Faculty: Vlad, Tudor

Cox International Center welcomes group of journalists from Sri Lanka

Posted on by Jackson Schroeder

On July 14, 2022, the James M. Cox Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research welcomed seven journalists from Sri Lanka to Grady College, where they spent the day touring College facilities and taking classes on digital media and journalism in the United States. 

The visit to Grady was as a part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program’s Media in a Democracy Project.

Amanda Bright speaks in front of the journalists visiting from Sri Lanka.
Amanda Bright speaks with the visiting journalists about key concepts in news literacy. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)

While at Grady, the group of Sri Lankan journalists listened to lectures and participated in discussions led by Tudor Vlad, director of the Cox International Center, Amanda Bright, director of the Cox Institute Journalism Innovation Lab, Janice Hume, the Carolyn McKenzie and Don E. Carter Chair for Excellence in Journalism and incoming associate dean of academic affairs, and David Hazinski, professor emeritus. 

“We were pleased and honored to put together a training program for the Sri Lankan journalists here at Grady College,” said Vlad. “This is an extraordinary time for Sri Lanka, and all my colleagues who contributed to the sessions were aware of the turmoil that the country is going through and by the important role that journalists will play in the following weeks.” 

The Grady faculty members led discussions about the responsibility of the media, the need to inform citizens while avoiding incitement, and about the opportunities for journalists to contribute to the process of democratization, Vlad explained. 

The visitors, who are managers, editors and producers of newspapers, television stations, radio stations and news websites in Sri Lanka, were also led on a tour through the College, making stops by the Grady Newsource facilities, the Social Media Engagement and Evaluation Suite and elsewhere.

Tudor Vlad gives Sri Lankan visitors a tour of Grady Newsource.
Before lunch, Tudor Vlad (left) walked the visitors through a tour of Grady Newsource, the SEE Suite and elsewhere.

“The topics are not new to us, but the technologies and the approach are. So, it’s really good for us and helps us think differently,” one visiting Sri Lankan journalist explained. “The University and the media school, we don’t have these types of facilities in Sri Lanka, but I’m hoping that younger Sri Lankan students can come here and get this experience.”  

 

Cox International Center welcomes young Georgian journalists for digital media training

Posted on by Jackson Schroeder

From March 28 to April 8, 21 early-to-mid-career journalists from the country Georgia are at Grady College taking classes in the area of digital media. 

Following a week at Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, the young group of international journalists is now spending two weeks in Athens, studying multi-platform storytelling, media engineering, convergence in the newsroom, execution of fact-checking operations and new trends in media business models.

Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the Georgia Media Education Program (MEP) is a partnership between the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and the New Media Institute, both units of Grady College, along with Poynter Institute.

Tudor Vlad moderates discussion between Georgian journalists and Grady students.
Tudor Vlad moderates the discussion between Georgian journalists and Grady students. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder)

“We are very happy that this program, funded by a grant awarded to the Cox International Center in 2019, is finally taking place,” said Tudor Vlad, director of the Cox Center. “In the last three years, we’ve planned and rescheduled the visit of the Georgian journalists many times, due to COVID restrictions. Now, after five days at the Poynter Institute in Florida, our guests are here in Grady College for two weeks.”

Listening to lectures and participating in discussions in Grady classrooms, the international journalists are reviewing how storytelling has been impacted in the digital era, how U.S. media organizations work and develop new business models, how to effectively use social media platforms, how to transition from print to digital storytelling, the role of media in the process of democratization in transitional societies, and the relationship between media and government in emerging democracies. 

“It’s a great experience,” said Rusudan Panozishvili, a freelance journalist from Georgia participating in the program. “We are meeting really experienced professionals. We also are gaining some practical, hands-on experience. It’s overwhelming to be on this huge campus, which is really impressive.” 

Rusudan Panozishvili speakes to Grady students during March 31 lunch.
Rusudan Panozishvili speaks to Grady students during March 31 lunch. (Photo: Jackson Schroeder.)

During the day, the student group participates in courses taught by Amanda Bright, a journalism professor and the director of the Cox Institute Journalism Innovation Lab, Leah Moss, an instructor and the emerging media faculty advisor at the New Media Institute, John Weatherford, senior lecturer in emerging media studies and the New Media Institute, and David Hazinski, professor emeritus. 

The Georgian journalists certainly are not the only ones benefiting from this visit. On March 31, the group also participated in a lunch in Grady’s Peyton Anderson Forum with a cohort of current Grady students. The Grady students were awarded the opportunity to ask the Georgian group a series of questions about their country and professional experiences.

 “We think that their presence in our school is beneficial to them and also to our students, who have the opportunity to learn about media in emerging democracies in the former Soviet space,” Vlad explained.

 

Hooper & Sanford podcast: Tudor Vlad

Posted on by Dayne Young

Tudor Vlad is the director of the Cox International Center, an organization that helps offer resources and promote free journalism around the world. Vlad joins Dayne Young on the Hooper & Sanford podcast to discuss how journalists can overcome their international challenges. He recaps what the Cox Center is doing through the pandemic to continue to serve global storytelling. He also offers advice to journalists covering government and military stories such as those recently occurring in Afghanistan.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. You can also hear it on Spotify. Learn more about Grady College podcasts here. 

