News 2000-2001 Academic Year
Thirteen media professionals and representatives of government communications from north Africa and the Middle East toured the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication August 21 and participated in a presentation and discussion about mass media education in the United States.
Cox Center Research Assistant Daniels Receives Barrow Minority Scholarship
Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication doctoral student and James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research research assistant George Daniels has been selected as the recipient of the Lionel C. Barrow Minority Doctoral Scholarship for support of his research on career decision-making.
The announcement was made at the August meeting of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in Washington.
Cox Center Research Clerk Begins Semester at Chilean Univerity
Anna-Elisa Mackowiak, a research clerk in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and a student in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, in which the Cox Center is housed, traveled to Chile's capital of Santiago at the beginning of August to attend the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC).
Cox Center Receives Knight Contract to Develop Mid-career Program Evaluation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has given the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research a contract for $73,800 to help the Miami foundation develop an evaluation plan for the various mid-career training programs for journalists it funds.
The project, which began in July, involves an overview of the various Knight programs and what is known about their impact on the field, an assessment of the status of mid-career training for journalists generally, and a plan for evaluation of a select number of Knight funded journalism mid-career training programs.
Michele Head Joins Cox Center Staff
Michele Head, a University of Georgia employee for the last two years, moved to the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research as a program coordinator in July. She is specializing in budget development, tracking and processing university records and other financial matters in the Center.
Grady Graduate Student Edwards Visits Germany, Belgium In RIAS Broadcast Exchange Program
A University of Georgia doctoral student was among 19 American journalists and journalism instructors who participated in RIAS Berlin Commission's summer fellowship exchange program in June.
Heidi Edwards, a third-year doctoral student in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, spent two weeks in Germany studying topics ranging from the intricacies and issues of the German government to the introduction of the euro currency to debate on biotechnology ethics.
Cox Center Receives Grant from ALO For Project with Unity College in Ethiopia
The Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO) has awarded the James L. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research $97,800 for a two- year project to assist Unity College in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in expanding its journalism curriculum.
The Cox Center will help Unity strengthen and expand its journalism curriculum, develop a presence on the Internet, and gain expertise in a variety of curricular areas.
Cox Center and Grady College Selected to Host Muskie Fellow
The Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia is among a select number of journalism programs in the United States selected to host Muskie Journalism Fellows for academic year 2001-2002.The Fellow will be housed in and involved in the work of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.
Cox Center Staff and Students Honor Former Director Dr. Al Hester in June
Cox Center staff and students honored Center Founding Director Dr. Al Hester in early June with a lunch at the University of Georgia Faculty Center following an "unveiling" of a photographic portrait of Hester in the Cox Center.
The photograph of Dr. Hester was hung in the entranceway to the Center in May, near a portrait of James M. Cox Jr., for whom the Center is named, but Dr. Hester first saw his framed likeness at the June gathering.
Canberra Professor Discusses Guidelines For Media Coverage of Suicide, Mental Illness
Dr. R. Warwick Blood, professor of Communication at the University of Canberra in Australia, discussed governmental guidelines for coverage of suicide and mental illness while visiting the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research in May.
Dr. Blood said there is considerable concern in Australia that reports of suicide in the media lead to imitation. As a result, the government has issued a reporting kit that recommends, among other things, that the media avoid "overly explicit descriptions, photographs or video of the method and location" in stories about suicide.
Cox Center Research Team Examines Media Professionalism
Research on the professionalism of journalists both in the U.S. and abroad can be advanced by a re-examination of how journalists evaluate their work settings, a Cox Center research team reported at the International Communication Association conference in Washington in late May.
Journalists in Shanghai, Beijing Workshops Learn about Coverage of Business and Trade
More than 50 journalists in Shanghai and Beijing conducted mock interviews and participated in other exercises as part of workshops conducted by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research in May to help them learn how to cover international business and trade.
