Frank Mulhern, the associate dean and department chair for Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School of Journalism, encouraged a group of journalism students to learn how to “write words and understand numbers” on Sept, 26.

Mulhern said there are a lot of similarities between Medill and the School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University. The two schools are training a new generation of professionals who can thrive and guide a globalizing and evolving media landscape.

“That’s a huge advantage for people who have analytical skills to match with communications skills,” said Mulhern.

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Communications is a part of Northwestern University in America.“The main goal of our program is having a combination of communication strategies and database analytics in one class,” he said. In particular, the Integrated Communications program trains students to specialize in brand strategy, content marketing, direct and interactive marketing, marketing analytics, media management and strategic communications.

“It’s kind of like engineering.” he said. It is “ a combination of art and architecture with actual math so the bridge doesn’t fall down.” The Associate Dean said jobs are given to well-rounded communicators and journalists who work to develop understanding of qualitative and quantitative details.