By Kelly Fisher

Member-scholars of the Worlds of Journalism Study traveled from the United States, Qatar, Albania and El Salvador, and other countries, to attend the research group’s convention.

The convention, which took place March 27-29 in Thessaloniki, Greece, aimed to address the question, “Journalism in Transition: Crisis or Opportunity?,” which is a topic selected by the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).
According to the Worlds of Journalism Study’s (WJS) official website, the organization “is an academically driven project that was founded to regularly assess the state of journalism throughout the world.

“The Study’s primary objective is to help journalism researchers, practitioners, media managers and policy makers better understand world views and changes that are taking place in the professional orientations of journalists, the conditions and limitations under which they operate, as well as the social functions of journalism in a changing world.”

Topics of the conference included methodological problems in survey research, exploring epistemology and news practice, violence against journalists in the Central American region and more.

Dr. Arnold De Beer of South Africa and Dr. Yusuf Kalyango, director of the Institute for International Journalism (IIJ) at Ohio University, was among the African scholars who talked about cross-national survey in a developing context.

More than 80 countries participated in the study, bringing in data from all over the world. Dr. Thomas Hanitzsch, chair of the Worlds of Journalism Study, said the Study’s data are expected to be published in mid-2015 and expects the book to be on shelves approximately two years later.

By Kelly Fisher

German journalist Johannes Boie is taking a break from reporting with one of Germany’s leading national daily newspapers, Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, to Athens in one of his stops, to give lectures in several journalism classes, meet with international professors and visit some regional media institutions.

Boie arrives in Athens on Sunday, April 20 and departs Friday, April 25. During his time in the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism, he will talk about Convergence in Multimedia Reporting in Germany in Dr. Hans Meyer, Dr. Aimee Edmondson and Dr. Bernhard Debatin’s classes, among others.

He covers the impact of digital technology on society, politics and the economy and has assisted in creating digital versions of Süddeutsche Zeitung for iPhone, iPad, Android, and Windows 8. 

When he returns to Germany, Boie plans to research monitoring programs of U.S. intelligence agencies and the effects of digitalization of the American media and society.

In 2010, Boie was named one of the top 30 journalists under 30 by Medium Magazin.

“We sent our first fellow to Ohio University last fall, Simon Kruse, [of Moscow], and he had a fantastic time,” Caroline Martinet, coordinator for the Transatlantic Media Network at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said in an email.

The Transatlantic Media Network at the Center for Strategic & International Studies holds the Transatlantic Media Fellowship program, which allows an individual journalist to spend up to three months in another country for a visiting fellowship. The program is funded by the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation for Advanced Education in International Industrial Entrepreneurship.

“Fellows operate with complete editorial independence and are entirely free to draw their own conclusions about America and Americans on the basis of their travels and experiences,” the website states. “The program covers all costs of the fellowships, which are usually awarded to journalists with little previous direct experience in the United States.”

Aside from guest lectures, Boie will have the opportunity to travel to Columbus for a day to tour the Columbus Dispatch newsroom and a local TV station.

On Wednesday, April 23, he will provide interviews with The Post and at WOUB on government surveillance and privacy issues, and attend a journalism awards banquet in Baker Center Ballroom.

By Kelly Fisher

Students from the schools of the Scripps College of Communication interviewed for an opportunity of a life-time to intern with the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The World Cup is one of the largest sporting events in the world.

The interviews were conducted by a USSF executive, director of communications, Mr. Neil Buethe, at the Schoonover Center of Communication in Athens, Ohio, assisted by the director of the Institute for International Journalism, Dr. Yusuf Kalyango, in the E.W. School of Journalism.

Kalyango said students will be selected within “a couple days” after the interviews take place.

Ten students will be selected for the internship, which begins June 7 and ends on July 3, 2014. Winners will be announced by April 16, 2014.

Students will have the opportunity to explore Brazil by traveling to Manaus, Natal, or Recife to cover the games in which the U.S. National Team will be playing, and they will perform some journalistic and strategic communication work under the supervision of the USSF.

By Kelly Fisher

The Institute for International Journalism (IIJ) in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism is developing a steady and meaningful partnership with Al-Farabi Kazakh Nation University (KazNU). In the second year of academic exchanges, the IIJ entered into some joint research partnerships with some members of KazNU’s Faculty of Journalism.

Director of the IIJ, Dr. Yusuf Kalyango, traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan from February 21 through March 8, for undergraduate studies consultations and public opinion research training. This collaboration is a continuation of the Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) on Journalism and Media post-institute activities, which led to a Memorandum of Understanding between KazNU and Ohio University(OU) in 2012. 

Kalyango’s lectures and consultations included conceptualizing research ideas, formulating hypotheses, collecting and analyzing data, or the “A to Z of Public Opinion Empirical Research.”
KazNU students expressed appreciation for the partnership between the IIJ at OU and KazNU.

“Dr. Kalyango's project gave us a chance to write a high quality term paper, a chance [for undergraduate students] to be published in [an] International online magazine, [and an opportunity for] publication in a scientific magazine… and our project that we made will be presented on a Global conference in Montreal, Canada,” Madina Baimagambayeva, one of the students, said in an email.
She added that the experience and knowledge that she gained were “unforgettable.”

Another student, Aliya Nurshaikhova, said that groups of students wrote reports using statistical analyses and made questionnaires for KazNU students regarding social media site’s influences on people’s bodies.

“The answers [survey responses] were collected in a couple of days, so we started using SPSS [software],” she recalled. “Our students can now predict with confidence the answers to some of the questions according to the theme. Also, they can use those facts for their future analysis and their own personal researches and make smart decisions or easily solve problems.”
Two weeks later, she said, Kalyango selected six students to present their research analysis to the Myssayeva and to assist him in collecting information for a future publication.

Kalyango’s lectures and consultations at KazNU were part of the IIJ-SUSI post-Institute program events. The SUSI summer institute is funded by an annual renewable grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Study of the U.S. Branch in the Office of Academic Exchange Programs. Scholars from all over the world come to the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University to be exposed to journalism practice and media institutions in the United States, according to a previous Institute for International Journalism post.

In the midst of the busy schedule, Kalyango experienced Kazakh culture by going to the movies, trying traditional foods, and attending a ballet performance of Romeo and Juliet. “(KazNU) students have had a lot of fun working together with professor and we hope to see (Kalyango) this summer again,” Nurshaikhova said.