News Article

It’s Global, Cross-Disciplinary & Practical

Gonzaga University’s Masters Program in Communication and Leadership Studies announces its new Certificate in International Media. The Program, in the School of Professional Studies, has a tradition of global, cross-disciplinary, practical emphasis in Communication and Leadership.

In this new summer certificate program, students will have a cultural immersion experience and practical experiential learning. Gonzaga partners with the International Institute for Media Education (www.ieiMedia.com) in offering this 12-credit graduate certificate. Also, the credits can be applied to the Master’s Program in Communication and Leadership Studies. Six credits of this curriculum are taken either at Gonzaga’s campus in Spokane, Wash., or online anywhere in the world; six additional credits will be taken while in residence at one of our four international sites.

The Certificate will offer several international projects introducing American students to work as “foreign correspondents” in one of the most intense cultural immersion experiences currently available in higher education. Faculty and students from many colleges will participate and forge close professional links with practicing correspondents through such organizations as The Overseas Press Club.

Manifold Summer Project Goals
• To immerse students in a spectrum of foreign cultures.
• To develop leadership skills working with culturally diverse populations.
• To expose students to the practice of international journalism at the grass roots level, far from the political and economic power centers.
• To teach students the journalistic form of the “web documentary.”
• To enable students to master the technical tools necessary to create a Web site.
• To educate students in the language and customs of another culture and impart the requisite survival skills.
• To introduce students to the protocols of “professionalism” and teach them how to work as part of a team.
• To teach students how to write gracefully and perceptively through such guided practices as journal keeping.
• To develop leadership skills in working with culturally diverse populations.

Globalization
Globalization, which is driving much that is new in higher education today, is rooted in the “global economy” and seems relevant mostly to the business disciplines. However, the shared subtext of diversity resonates throughout all global institutions. Diversity, in this sense, refers to all of its forms – ethnic, religious, racial, cultural and geographical. This Program aims to create opportunities for students, immersing them in wholly new cultural environments.

The Communication discipline is uniquely positioned to respond to globalization and diversity. In the age of the “foreign correspondent,” embedded or not, opportunities and outlets for journalists to practice in foreign lands have never been greater – for cable news outlets, radio and TV stations, newspapers, Web journals, and magazines.

Very little is being done at the undergraduate or graduate level to direct journalism students toward career options as foreign correspondents. The Program allows the Communication discipline to reach out to students in other disciplines – history, classics, economics, political science, philosophy, theology, languages, and area studies – welcoming them into what traditionally has been a highly specialized field. This international media projects accomplish this in bold and innovative ways.

Participating Faculty Committed to Emphasize:
• Writing
• Experiential Learning
• Internationalism and Interculturalism
• Media “Convergence”
• Ethics and Media Leadership

Current Projects
• The Cagli Media Project : a multimedia summer program in a small Italian “town” involving the creation of a Web documentary, a new and evolving form of journalism.
• The Camerano Media Project: A new second site in Italy, in the Marche region, near Ancona.
• The Tver Media Project: Tver, Russia is halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
• The Aegina Media Project: Aegina Island, Greece will offer a different kind of experience on a “working island” – not a tourist destination – about 40 minutes from Athens by hydrofoil.

Admission to Certificate Program or Master’s Degree
Students interested in the Program will submit a uniform application and admission material for the certificate. Students also seeking admissions into the Master’s program in Communication and Leadership Studies will submit a complete applications packet as indicated at www.gonzaga.edu/coml.

Certificate Program Costs
The International Residential experience costs for 2006 are $5,495 (airfare not included).

The cost includes tuition, shared residence, two meals per week, technology and courses in one of four centers. Weekly excursions are planned for increasing cultural understanding. Class schedules vary from site to site but are generally planned for Monday through Thursday, allowing independent travel on weekends.

For more information and an application please e-mail Shannon Zaranski at zaranski@gu.gonzaga.edu. For more information about the MA Program in Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga contact Jill Royston at royston@gonzaga.edu or call 509-323-3548, or visit the Web site at http://coml.gonzaga.edu