The Shanghai workshop spanned five days and was designed as a run-up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference scheduled for that city in October. Twenty-four broadcast and print journalists from 16 different media organizations in the city participated.
Research Finds Expertise Not Considered In Making Newsroom Beat Assignments
Expertise - at least in terms of formal training - does not seem to be a key element in the assignment of reporters to cover special beats, according to an article authored by a research team from the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and appearing in Newspaper Research Journal.
Romanian Scholar Explores Future Projects On Return Visit Home in April and May
In late April and early May Dr. Tudor Vlad, visiting research scientist in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Communication Training and Research, returned to Romania to contact Romanian institutions that might be interested in professional cooperation with the Cox Center in the future.
In Bucharest, Dr. Vlad met Dr. Vasile Dincu, the Minister of Public Information, which had been established only six months earlier to promote communication at all levels of Romanian governmental administration. Dr. Dincu said the expertise of the Cox Center could be very important for the ministry.
Visitors from Ukraine, Romania and the Netherlands Include Stops in Cox Center on Itineraries
Government and communication specialists from Ukraine, Romania and the Netherlands visited the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research in March and April, where they met with Center staff and graduate and undergraduate students.
In early April, Dr. Nick Palinchak, director of the Institute for Public Administration and Regional Development of Uzhgorod State University in Ukraine and his research associated, Dr. Svitlana Slava, visited the Cox Center and the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, in which the Cox Center is located, while learning about the resources of the University of Georgia.
Cox Center Director Travels to Munich, Amsterdam To Discuss Graduate Student Exchanges
Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker met with mass communication professors at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany, and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands in the first week of April to discuss graduate student exchanges between those two universities and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
12 Government and Advocacy Group Leaders From Bosnia Herzegovina Visit Center in April
Twelve government officials and representatives of non-governmental agencies from Bosnia Herzegovina included a stop in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia in their two-week visit to Georgia in April.
The group came to the United States to learn about the relationships between governments and advocacy groups, and they came to the Grady College to learn about public relations and public relations education.
Ukrainian and Belarusian Journalists Discuss Scientific Sources of Environmental Health Stories
Journalists and scientists have different goals when they consider communicating about science to the public, 16 Ukrainian and two Belarusian journalists were told in a three-day workshop on environmental health reporting held in Kyiv the last week of March.
Journalists need to understand the goals of scientists so they can negotiate with them to gain access to important scientific findings in the areas of health and the environment, the journalists were told. Scientists have important information that the journalists should use in writing about environmental health issues, they were told.
Faculty Member from Bucharest Observes Grady College Instruction
Ms. Madalina Balasescu, a professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Bucharest, Romania, began her month-long visit to the University of Georgia in the middle of April with the intent to learn how to teach broadcast production and management.
Russian Professors Discuss Cox Center, Future Linkages with Their University
Four Professors from the Moscow State Law Academy Institute in Orenburg in southern Russia learned about the work of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and journalism education at the University of Georgia during a visit to the Center in April.
Five Professors from Kazakhstan Discuss U.S. and Romainian Journalism Education
Five Kazakhstani journalism professors from four different universities in the Asian country talked about models of journalism education and techniques for teaching journalism during a one-day program at the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia in February.
Cox Center Director Discusses Evaluation With Knight Foundation in Miami Meeting
Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker traveled to Miami in January to serve as a consultant to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in its efforts to evaluate the effectiveness of its midcareer journalism training programs.
New Staff Member Joins Center To Assist with Grant Writing
Joan Zitzelman, a communication specialist with extensive experience in business and government relations, became the newest member of the Cox Center when she joined the staff as a program coordinator in December.
Workshop on Financial Journalism Discussed for Shanghai in 2001
During a meeting in December in Shanghai, Jiao Yang, deputy director of Shanghai's Information Office, and Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker agreed to develop plans to collaborate on a workshop for journalists in Shanghai in 2001.
