（三年以上的平均利润）用于该项计划的实现并在决策和报告过程中秉持严格、公开、透明的原则。
你们也知道，企业社会责任是可持续发展的。我现在在中国和印度做关于可口可乐公司企业责任的研究。可口可乐公司在企业社会责任的可持续发展项目上是全球领军者。目前的项目包括“5 by 20”,即要在2020年之前在全球培训500名妇女创业者; 水质管理项目，即在生产过程中使用了多少水资源，就将多少水资源归还给社区和自然，并在工业生产过程中提高水资源的利用率；回收塑料瓶罐项目等。在世界各地，可口可乐都与当地社区取得了密切的联系，逐渐融入当地文化，成为当地的一部分。他们雇佣当地员工并与当地公司合作。尽管可口可乐公司是在美国诞生，但它已经成为所到之地每个国家，每个地方以及每种文化的一部分。就企业社会责任可持续发展而言，可口可乐公司在中国有一套预先批准程序，这就保证了无论哪里发生灾难，它都能迅速地将干净的水送至急需的人的手中。以今年10月份中国发生的的台风灾害为例，当地可口可乐公司的运输卡车迅速就位，将水送至灾民手中，让他们在极为困难的时候享受了片刻幸福。
到目前为止，印度的经济还存在着很大的问题，例如贫富差距过大，贫困人口数量多，企业能做什么来改善这种情况？
企业需要对一些人进行培训，帮助他们找到工作。例如，印度的未来集团在商场和商业区建美食街，这就让很多人知道如何去运营店铺。建于20世纪90年代的印度大公司Infrastructure, Leasing & Financial Services（基础设施建设租赁与金融服务）通过培训人们使用计算机，掌握基础的修理、酒店服务以及会计技能已经取得了初步的成效。这是我知道的两家致力于做技能培训的公司。
至于贫困问题，关于贫困的定义多种多样。毫无疑问的是，印度的贫困人口巨大。但同时，大规模的，富有生机的中产阶级也涌现了出来。
班加罗尔作为美国公司的主要外包服务中心的优势逐渐丧失。他们应该怎么做才能继续吸引更多的外资？北京的中关村应该如何吸引外资？
除了是外包服务中心，班加罗尔也逐渐成为了航空及国防产业枢纽。举个例子，波音公司在那里装配直升机。班加罗尔是传统意义上的软件和高科技中心，是20多年前成立的印度跨国公司Infosys和Wipro的故乡。这些公司也在世界各地，包括在美国雇佣员工，开设办公室。印度承接的外包服务，以客服中心为例一度很强盛，不过近几年来开始衰退。这分为两种情况，第一种是工作回流到美国，第二种则是到了劳动力成本更低的地区。
作为顾客，我非常感激服务外包到有着强大的技术支撑的印度。我记得有次我家电视出问题了，深夜里我打电话求助，我听到电话那头的声音带着些许印度口音，因为最近才从印度回美国，我对于外包服务感到十分惊讶。于是，我们交谈了许久。正因为美国人想要24小时的全天服务，所以一些公司仍把呼叫中心建在班加罗尔。一些美国人可能会抱怨外包，但在午夜电视突然出现故障，你总不能打电话求助当地人。
北京的中关村被誉为中国的“硅谷”，中国多家知名高科技企业落户于此，比如联想，方正，四通等。同样，一些知名的外国科技公司如谷歌北京，微软亚洲研究中心，英特尔等也在这里安了家。
中国现在已经是世界第二大经济体但却没有与之相配的国际传播地位，中国应该怎样提高自己的话语权呢？
国际传播是一个相当广泛的概念，而外交危机，冲突与战争只是其中一部分。中国在外交政策方面素来有着不干扰别国内政这一条，自然而然其国际可视性就不那么显著。相反，俄罗斯并没有那样的政策，看一看叙利亚问题就知道了。而美国也一反常态，在叙利亚问题上并没有出兵。所以在广义的国际传播领域，不同的政府会采取不同的立场使自身的可视性更高或更低。
我认为习近平主席和奥巴马总统之间的良性互动引起了广泛关注。商界与外交与安全领域的精英非常重视，所以你必须明确那一部分群体是中国现在无法触及的。其实每个其他的国家也面临着同样的问题。因为美国民众更关心国内或类似灾害的新闻而很少关注国际新闻。
现在我和我的同事们在做一项关于国际新闻中的中国形象的研究。通常而言，中国在新闻中的可视性与新闻机构和新闻价值密切相关。我也想进一步往这个领域进行研究。
想成为一名优秀的国际传播或战略传播的研究员应该具备哪些品质？
外向与内敛并重。既要能分析数据又要善于传达观点，具有说服力。
在传播学领域，战略传播是一个较新的概念。正因为在有限资源内，现在有太多渠道来进行瞄准式传播战略传播现在好似是无处不在。 1948年政治学家和传播学理论家哈罗德•拉斯维尔曾提出了：“谁，说什么，通过什么渠道，对谁，取得什么效果”的问题，而这个问题在现今显得尤为重要。
你必须决定应该根据传播的原因，采用何种渠道，受众又是什么。鉴于互联网和社交媒体的广泛性，传播就必须要高度战略化了。
你上面强调了数据分析，所以我们应该怎么提高这项能力呢？
现在每个人面临的巨大挑战就是大数据时代。现在很多信用卡公司能够根据掌握的大量数据，做到预测性分析。
而我们应该学会如何从大量数据中找到商业机遇，加之利用，跳出惯性思维，但同时保护个人隐私。现在的公司需要学习新的营销技巧，找到新的销售渠道。而且对于个人慈善，在大数据时代，也赋予许多新的机会。中国的土豆-优酷，微信拥有海量数据，想想这些数据能带了多大的机遇啊。
现今，每个人能够用智能手机和平板电脑上传信息，真正地影响历史进程。在科技日新月异的时代，我们应该做到如何跳出惯性思维进行创造型思考。
先进的科技会持续影响像新闻和销售这样的前沿领域，同样也会慢慢的给其他领域带来翻天覆地的变化。在3D打印技术，人工智能和可穿戴技术的影响下，制造业，建筑业，金融，医疗领域已经感受到了其所带来的改变。
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