Oct. 25 – From Oct. 24 to Oct. 25, Pulitzer Prize Winners Mr. Michael Vitez and Mr. Peter Arnett were invited by the HKBU Pulitzer Prize Winner Workshop to share their experience as Journalists at UIC with students, staff, and the local media.
Michael Vitez: Elements of a Prize Winning Report
Mr. Vitez has been working for The Philadelphia Inquirer.since 1985. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1997 for the report series “Final Choices”. He followed five people as they approached the ends of their lives, and he wrote powerful, intimate narratives about the decisions they made, the choices they faced.
In the lecture, Mr. Vitez shared with the students his experience in writing the book Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps. He talked about the whole process from taking up the idea to finishing the stories. He talked about the stories of the people who run up the Philadelphia Museum of Art like Sylvester Stallone in the 30-year old Academy Award winning film, Rocky. His experience embodied the importance of close observation and details in report writing.
Peter Arnett: Live from the Battle Field
Mr. Peter Arnett was at UIC on Oct. 25. He was a world famous news correspondent who had spent all his life as a journalist covering wars and international crises. He was awarded the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for the report “Learning to live with controversy: Reporters at war with their own country: The Buddhists' Flaming Protests”. He won a TV Emmy with his 1991 interview with Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. He was also the first Western journalist to interview Ben Laden.
Mr. Arnett’s lecture was so popular that it attracted audience not only from UIC but also from BNU and the local media. Mr. Arnett talked about his 45 years of experience in covering important international news. He said he was not a hero. He was always careful in the battlefield. He kept a professional attitude at work and always tried to uncover the truth. He suggested students of the Journalism Program that they should work hard on their academic study to lay a solid groundwork for the future career in journalism.
More Pulitzer Prize Winners may Come to UIC for Lectures
According to Prof. Huang Yu, HKBU launched the Pulitzer Price Winner Workshop program this year in order to advance journalistic standards both locally and in the Greater China. The workshop invites three to six Pulitzer Prize winners to HKBU each year for a two-week series of intellectual activities, including lectures and seminars, meetings with students, media professionals and the public. He said the workshop would invite more Pulitzer Prize Winners to give lectures for our students in future.
Student Journalist: Deng Weijun
Photography: Chen Mengxing
Editor: Cheryl Chen / Christy Zhao
