Scripps Initiates Partnership with D.C.'s Center for Strategic and International Studies

By: Cassie Kelly

Professor Andy Alexander will initiate a new partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C. with the commencement of visiting Russian correspondent in October.

The Institute for International Journalism will be hosting Simon Kruse Rasmussen, a Moscow correspondent, Sunday, October 6 through Thursday, October 10. He will speak with Scripps about the intersection between foreign reporting and investigative journalism, as well as use his time here to explore environmental issues of the region.

Alexander coordinated Rasmussen’s visit with the help of CSIS, a nonprofit organization he was exposed to during his reporting days in Washington D.C. CSIS’s aim is to sustain American prominence and prosperity as a force for good in the world.  The CSIS program sends European journalists to America, all expenses paid, to experience how American journalism operates.

The program focuses more on sending journalists to smaller universities. With an excellent journalism program and a small town feel, Alexander believed Scripps School of Journalism in Athens, OH was an ideal candidate for the program.

Now, thanks to Alexander, CSIS and Scripps are beginning what they hope will be a promising partnership, starting with Rasmussen’s visit.

Rasmussen has been in the field for over seven years and is a former fellow for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. With conflict in Syria heightening tensions between the US and Russia, Rasmussen will serve as an insightful source on Russian politics and the leadership of Vladimir Putin. Currently Rasmussen is in Moscow, writing for Berlingske, a national Danish daily about politics, economics and business in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Central Asia and Caucuses.

Alexander believes that Rasmussen’s stay will mark the beginning great opportunities to come as Scripps and CSIS grow in their partnership.

“We’d like to entertain more foreign journalists here because it is a very enriching experience for students,” said Alexander. 

International Investigative Reporter Simon Kruse Rasmussen to Visit Scripps

By Cassie Kelly

The Institute for International Journalism will be hosting Simon Kruse Rasmussen, a Moscow correspondent, Sunday, October 6 through Thursday, October 10 to discuss the intersection between foreign reporting and investigative journalism.

As a Moscow correspondent for over seven years and a former Journalist Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Rasmussen advocates cross-border collaborative journalism. He believes that one of the most important skills of a journalist is finding the threads between local and global news and knowing how to interpret their connection. He visits this region of the United States, interested in learning more about the landscape as well as current environmental issues such as fracking and coal mining.

Currently, Rasmussen covers politics, economics and business news in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States, Central Asia and Caucasus for the national Danish Daily Berlingske. He is also a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and has degrees in Russian studies, European studies, and journalism.  

Rasmussen’s visit is sponsored in partnership with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and was coordinating by Professor Andy Alexander. Rasmussen will be guest speaking in a collection of journalism courses throughout the week as well as participate in select Scripps activities and seminars. 

Photo provided by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism 

Winter Break Study Abroad: Media, Society and Governance in Ghana

By: Maggie Krueger 

In the heart of Ghana’s capital city, Accra, the "Media, Society and Governance" study abroad program will focus on "specialized journalism," the relationship between the media and government, cross-cultural immersion, and coping with limited necessities to achieve a better understanding of a complex global reality. For more information, please attend the informational sessions on Wednesday, September 18th at 6:30 P.M. in Scripps 108 or Thursday, September 19th at 4:00 P.M. in Sing Tao Room 101.

Based at the African University College of Communication in Accra, within minutes of all major media organizations in Ghana, students will have the opportunity to work closely with radio stations, TV stations, two newspapers, two advertising/PR firms, and with a non-governmental organization (NGO). 

In the course of this three-and-a-half-week program, students will earn four credit hours, with the option of satisfying a Journalism Capstone requirement (JOUR 4870) or Tier III requirement (JOUR 4660) for non-journalism majors. Unlike most study abroad experiences, students participating in the program will not immediately pay Ohio University tuition fees for the course credit they earn, but the 4-credit hours earned during the study abroad to Ghana will count towards the total credit hours required in spring 2014. Therefore, tuition fees will be billed with the spring semester course load. Additionally, housing, breakfast, and dinner costs daily are included within the program fee.  

Students will learn coalition-building, cross cultural communication, and problem-solving skills as they apprentice with local journalists and collaborate with local university students. Students will also interact with a variety of Ghanaians through field newsgathering, news conferences, and documentary production while producing an e-magazine and television documentary. 