Tudor Vlad named director of the Cox Center

Posted on by Don McClain

Tudor Vlad has been named the director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research. Vlad, who has served as the center’s associate director since 2008, assumed his director responsibilities when Lee Becker retired June 30, 2017.

“Tudor is imminently qualified to continue the great work fostered by the Cox International Center in the years ahead,” said Charles Davis, dean of Grady College where the Cox Center is based. “I’m indebted to Tudor for his willingness to jump right in and help me with several international initiatives emerging.”

Vlad has a doctorate from the Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Bucharest. He came to the Cox Center as a Fulbright senior scholar. Prior to moving to Georgia, Vlad was a member of the faculty of the Department of Journalism at the Babes-Bolyai University, which he founded and chaired. He is a director of the World Free Press Institute and is the author of two non-fiction books, four novels and numerous studies, scholarly materials and articles published in the United States and in Europe.

Vlad is excited about the future of the Cox Center. “What I want to do is to use the international expertise of Grady faculty who focus on communication, and partner with other UGA units, such as the Carl Vinson Institute of Government and SPIA. This multidisciplinary approach will be beneficial to the international visibility of the University of Georgia.”

Vlad has been involved in more than 53 U.S. led international programs in 23 countries that foster democracy and stability in emerging democracies by promoting freedom of speech, independent media and inter-ethnic dialog. He has conducted training programs for journalists and journalism educators in Belarus, Hungary, Kenya, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Ukraine, among others.

Vlad has been recognized by numerous organizations for his work including, most recently, the Intellectual Dialogue and Educational Advancement Society for his “valuable efforts towards continuously fostering democracy and stability globally.”

The  Cox Center was created in 1985, and in 1990 was named for the late James M. Cox Jr., chairman of the board of Cox Enterprises. Each year, the center conducts multiple media workshops for journalists from around the world, publishes technical reports and directs research on a variety of topics related to the practice of journalism around the world. To date, more than 142 training programs have been offered involving journalists from all over the world. The Cox Center has also been the proud host of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists the past eight years.

Journalists from North Africa and the Near East visit Grady College

Posted on by admin

Updated Nov. 22, 2016

For the eighth consecutive year, Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication was selected to host international journalists who were participating in the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists.  This year’s program included 16 journalists representing 12 North African and Near East countries.

As in the past, the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research—housed at the college—organized and managed the program.

“Only seven schools across the country were selected out of about 480 journalism programs, so the fact that our college has been recognized and chosen year after year reflects the merit of our program,” said Tudor Vlad, associate director of the Cox International Center.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program, this year’s Murrow Program brought journalists from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia to participate in a three-week visit. The program was designed as an exchange of best practices, an overview of free press in a democracy and the opportunity for the Murrow journalists to gain insight into the social economic and political structures of the U.S.

The journalists arrived in Athens on Nov. 3 and stayed through Nov. 9. They spent the first part of their visit in Atlanta meeting with editors from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and CNN.  They also toured the Athens area and neighboring Oconee County.

While on UGA’s campus Nov. 7-8, the Murrow journalists met with Grady College Dean Charles Davis and Murrow Student Hosts.  Designating student hosts was an innovation in the program last year. This year, 12 students served as hosts, one for each of the 12 countries represented by the Murrow delegation.

“Over the past few years, we’ve increased the number of opportunities students have to interact with the journalists and learn from them,” said Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox International Center. “We found that the journalists have enjoyed the chance to spend more one-on-one time with students and the in-depth discussions that have resulted. We’ve had a lot of success, so much so that the State Department has asked that other universities do the same.”

The Murrow Journalists and Murrow Student Hosts participated in discussions about the principles of health communication and the goals of health and medical journalism, and U.S. journalism and mass communication education.

“This was a great opportunity for people from a part of the world that is very important to us, but that we know far less about than we should, to talk to our students, and for our students to share with them their experiences here at Grady College,” Becker said. “The students enjoyed and learned a lot from meeting with the journalists, who seemed very pleased as well.”

Taylor Cromwell, a senior journalism and international affairs double major, served as one of the student hosts.

“It was so eye-opening to hear the personal stories of all of these journalists,” Cromwell said. “I found out that we have so much more in common as journalists, even though we all came from very different backgrounds, and I think that everyone could learn from this experience.”

The visiting journalists also had the opportunity to observe the college’s digital and broadcast journalism majors in the newsroom of Grady Newsource on Election Day, and visit the Red & Black and Flagpole.

The following students were selected to represent Grady College and participate in the program as Murrow Student Hosts:

•       Dori Butler

•       Taylor Cromwell

•       Shelby Duffy

•       Emily Haney

•       Ja’Leia Johnson

•       Thomas McNeill Jordan

•       Noelle Lashley

•       Christina Matacotta

•       Martha Michael

•       Keion Pitts

•       Mollie Simon

•       Sarah Warui

For more information about the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, visit https://eca.state.gov/highlight/edward-r-murrow-program-journalists.