The Course "Mock Spokesperson" of the Department of Public Administration was Successfully Completed

(Reported by Tian Hongquan) In order to cultivate the students' comprehensive practical ability in all aspects, increase the professional teaching characteristics of the Department of Public Administration and broaden students' professional learning vision, all junior students of the Department of Public Administration conducted the mock spokesperson practical training activity Room 101 of the Public Administration Laboratory Building on the morning of December 28, 2021. Professor Zeng Wei, Professor Zhuo Chenggang, Professor Luo Hui, Associate Professor Li Xiaoyu and Associate Professor Liu Zhonglan served as the judges of the “Mock Spokesperson”.

This practical course is divided into two parts, namely, preparation of materials in the early stage and mock demonstration in the later stage.

Preliminary material preparation: Under the guidance of teachers, students chose the theme of the presentation according to their own interests and used their free time to collect and organize relevant information, such as understanding the requirements related to press conferences, the dos and don'ts of the press statement process, and the qualities and abilities that press speakers should possess. Then they conceived and planned the speech content and form of each group (including speech theme selection, script writing, task division of members in the group, stage planning and performance design, etc.).

In later mock presentation: Students were divided into 11 groups, and each group chose topics with their own interests and preferences, some chose hot events close to people's daily life such as adjustment of medical insurance drug catalog, combating new types of illegal crimes on the Internet and prevention and control of school epidemics in the new semester, some chose major social critical accidents such as the Ezhou bridge overturning accident and the Tianjin port 812 explosion as the theme of the conference, and some paid close attention to the international situation, choosing topics such as the launch of Xinjiang-related issues and the ultimatum issued by the UK to Germany. The roles of each team member were clearly divided, and the moderator, spokesperson and reporter each had their own roles, vividly mocking the scene of a press conference.  Some of the groups also used bilingual English and Chinese to make press releases and answer questions from reporters in a very innovative and eye-catching format.

The judges and teachers gave great affirmation to this mock spokesperson activity, praised and encouraged the students' performance, and also pointed out some problems and shortcomings. For example, press conferences should be separated from the script as much as possible, with students able to really step into the role, not as a retelling of textual material, but crucially incorporating their own understanding and expressing it through the presentation. In addition, the preparation of text materials should be scientific and standardized, and the division of labor among team members should be scientific and reasonable, avoiding the situation of "one speech" and showing the style of all team members as much as possible; the content of the press conference should not be limited to a specific event, but should convey a viewpoint and voice to the public, so the setting of questions should break through the general tone of the matter as far as possible, and appropriate sublimation is a necessary part of an excellent conference.

In addition, the judges also pointed out some details, such as the table stickers of some groups were white, which did not meet the daily use habits; some speakers did not grasp the emotion and tone of voice, and did not have a strong sense of immersion; some groups did not grasp the time well enough, and the mock should be controlled at 7-8 minutes, leaving 2-3 minutes for the judges' comments; some groups prepared written materials but had defects in the text specification. Although the above issues are subtle, they determined the overall level of the press conference, and the details determine the success or failure. We believe that through this practical training, the students can also pay more attention to the details in their future work.

Finally, Prof. Zeng Wei made a summary from the content and form, pointing out that the mock spokesperson training was a test and exercise for the students' comprehensive quality, which required high communication and expression ability and flexible adaptability. He hoped students could be the spokesman and spokesperson of their units in the future. Therefore, it is suggested that students should strengthen the excavation of the background of the news content and the accuracy of the news content release, as well as pay attention to the sense of immersion in role playing and innovation of the stage performance. In terms of format, attention should be paid to the details of table sign placement, the use of the national emblem, Party emblem and the standardization of text format.