Two SUSI scholars will present research papers at AEJMC National Convention

With the academic assistance of several faculty members of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism , three original research papers written by two of the SUSI 2011 scholars have been accepted to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) National Convention. The annual conference will be held in St. Louis from Aug. 10 to Aug. 13.

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.

Dr. Nnamdi T. Ekeanyanwu, a senior lecturer at Covenant University in Nigeria, will present two papers at the conference. His paper titled “Press Coverage of Nigerian President Yar’ Adua’s Pre-Election Campaign: A Case Study on Agenda-setting” was accepted to the Political Communication Interest Group. He will also do a poster presentation for the Cultural and Critical Studies Division on his paper, “Theorizing Cultural Development vis-à-vis Cultural Imperialism Theory: Lessons from Nigeria.”

Peddiboyina VijayaLakshmi, an associate professor at Sri Padmavathi Women's University in India, will present one paper at the conference. Titled “Use of Social Networking Sites: An Exploratory Study of Indian Teenagers,” she will give a formal presentation for the Communication Technology (CTEC)/Open Competition.

For the first time, Dr. Yusuf Kalyango, the director of the Institute for International Journalism , encouraged all of the scholars to submit original research papers to the conference. Drs. Anne Cooper-Chen, Guido Stempel and Yusuf Kalyango as well as doctoral student Ed Simpson edited eight research papers in March.

These staff members had three weeks to edit each paper and provide the proper feedback to the authors in order for each author to make the appropriate corrections before the April 1 deadline. After reading and editing those papers, they advised two scholars not to submit to the conference. Therefore, three of the six papers submitted were accepted for presentation.

All 18 SUSI scholars will attend the annual conference in August.