Tag: Tudor Vlad

Murrow Fellows discuss misinformation during visit with Cox International Center

Posted on by Sarah Freeman

Conversations about the effect of 24-hour news, social media and misinformation during elections around the world were a few of the topics discussed when 17 international journalists visited Grady College on Nov. 9, 2022.

The group was part of the Murrow Fellow program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and Poynter and hosted for the day by the Cox International Center. The Murrow Fellows program invited journalists to the United States from around the world including Australia, Taiwan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, just to name a few. The journalists are selected to tour the U.S. and learn about journalistic practices over a three-week period. The journalists were selected by embassies in their home countries.

“This Fellowship is one of the most prestigious media programs funded by the Department of State and we are honored by again be selected to work with these visitors, who are very senior journalists in their home countries,” said Tudor Vlad, executive director of the Cox International Center.

Several former heads of state, including Tony Blair, have been Murrow Fellows in the past.

The international journalists heard from Dean Charles Davis, Jonathan Peters who spoke about media law and Amanda Bright who talked about fact-checking tools used in the United States. All of the discussions focused on this year’s theme, “Media Responsibility in an Age of Disinformation for the Indo-Pacific.”

Tudor Vlad listens to an international journalist during the panel discussion.
Tudor Vlad listens to an international journalist during the panel discussion.

The journalists participated in a panel discussion with students and members of the Communication and Media Fellows Program (formerly the Business and Public Communication Fellows Program), talking about media in their own countries and how disinformation is handled.

Several panelists discussed topics like reporting in collaboration with journalists in other countries since they can’t cover certain topics in their own country. Panelists also talked about the amount of misinformation that is spread during elections in their home country and commented that they were eager to see how elections are treated in the United States.

“It was fun to see cheering and dancing related to the elections yesterday,” commented Nyamdari Baigalmaa, a journalist working with Mongol Content from Mongolia, about the celebrations at campaign headquarters.

There was also a discussion about the effect of 24-hour news channels which the United States has but many of the countries represented in the program do not have.

Lucy Cormack, a state political reporter with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in Australia wondered if some of the misinformation in the U.S. comes from the need to fill a 24-hour news vacuum.

“I am acutely aware of the media freedoms you enjoy,” Cormack said, “but there is such a need to feed this hungry beast 24 hours a day and that need might spawn misinformation.”

She added that she is not sure if errors are intentional in some 24-hour operations or if it’s because they are understaffed, but she noted it’s always better to wait to report a story and be second, than to be wrong.

“It’s so important to confirm stories and be right,” Cormack emphasized.

A question about the role of social media in journalism was asked to the visiting journalists. Although some journalists use social media channels like What’s App or Signal, most have not advanced that far due to security issues with different platforms.

Vlad wrapped up the panel discussion commenting on what he learns from these discussions.

“I always feel like I am cheating because I learn more than I offer,” Vlad said.

Murrow Fellows pose with a group from the Communication and Media Fellows (formerly the BPC Fellows)
Seventeen Murrow Fellows visited Grady College and were hosted by the Cox International Center Nov. 9, 2022. The Murrow Fellows were joined by the Communication and Media Fellows (formerly the BPC Fellows)
For more pictures of the visit with the Murrow Fellows, please see the Murrow Fellows Flickr album.

 

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.”  

 

Jooyoung Kim named director of Cox International Center

Posted on by Sarah Freeman

Jooyoung Kim, the Dan Magill Georgia Athletic Association Professor in Sports Communication, has been named director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.

Tudor Vlad, the current Cox International Center director, will assume a new role as executive director. Vlad has led dozens of international training missions and welcomed hundreds of visiting journalists from around the world to UGA over many years of service to the college.

“Dr. Kim brings a highly successful international program, the Business and Public Communication Fellows Program, under the Cox International Center, marshalling the college’s international training center and its resources,” said Charles N. Davis, dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. “I’m excited to see the Cox Center continue enriching media operations around the world through its training and international research.”

Kim is grateful for the opportunity to work with the Cox Center and continue its mission.

“Through interdisciplinary collaborations with Grady faculty and other excellent units at UGA as well as external experts and organizations worldwide, I hope to continue to build the Cox Center as a global hub for mass communication knowledge production and training,” Kim said.

Kim is the founder and director the Business and Public Communication Fellows Program, a program inviting experienced communication professionals from different countries to study for one year at Grady College. The program, founded in 2010, operates in conjunction with the Cox International Center and has graduated more than 100 students.

“Now under the Cox International Center, the program will flourish even more by attracting international scholars in a wide range of disciplines related to mass communication,” Kim said.

Kim is a professor of advertising and specializes in research on the roles of advertising in branding context and perception. His research also examines advertising and brand communication in the sports context. Kim also directs the Advertising and Branding Insights Studio at UGA to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations that focus on research-driven insights in advertising and branding using various scientific approaches. Kim serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interactive Advertising and was secretary last year of the American Academy of Advertising, an organization dedicated to advertising science and research. He is the co-founder and current vice president of the Korean American Faculty Association at UGA, an organization committed to increasing the visibility of its members and mentoring the Korean and Korean American students on campus.

The James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research began operations in 1985 and is dedicated to conducting media training programs involving countries all over the world, and conducting and publishing research reports on a variety of topics related to the practice of journalism around the world.

Among the activities in the past year that the Cox Center has directed are the development of a series of civic and media management courses for the African Civic Engagement Academy and hosting a group of 21 journalists from the country Georgia for training in digital media.

The Cox Center is named for the late James M. Cox, Jr., chairman of the board of Cox Enterprises and a major figure in the communications industry in the United States in the twentieth century.

Editor’s Note: For more information, please read this April 2022 profile about Jooyoung Kim. 

 

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.