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Visiting Research Scholar, Enes Abanoz. |
Turkish Graduate Student Spends Two Months in the Cox Center
Enes Abanoz, a graduate student at the Marmara University, Istanbul, Turkey, spent two months this summer in the Cox International Center working on his master’s thesis, The Effects of Convergence on the News Production Process in the Information Society: A Research on News Agency Employees.
The Cox Center is the international outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
“When I decided to apply for funding, I did an online search for communication research centers in the United States and applied to four of them," Abanoz said. "I got acceptance from the University of Georgia and Arizona State and I picked UGA and the Cox Center.“
The Turkish Higher Education Board provided funding for Abanoz’s research trip to the University of Georgia through a program that is designed to offer M.A. and Ph.D. students international professional assistance.
In the summary of his thesis, Abanoz stated that convergence has played a crucial role in the process of digitization of information. The convergence in communication influences the economic, political, social and cultural structures. His study explores the changes that are caused by convergence on the news production process on news agencies and on news agency employees.
“Drs. Becker and Vlad have been very friendly and helpful,” the guest said. “It was easy to stay in Athens and reach all the sources in the university. Dr. Becker also provided some information about the analysis part of my thesis and about doctoral education in the United States.”
Abanoz met other Grady faculty in the Telecommunications Department to discuss his thesis and other research topics. He talked with Dr. Jeong Yeob Han about potential doctoral areas of mass communication research, such as health communication studies. Dr. Itai Himelboim advised the Turkish visitor about the design of a survey that would focus on nomophobia, an abbreviation for "no mobile phone phobia," the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.
Abanoz said his only regret while being in Athens is that he did not have more time to visit other places in the South-East, with the exception of a short trip to South Carolina.
