Journalists from countries including Nigeria, Kosovo and Japan arrived at the University March 19 to study democracy and the media as part of the University's Media Fellows Program.
The program, run by the DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism, brings together American journalists, international reporters, editors and others involved in the media five times each year. Ten journalists arrived last week and will remain at the University until April 14, joining three who are spending the entire academic year on campus. Two more will spend a week at the University within the next month.
Ken Rogerson, the research director for the DeWitt Wallace Center, said the program is the most far-reaching of its kind. "We have more international journalists than any other similar program in the United States," he said.
The program aims to allow its participants to discuss and reflect on the role of the media in a democracy through a series of seminars, said Program Coordinator Laurie Bley. "At the same time, they interact with each other," Bley said. "They get to spend time together talking about challenges they face as journalists." She added that some journalists who met during the program had gone on to produce articles together.
Ibrahim Gashi, the news editor for the Kosova Information Center in Kijeva, Kosovo, said he has enjoyed the program so far. "The most interesting part of the program is some of the sessions we have," he said. "It's amazing to see how diverse those problems [of journalists from other countries] are."
Yonat Shimron, a religion reporter for The News & Observer of Raleigh, said these discussions were particularly useful. "It's interesting for me to hear what other journalists around the world are facing; what kind of conflicts they have, what kind of problems they're facing," she said. "We take the media here for granted."
The fellows can also take advantage of the academic resources at the University, and Gashi said participants can attend University lectures.
Rogerson the program tends to look for journalists who want to change their careers within journalism or study their areas of specialty more closely.
"I think that [the program's] value is giving reporters a way to step away from their work for a month that most journalists never get," Shimron said. "This kind of is my sabbatical."
In addition to attending special seminars and lectures, some journalists also give their own presentations. This spring, Ryszard Holzer, deputy head of the national news department for the Gazeta Wyborcza of Warsaw, Poland, will deliver an open lecture on Poland in the 21st century April 5.
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