“Media, Society and Governance” will run from late December until early January. All applications are due Friday, September 27th. For additional information and application forms check out the OU Education Abroad program profile or contact Dr. Yusuf Kalyango (kalyango@ohio.edu).

Program highlights include:
- Travel around Ghana to Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi, Tamale, Manpong, and other sites
- Visit to Centre for Scientific Research into Plant Medicine and interview traditional healers
- Tour of Kakum Forest Park (Canopy Walkway)
- Tour of Elmina Castle
- Visit and interview Regional Governor and Asantehene, King of Ashanti
- Visit to Tamale Centre for National Culture and Tamale market
- Produce documentary in Kumasi

Goodbye Athens!

By Gunjidmaa Gongor (Mongolia)

I didn’t want to say that “Goodbye!” Anyway, I had to leave this small wonderful city in the United States which is quiet, a bit humid and safe. This is all about Athens, Ohio.

Five weeks ago, I have been driven by the white van which has green letters saying “Ohio University” with Michael Wolven, program assistant and Anand Pradhan, journalism professor of India from the Columbus airport. We were the first coming scholars to attend the SUSI program at Ohio University funded by United States Department. This was the first meeting for us. Michael asked some questions about our experience and countries. Today, we all 16 scholars will leave Athens to our last destination in USA which is Washington DC on the same vans with the same drivers. 

Before my travel to U.S. my 6 years old son asked me: “Mom, when will you come back home?” I told him that I will be back in 42 days. Every day my son counts days and waits his Mom.

    

36 days have already passed at E.W Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University in Athens. During this time my daily life has been running between my dormitory in Courtyard and my studying place in Scripps Hall. But this time I felt somehow quietness like as living at my home. Just five weeks of my life time; the days in which I got to understand more my job and professional values, seek to get own contribution on my country’s media and society system, have to feel a dormitory lifestyle as foreign students, had my closest best friend from Kyrgyzstan and met my wonderful dearest friends of different countries and also got many good ideas to take away to my home country.

We have a lot of adventures, so wonderful travels to most important institutions in the world last couple of weeks. I have mentioned CNN headquarters in Atlanta; international media networks where journalists’ dream to visit, Google headquarters in San Francisco; the most important helper for journalists in the without border information world, Coca Cola museum in Atlanta; the good example of the best global marketing in the world, Martin Luther King’s National Historic Site in Atlanta; the hero of the Civic revolution known as “I have a dream”.     

After all those fantastic trips I often hurry to return back to my small room in Athens. The Courtyard dormitory seems to be more friendly then I know it; there were my good memories for me and my best friend Gulnura Toralieva. I remember a deer walking around the green forestry, students’ laugh in the swimming pool, quickie raining, WALMART shopping, singing own countries songs and so on.

We were laughing a lot with my friend, sharing food, working on some assessments at library room until tonight, playing the table tennis, running, walking, dancing and chatting to sit on the stones together.

I am going to leave my good memories in here which is my gladness, smiles, belief, weeping to say Goodbye my friend in her early departure. Those days will stay in my mind forever.

I love everyone and everything in Athens. Gunji

2013.08.06   

    

I'll watch your back.

By Sharon Wilson ( Malaysia)

It's the last hotel and the last days of the SUSI programme. Im feeling a little melancholic and i have an unusual feeling of loss. Why so? because for the past six weeks ive had experience living with different roommates, had dinner with almost everyone ( because as a Malaysian, food always brought people together and the breaking of bread is an important element in creating a bond), shot pool with some and shared some deep 3am chats with others.Some I can share on this blog others i will take to grave.

Everyone with a different disposition. Some happy and cheery others quiet and contemplative with some snoring thrown in. No matter what the situation, it was always the need to tolerate and to take some time to understand and learn about the other person.

Over the past six weeks I have learnt to appreciate the different cultures, laughed at the crazy antics of some and given my shoulder to a couple of heavy burdens. It's impossible to learn about a person in six weeks they say but when you live 44 days and an average of eight hours a day with 15 people, you start seeing the real person. After a while, when everything is stripped off, you see the true self of the person and you either appreciate them or you don't. Because of the lack of a constant 'variable' in  ones life, you form a new 'variable'. A support group of some kind.

