Bolton University at Olympics

Press Release:

University of Bolton staff and students are filming a unique insight into life in China during the Olympic Games for the newspaper USA Today. Every day during the Olympics, USA Today will stream a short video on its website from the teams based at the university's photojournalism master's degree course in China.

Three teams of students and tutors are travelling around China on three different routes, starting on the first day of the games and finishing on the last day. The teams are made up of three tutors from the photojournalism master's degree programme, based in Dalian, two of their current students and a Bolton BA graphic design graduate who also works in China.

After the videos have been screened on the USA Today website they are then posted to the project site. Each team will also contribute to a project blog and image gallery as they travel. There will also be interactive maps and a video podcast on the project site.

Course leader, Dave Clark, said "The field of photojournalism is changing rapidly with the introduction of newspaper websites. This is a fascinating opportunity to experiment with mobile journalism techniques for both the staff and students and will greatly enrich the course for the future. Our course in China is in a unique position for such a project as we have an equal mix of Chinese and international students together. We hope to provide a very different perspective on the games."

The project has been organised by a current student who also brokered the deal with USA Today. USA Today are making the videos an integral part of their Olympic coverage.' A Chinese version of the videos is also being produced and broadcast through the Chinese version of the Financial Times.