Malaysia To Be Destination for Fulbright Scholar and Eisenhower Exchange Fellow
Back
in the United States, back in his classroom, and back in his office, Robert
Hooper, assistant professor of communications, is fresh off his latest
assignment in the tropics where he advises clients on freedom of the press
and high-tech communications.
Hooper is an Eisenhower Exchange Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar helping build linkages between universities in America, the film and television industry in Malaysia, and journalism in Indonesia.
The prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship program was established in 1953 to honor former President Dwight D. Eisenhower through the promotion and exchange of information, ideas and perspectives among emerging leaders around the world.
Chaired by former President George Bush, it is among the most select awards offered in the United States. Hooper was first awarded a fellowship in 1996. He is up to the task: A veteran in film and video production, Hooper’s career spans hard news, soft features and documentary work. For example, he produced and directed the PBS documentary, "Alaska’s Killer Whales - Between Worlds," and his various productions have appeared on PBS, ABC Television, Cable News Network and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Hooper’s vast experience with the foreign media began as a Fulbright Scholar in 1994 in Fiji, a forward leaning nation still tethered to its past. The information age had come to the island country, but its media was dominated by a government that turned the camera off when the news wasn’t going its way, and was influenced by the Great Council of Chiefs established by colonialists.
"The average young Fijian doesn’t know that the Council of Chiefs was established by the British," says Hooper, explaining that the society is divided between the generations. The older Fijians obey tribal rituals and rules; the younger Fijians revere Air Jordan tennis shoes and backward baseball caps.
Those frictions helped prepare Hooper for his work in Malaysia and Indonesia, where governments still run the media, but know that currents of change are rippling their traditions as fast as you can log on. The Internet, faxes, and email are bound to overtake them, Hooper says officials there confide. So, it is in their vital interests not to suppress information, but to learn how to live with it.
Why go to Malaysia? Hooper’s fascination with the region started when he was a child and a teacher allowed him to write a paper about any country in the world. "I went through the encyclopedia with great consternation about which country to choose," Hooper recalls. I came across British Malaya and it sounded like a incredibly fascinating country to me...." He wrote his paper and never forgot the area. So, when the fellowship was offered, he accepted.
Why Indonesia? It is the fourth largest nation in the world, just behind the United States and ahead of Russia. Moreover, Indonesia’s vast mineral deposits, and its huge oil reserves - plus its oceanic shipping lanes through Southeast Asia - make it vitally important to the rest of the world.
In Malaysia, he set about helping rebuild its educational programs in television and film. In fact, Hooper says, Malaysia’s past served as a "stellar example of sophisticated film making" that was nearly lost when the nation shifted its focus in the late 1960s to technology and the production of wealth. However, when the information revolution struck and the government noticed the amount of money people were spending on film imports, the country rediscovered the importance of the arts.
In Indonesia, Hooper will visit as a Fulbright Senior Scholar to teach veteran journalists the fundamentals of news gathering — the importance of telling both sides of every story, improved interview skills to get to the bottom of a story, how lighting can help illuminate a story.
"I will help them to think critically, develop stories, develop structure," Hooper said.
He returned a month ago from his last trek abroad, and he clearly is ready to go again - to learn as well as teach. "I feel renewed every time I go because it stretches me," says Hooper. "I will learn at least as much, if not more, than what I teach. The way I teach is not to impose a dominant American structure, but to work with a local culture and see if I can match technology to the local scene..."
After all, Hooper says, his missions are about people helping people.
For example, he recalls, "Malaysia wanted to have the world’s tallest buildings, so it built them - the Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. They always insist that I go to see them because they are so proud of these buildings.... I try to emphasize that the real measure of development is not how big their buildings are, but how mature their democracy is."
His experiences abroad are what attracted him to Dominguez Hills, Hooper says.
"I was drawn here by President Lyons’ vision of building bridges to the world because of what we can learn from other cultures, and the impact we can make," Hooper says. "Selase Williams (dean, College of Arts and Sciences) has that same international sensitivity. He "gets it." And, so do my colleagues in Arts and Sciences. We can all make a difference, being here at Dominguez Hills."
- T.W.