And throughout this,that support group becomes a part of routine and eventually an extended family.people whom you can count on and trust...goodbye my friends.my family.you accepted me and made me a better person and a blessing to me. Terima kasih sehingga jumpa lagi ( thank you, till we meet again).

"See you" to 15 countries and "I have a dream"

By Seymur Kazimov (Azerbaijan)

I am not Martin Luther King, Jr. But I have a dream. I will back to my dream later.
I am 29. I know, it is not a big life experience, there are some professors, they work experience more than my life age. But my short 29 years full of with contrasts. I was citizen of the most biggest country of the world-USSR, and everybody knew this country. Now, I am citizen one of the most smallest country in the world-Azerbaijan, and not all people know about it. It is my first contrast.
Azerbaijan is an oil and gas country, and this word means the "Land of fire". The capital of my motherland is Baku, and it means, "windy city". As you see, fire and wind, contradict each other... it is my second contrast.
In my county teacher the most respectable profession. When we are talking about teacher, it means we are talking about God. But  unprofessional behavior of some teachers disrepute to the professional. At the same time salary of this profession doesn't reflect respect ness.  It is third contrast.
I can prolong this list, but do not want to annoy you, but I am going to share my last contrast. I have travelled a lot, perhaps 15 countries, but I have never had 15 foreign friends..... now I have, and I am very proud of it. Hope, you are also consider me as your part.
I do not like to give or write sensitive speeches, make tears, whatever. I have a dream, I want you all be happy, because I am very happy, when you are all happy. Life is a strange, 3 months ago I did not know that I would come to US and met you, so, everything is possible.
So...
abar dekha hobe, Shabnam,
milte hain, Anand,
nos vemos, Beatriz,
illa likaa, Sleiman,
nos vemos, Fernando,
nos vemos, Consuelo,
daara uulzaya, Gunjidmaa,
ate logo, Egidio,
sehingga kita jumpa lagi, Sharon,
tizaonana, Carol,
per curan, Antonio,
do pobachennya, Yuriy,
feri vetaula, Eak,
korushobuz, Gulnura,
sizabonana, Sibongile.

The First Amendment in a totally new light

by Carole Phiri-Chibbonta

Attending the 2013 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference  at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington DC has been a wonderful experience. Not only have I listened to several interesting research presentations but have had the opportunity to network with so many great minds all in one place.

Without question, the most meaningful, memorable and educational session for me was the First Amendment Center Plenary Panel ‘Freedom Sings’ presentation. I have attended a number of conferences but never have I come across any session like this one.

Freedom Sings: Music Censorship, Social Change and the first Amendment was a unique and interesting session that featured an all-star live band. The performance featured music that had been banned, censored or had sounded a call for social change at some point in American history. It therefore invited its audience to take a fresh look at the First Amendment, popular music and freedom of speech. The First Amendment gives Americans the right to free speech, press, religion, assembly and the right to petition. I found the plenary presentation to be a fantastic, eye opening show that told the story of how the American government has attempted to limit free speech. The presentation focused on gender equality, sex and drugs.

Music ranging from Jonell Mossers’s  “Annie had a baby”, Tammy Rogers’s “Blowing in the wind”, Woody Guthrie’s “This land is your land”, Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” to Black Eyed Peas “Hump” were played. And as the band played, the music took me down memory lane, in particular, to the music lessons and Monday assembly sessions as a pupil at Nkana Trust School, where I and my fellow pupils sang some of the songs that the Freedom Sings band sung.

I had no idea, up until this plenary session, that some of the songs Mr Jones (music teacher) taught us were actually part of America’s struggle for free speech. These songs include “Blowing in the wind”, “This land is my land” and “Puff the magic dragon”. It was shocking to learn that the songs that I sang and enjoyed as a child were once thought to be dangerous and inappropriate in American society.

As an African educator, I now see the First Amendment in a totally different light and I can’t think of a better way to tell the story of how government has attempted to limit free speech than the Freedom Sings presentation. It was not only extremely entertaining but highly educational.

The good comes with the bad

by Beatriz Lovo Reichmann

It has always been astonishing to me how, throughout history, human beings find and seek creative and brutal ways of destroying, punishing, torturing each other.  So many wars, which, in the name of God, for the sake of pride, in the search for national security, border protection or the need for power have covered our lands with blood, pain and disgrace.