The workshop is tentatively planned for the summer and would focus on financial journalism. The Information Office of Shanghai Municipality would host the workshop for local journalists. The Cox Center would provide experts to lead the sessions on financial journalism.
Study Finds Size and Nature of Community Influence International Staffing at Newspapers
While one would expect newspapers serving ethnically diverse communities and communities with a large number of international businesses to be staffed by foreign news experts, this is only true if the community itself is large.
Haitian Journalists Discuss U.S. Elections During November Visit to University of Georgia
Seventeen Haitian journalists visited the University of Georgia in early November to meet with journalism students and faculty and to discuss, among other topics, the U.S. presidential elections, still without a declared winner at the time.
The journalists came to Henry W. Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia to learn about journalism education in the United States and to find American experts who can help them in their battle for a free press in their home country. The visit was supported by the U.S. Department of State.
Chinese City Managers Learn Of Press-Government Conflicts
City managers from Shanghai and Beijing visited the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication in October, where they were given some differing perspectives on the relationships between media and government in a democracy.
Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, criticized the U.S. media for what he called "excesses" in coverage of the scandals of President Bill Clinton's presidency while he defended the right of the media to deal critically with behaviors of government.
Three Broadcast Journalists from Germany Meet Students, Faculty, Media Professionals
In 10 days, the three German broadcast journalists got a snapshot of Georgia.
They led classroom discussions in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, answered questions from students, and posed questions of their own.
They met faculty, toured the university campus, and explored the city of Athens.
Eight Montenegrin Journalists Visit Cox Center While Democratic Change Takes Place in Yugoslavia
The Cox Center hosted eight journalists from Montenegro on October 6–the very day the Yugoslav people revolted against President Slobodan Milosevic's regime and expressed their support for Vojislav Kostunica, the democratically-elected President of Yugoslavia, of which Montenegro is a part.
The Montenegrin journalists said the visit provided them a unique opportunity to see how American media were covering an important international event through live reporting and the constant updating of American newspaper websites.
German Exchange Program Focuses on Unification Issues
As was only fitting given the timing, the RIAS Berlin Kommission Exchange program for American electronic journalists in October focused on the unfinished work of integration of east and west Germany into one cohesive country.
The program began in Berlin two days before the Federal Republic of Germany celebrated its 10th anniversary of unification on October 3. University of Georgia. Participants, including University of Georgia professor Dr. C. Ann Hollifield and Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker, joined the celebration ceremonies at the Brandenburg Tor, in the heart of unified Berlin but in the former no man's land just east of the Berlin Wall only 12 years earlier.
Ukrainian Journalists Take Part in Marketing Research Workshop
How to write questionnaires. How to conduct focus groups. How to do scientific sampling. How to get systematic feedback from advertisers. How to use marketing research to gain an edge in a competitive media environment.
These were among the topics 15 Ukrainian journalists learned about in a three-day workshop in late September in Yalta, in the Crimea region of the country.
Cox Center Director Advises Washington Board
Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker provided expert advice to the Broadcasting Board of Governors in Washington in September on the Board's methodology for reviewing U.S. international radio and television broadcasting.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors supervises Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and Television Marti and Worldnet Television. Included are 61 discrete language services reaching an estimated worldwide weekly audience of 110 million.
Dr. Becker was asked to critique the method used by the Board of Governors to assess its services and offer suggestions regarding alternative strategies.
Doctoral Student in Linguistics from Ukraine Visits UGA on Regional Scholar Exchange
Oleksandr Kapranov, a doctoral student at the Kiev State Linguistics University, arrived in Athens in late August to start a four-month-long visit during which he will conduct research on the structure of advertising used in television news programming.
Romanian Scholar Extends Stay in Cox Center for Second Year
Dr. Tudor Vlad, chairman of the Department of Journalism of the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, will continue his work in the Cox Center for a second year, helping the Center and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication find alternative ways to provide training abroad.
