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Dr. Leara Rhodes with Mary Kay Mitchell at the Cox Center Inaugural Get Together. |
International Inaugural Get Together Featuring Dr. Leara Rhodes' Book, "Peace Through Media"
Dr. Leara Rhodes, journalism professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, told an audience of 30 faculty, students and friends on March 26, 2018, that her book Peace Through Media is in part the result of her experiences while conducting mass communication research and teaching abroad.
“I developed the concept for this book years ago through my work with media in Haiti, Trinidad, and Tanzania, and later developed it through conversations with colleagues at the University of Ulster in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry,” said the author, whose research has focused on the role media play in society.
During her career, Dr. Rhodes has examined the roles media play in forming a more democratic society, in improving management philosophies for media owners, and in changing societal norms. In another book, Democracy and the Role of the Haitian Media, she analyzed the role of the press during a country’s transition from an autocratic to a more democratic form of government, while in Ethnic Media: Reshaping the American Dream she used examples from many different foreign language presses published in the United States to argue how these presses reshaped the American Dream.
Peace Through Media was the subject of an event organized by the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research titled International Journalism Inaugural Get Together. The Cox International Center is an outreach unit of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
“Many of our colleagues have done research on foreign mass communication and have conducted media assistance programs abroad,” said Dr. Tudor Vlad, director of the Cox International Center. “I think it is the duty of our Center to reflect and promote such initiatives and to better coordinate the international activities of the Grady College. We are glad that we have the opportunity to inaugurate this program with a discussion of Leara’s book.”
“This volume is a valuable companion to standard reporting texts, in an era of globalization of both traditional and social media,” Mary Kay Mitchell told the participants in the discussion. “I enjoyed very much reading the entire book, and especially Chapter 10, that gives students seventeen specific steps to becoming conflict sensitive journalists.”
Mary Kay Mitchell, WUGA’s News Director from 1987 until 2011, whose media work has garnered well over 100 awards, was the guest speaker for the first International Get Together event organized by the Cox Center.