However, it is even more impressive how, in every war, during any fight, there have always been individuals willing to risk their lives for the sake of others, many times, complete strangers, in the search for justice, for the belief of that which is right.

From slavery in the U.S., to civil wars and turmoil all over the world ; from two World Wars to the Civil Rights Movement; from the fight against tyrannical governments in Latin America, to genocide in Rwanda, Croatia...its endless.

I have had a closer look of these special individuals and moments in history. During my stay in the U.S. I visited a cemetery of freed people who escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad in the 1800s. A movement that put the "free" in harms way, but  who still refused to be bystanders in the face of inhumanity and injustice.

It made me think about people like Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan hotel manager who, during the genocide in the 1990s, hid and protected 1268 people when he could have chosen to protect only his own family. Or Irena Sendler, a polish woman who risked her life to save more than 2,500 children from occupied Warsaw during WWII. I think of Henry Dunant, who, concerned with the inhumanities of war after the Battle of Solferino, in Italy, began efforts that culminated in the creation of the Red Cross, now an international organization that aids those in need, during peace or war, without distinctions of ideology, race, language, religion or citizenship. I think about Angel, a police officer from Madrid who, only a few days ago, was unwilling to observe how a 41 year old man be run- over by the subway, risked his life, threw himself to the tracks and rescued a complete stranger.

We all carry with us our own wars and our own turmoil. But we must not forget that there is always someone in greater need, in greater pain. And we can choose to look the other way, because we all have lives to live, families to care for, problems to solve...or we can choose to be the heroes in someone else's story, just once, even for a moment.

In Education We Trust

The real value of a University is hard to overestimate. Its role in the social, political, economical and other spheres of life is tremendous and undisputable. Possibly, these kinds of thoughts forced the founders of Ohio University in Athens to launch a school just a year after the new state was born. At least everywhere in Athens, one can feel the atmosphere of thoughtful fostering of knowledge. For me it started with the red brick blocks that cover local streets and lanes.

I felt the presence of deep historic roots in these two words under my feet – despite the fact that for instance Ivan Franko National University of Lviv was founded in 1661. Some of the OU buildings remind me of fortresses.

Some are a good illustration for Hollywood movies about student life in the campus with all its brotherhoods.

But the spirit of knowledge superiority is everywhere.

And that is the main thing that unites us – despite the distance, cultural differences and historic heritage. Ivan Franko National University of Lviv motto is “Patriae decori civibus educandis” or “Educated citizens – ornament of the Motherland.”

Possibly it means that the founders of our nations and universities had the same vision on the foundations of the society and the individual development.

Yuriy Zaliznyak

For the love of dogs

Living in the US for the past one month has made me realise just how much love a human being can have for one animal – a dog!!! Almost every person I have encountered during my stay (and I certainly have met lots of people) has told me about their dog (or dogs). Even in the instances where a person did not have a dog, the conversation somehow and somewhere along the line drifted to dog talk.

I heard how cute, loving and loyal dogs are such that some people prefer having a dog to a child (some say a child is not only too demanding but expensive to maintain). I also learnt, albeit shockingly, just how profound the love for dogs is for some Americans when one guy at our apartment accosted a colleague and I for talking in the hallway. He said we were disturbing his dogs which were trying to sleep!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was amazed that employees at Google are allowed to bring their dogs along to work every day and that an editor at the Call and Post newspaper also reports for work with her dog each day of the month.

                         Astro's owner takes him to the office everyday

I’m personally not a dog lover, having been bitten by two in my late childhood. Every time I see a dog, particularly the bigger ones, I cringe and think about the evening when two canines sunk their teeth into my leg and butt. I remember vividly how one evening, as my sister and I happily chatted away while walking a few feet ahead of my aunt who was taking a stroll with her boyfriend, a gate opened and two dogs came rushing out and charged at us. Instinctively, we ran, which I have now learned from the dog lovers, was the mistake we made. My sister was lucky and got away but I fell into a ditch and the dogs had a go at me.

The fact that I had to endure 14 injections on my already sore behind, courtesy of the dog bites, took away any love I may have had for dogs. From that time I have steered clear of dogs and certainly don’t see them as man’s best friend as most people I have met in the US do. I must admit that while all the talk about dogs has been great, it has not softened my heart at all. I am certainly no dog lover.

Carole Phiri-Chibbonta