A Message From The Director:

Globalization is the mantra that seems to be driving much that is new in higher education today. It has its roots in the “global economy” and seems relevant mostly to the business disciplines. But there is a sub-text to globalization that resonates throughout all our institutions, and that is “diversity.”

When we speak of diversity, we mean it in all its forms -- ethnic, religious, racial, cultural and geographical. On the campuses of big state universities, diversity is a function of being public. But at most private colleges, especially the smaller ones, diversity exists mostly in programs and outreach activities. Thus, we encourage students to “immerse” themselves in foreign cultures in programs abroad.

The communication discipline is uniquely positioned to respond to both globalization and diversity. This is the age of the “foreign correspondent.” Embedded or not, there have never been more opportunities and outlets for journalists to practice their profession in foreign lands -- for cable news outlets, for radio and TV stations, for newspapers, for Web journals, for magazines, for blogs and now, YouTube.

Yet very little is being done at both the undergraduate and graduate level to direct journalism students toward the career possibilities in being foreign correspondents. Nor is the discipline reaching out to students in other areas -- history, classics, economics, political science, philosophy, theology, languages, area studies -- to welcome them into what was once a highly specialized and clubby field.

Since 2002, we have demonstrated that undergraduate students from disparate disciplines could come together and not only create a new journalistic form, the Web documentary, but also practice international journalism at the grass roots level. So much that passes for education in international media is purely theoretical -- focusing on comparative media systems, media law and forays into the centers of global media power.

As executive director of the ieiMedia, it was always my intent to develop a template for international media education that could be applied directly from one venue to another. Our projects aim to educate students in various media disciplines while at the same time forcing participants to explore a foreign culture. The stories produced range in topics from economics and health care to language and culture but are given faces through the people we write about. Yet these stories are not unique to this small Italian town but can be told from all over the world. We are now ready to carry the message forward.

Faculty members are drawn for our projects from colleges across the country, as ieiMedia programs continue to grow. Under this expert instruction, students from around the country will become international correspondents.

We would like to invite all those interested in this program to come with us -- to work like a journalist.

Prof. Andrew Ciofalo
President,
Institute for Education in International Media