UF hosts U.S. State Department-funded global media education institute

June 18, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Seven years ago, the Armenian government banned the popular TV station A1+. Starting June 30, a former A1+ reporter will spend six weeks gaining experience in emerging digital fields at the U.S. Department of State-funded Study of the U.S. Institute on Journalism and Media hosted by the University of Florida.

Seda Muradyan, director for the Armenian branch of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, has seen the emergence of new media in her country. For instance, A1+, which operated solely as a TV company before its seven-year ban, recently launched a mobile-phone news operation. Muradyan applied for the Study of the United States Institute on Journalism and Media to acquire new skills as a journalist and media educator.

“I also hope to gain strong personal and professional ties,” she said, “which will contribute to the implementation of different workshops and training programs for Armenian journalists.”

Muradyan joins 17 participants from Nepal, Libya, Cameroon and other countries for the institute’s third consecutive year at UF’s College of Journalism and Communications. The theme again this summer is “New Freedoms in Media: Teaching the Digital Journalism of Tomorrow.” The State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs awarded the college $290,000 to run the institute, a $10,000 increase from last year. Feedback from last year’s participants helped to improve the program. Participants said they enjoyed working with online tools, particularly social network sites.

Through the institute, professors and professionals will teach participants a variety of skills, such as creating blogs and podcasts and using Photoshop. They’ll also educate the participants about freedom of the press in the United States.

“Institute leaders strive to deepen the participants’ understanding of the critical role of journalism and media in the United States and challenge participants to think about how media can make positive contributions in the context of their countries and cultures,” said the program’s academic director, Sylvia Chan-Olmsted, the college’s associate dean for research and a telecommunication professor.

The institute also offers a two-week study tour of newsrooms in Miami, Washington, D.C., and New York City. There, they’ll study “minority journalism challenges and opportunities with journalists in converged newsrooms, as well as visiting the Federal Communications Commission, Bloomberg and The New York Times,” Chan-Olmsted said.

The Study of the U.S. Institutes (SUSI) for Student Leaders are designed by the Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to promote a better understanding of the U.S. abroad and to help develop future world leaders. Institute participants are among the more than 40,000 academic and professional exchange program participants overseen annually by ECA. Other ECA programs include the Fulbright Program and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. For more information about ECA programs, visit http://exchanges.state.gov/.