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Dr. Tudor Vlad giving lectures in Romania. |
Cox Center Associate Director Lectures in Romania
Dr. Tudor Vlad, a senior research scientist in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, gave two lectures to graduate students of the National School of Political Studies and Public Administration (NSPSPA) in Bucharest and held a conference at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca in November and December.
The lectures focused on mass media research methods, while the conference was on the U.S. media coverage of the November elections.
Dr. Vlad is associate director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
"The current media landscape is a challenge and an opportunity for media scholars," Dr. Vlad told the doctoral students in Bucharest. "The new technologies have dramatically changed the industry, and there are many uncertainties regarding the future of the press. But, at the same time, new areas of research have occurred, and your expertise, as scholars and researchers, will be needed and valued."
Dr. Nicoleta Corbu, dean of the NSPSPA's College of Communication and Public Relations, introduced Dr. Vlad to the students. Dr. Corbu was a Fulbright Scholar in the Cox Center in 2008.
In Cluj-Napoca, Dr. Vlad had meetings with Dr. Ioan-Aurel Pop, rector of the Babes-Bolyai University, and with Dr. Calin-Hintea, dean of the College of Political Sciences, Public Administration and Journalism, to plan a training program for Romanian employees in local public administration, in collaboration with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Dr. Vlad is on rector Pop's Board of Advisers.
About 80 students and faculty were in the audience at the conference in Cluj-Napoca.
"People in Europe sometimes don't understand that in the United States the presidential elections consist of 50 distinct elections, each of them with its own rules," said Dr. Vlad. He added that the election was much more intense in the so-called battleground states, that is, states that were thought to be closest and that both candidates contested.
"Some experts argue that the media overstated candidate Romney's win in the first debate, in order to let the public know that there still is a tight race," Dr. Vlad added.
While in Bucharest, Dr. Vlad participated in the ceremonies where the Senate of the NSPSPA awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa to Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center, on December 4.
Dr. Vlad gave one of three testimonials before the awarding of the degree.
