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Dr. Tudor Vlad, Associate Director of the Cox International Center, speaking with Masters students at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. |
Associate Director Teaches MA Course In Romania
Dr. Tudor Vlad, the associate director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research at the University of Georgia, told Masters students at Babes‑Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, that the new technologies have created opportunities for local government managers to communicate with their citizens and to help them engage in civic participation.
Dr. Vlad made his comments during an intensive course he taught from Feb. 8 to 12 in the Public Administration and Management program of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Studies at the Romanian university.
The program was the result of the partnership between the Romanian university and the Cox International Center. Twenty-four students attended the course.
The Cox International Center is the international outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.
“As a result of the economic crisis, many newsrooms in Romania have much fewer reporters than 10 years ago, and the coverage of local events and communities often is very limited or inaccurate,” Dr. Vlad said. “New categories of communicators, however, such as citizen and community journalists or bloggers, have started to fill this gap, but they need your assistance."
“Make sure that you make all the relevant information available to them, and they will do for their communities what many media organizations have stopped doing,” Dr. Vlad advised the students.
Many of the participants in the course were already working in public administration.
While in Cluj-Napoca, Dr. Vlad also met with Dr. Ioan-Aurel Pop, Rector of Babes-Bolyai University, and talked about the partnership between the University of Georgia and the Romanian higher education institution. The collaboration has been in a variety of areas, such as journalism, public administration, chemistry and agriculture communication.
“We are glad to see our partnership expanding every year and we hope that some of our joint programs will attract international students,” said Dr. Pop. “Good public administration, transparent communication, and investigative journalism are crucial for emerging democracies, and educational initiatives focusing on these issues have the potential to bring stability and prosperity in East and Central Europe.”
After the program in Cluj-Napoca, Dr. Vlad made a stop in Bucharest at the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, where he met with Dr. Nicoleta Corbu, dean of the College of Communication and Public Relations. The goal of the visit was to plan the annual program that the Cox International Center and the Romanian college organize together.
In 2016, the workshop will be held in June and the topic will be “Europe at Crossroads: A view from the United States.”
