The unveiling ceremony of Tzu Chi University Media Production & Education Center was held on February 22, and was unveiled by Master Cheng Yen, Vice CEO Tuan-Cheng Wang of Tzu Chi Foundation, CEO Jian-Ming Tang of Daai T.V. and President Pen-Jung Wang of Tzu Chi University. TCU Media Production & Education Center is the cradle of fostering academia-industry collaboration between TCU and Daai T.V., which facilitated a seamless transition for students to leap from school to work.
Locates at the 12th floor of Daai Building, the media center occupies an area of 78 square meters, which consist a studio, a sub-control room and a post-processing room. Daai T.V. transferred its SD equipments to TCU for education purposes after the upgrade to HD, and the media center invited professionals from Daai T.V. to demonstrate how to setup and operate the lighting, camera, audio and video. During the ceremony, Vice CEO Wang who facilitated the collaboration expressed that the media center made the best use of all its available resources, so the students should cherish what they have and build a concrete foundation of their skills, which consist of professionalism as well as humanities, the essence of all program production. “With culture comes great thoughts, accurate values, and quality shows.” Pen-Jung Wang said.
The center began recruiting in 2013 across all colleges, aiming for students who are interested in communication studies. The subsequently founded TCU news team consisted of 47 students who are, in addition to the Department of Communication Studies, from the Colleges of Life Sciences, Education and Communications, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Tzu Chi College of Technology. From May to December 2013, they had produced over 75 school news and 9 live broadcasts. Most unique of all is that the director of the media center, Ting-Pang Chen, led the team to undertake the entire live broadcasting of the gratitude ceremony for the silent mentors. “The silent mentors dedicate selflessly to medical education, contribute towards both their family and to the entire society. The students were deeply moved as their broadcasted the ceremony, and vowed to study Tzu Chi humanities.” Prof. Ting-Pang Chen said.
With the unveiling and operation of the TCU Media Production & Education Center, Master Cheng Yen encourages the students with the following words: Education and communication is the safeguard of wisdom. Our society is worrisome, and a slight deviation can result in social unrest. Natural disasters leave us helpless, but Tzu Chi volunteers always arrive at the scene to aid those in need; man-made disasters, on the other hand, simply leaves us stranded and anxious. The media plays a vital role in educating the public with accurate information, such as energy and carbon reduction. I am happy to see that the TCU news team consisted of students from both communication studies and other disciplines, just like Tzu Chi documenting volunteers from around the globe. I hope these students can look up to their vows and determination to safeguard the world.
Yu-Chih Chang from the Department of Human Development expresses her endeavor to study communication studies and infuse it with her major. Teng-Ching Weng from the Department of Communication Studies particularly enjoys team work and broadcasting. She believes that joining activities of other disciplines can broaden one’s perspective, and partaking Tzu Chi activities in particular has affected her greatly; she also believes that hands-on experience and self-growth can only be attained through participation.
