# @msujschool on Facebook - **Type:** Image - **Original URL:** https://www.facebook.com/1588490806402984/posts/10156104425388666 - **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68589959-msujschool-facebook - **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/482dbefaac.jpg - **Posted:** 2018-11-14T13:39:00.000+00:00 ## Caption Welcome to #JRN Wednesdays! Meet... Cynthia Chen Ph.D Student, Information and Media Nankai University, Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration Tsinghua University, Master of Arts in Journalism Media and Economics Management Why MSU? I have always been a huge fan of Dr. Steve Lacy’s research on media economics so MSU was always on the top of my list. I emailed him before applying, and he told me he’s retiring. I was really sad and thought, “hmmm I have no chance.” But he made a typo in that email and that gave me a chance to email him again and ask for clarification. Then, in the second email, he told me Dr. Esther Thorson committed to come. She read my application, we Skyped and just clicked. Both Dr. Lacy and Dr. Thorson have made significant contribution to “Good business, good journalism” research regarding newspaper industry. And I’m a firm believer that people are willing to pay for good news. So it’s a perfect fit! What do you hope to learn during the Ph.D program? My goal is to know my craft and develop myself as a researcher. Learning to ask good research questions, deal with uncertainty and frustration in research, and communicate my idea clearly. My research mainly focuses on news consumption. I’m hoping to continue to explore news economics and management issues within news organizations. I’m hoping to continue to do research on news economics after I graduate. And I hope I can be better at teaching and mentoring students too. Are you a journalist already or are you planning to become one with the skills you gain from the program? I guess I can say I was a journalist. Back in college I was a journalist and chief editor for a student newspaper. That experience made me realize how much value journalism is creating and my research today mainly generates from the overarching idea to empower journalists. I study paying for news so that news organizations find ways to boost subscription revenue and journalist do not need to leave the job they love for a better-paid gig in PR or Ad agency. I also want to work on newsroom complexity to explore ways to increase efficiency and create better working environment for journalists. I think JRN really brings the academia and professionals together, and it makes me to be able to explore these questions. What thesis project are you working on/planning? I want to study newsroom complexity for my dissertation. It explores the idea of how factors like organizational structure, diversity, staff size etc would form the news production process and thus affect news quality and financial success of news organizations. But Dr. Thorson and I just found some really interesting results from our paying for news study. So we will see if I’ll study the newsroom or further explore what makes people pay more for news. What has been your favorite class thus far? It’s really hard to pick my favorite! I enjoyed most of my theory classes. Dr. Thorson taught a seminar where she invites professors throughout the college, pairs them up, and ask us to find the theoretical linkages between their work. I also did an independent study with Dr. Lacy on media economics and management theories. Dr. Thorson joined us for most of the times and that makes the experience really unforgettable. I mean, just imagine two leading experts in your field, sitting in the same room and the spark was just legit. Last semester, I also did theory building with Dr. Serena Miller and media and information economics with Dr. Johannes Bauer from MI. Dr. Miller has a way to understand what you’re getting at even though it’s just a really rough idea and she helps you to dissect the construction process. Dr. Bauer is like someone with a magic pen who always come up some systems and graphics on the whiteboard. I really enjoyed taking these classes not only all four of them are expert in what they do, but also they are great mentors. They care about research I want to do and what kind of scholar I want to be. I consider myself very privileged to learn from them and am really grateful of that. Which classes are you looking forward to taking? I’m almost done with my classes! This is my sixth year in grad school. I did my masters for three years - so now over 10 years in college education. I’m at the stage looking forward to not taking classes! ## Stats - **Views:** 0 - **Likes:** 6 - **Shares:** 0 - **Comments:** 2 ## Tags jrn --- Copyright (c) Gondola