The Global Correspondent

By Megan Bender

Travels Through Thailand

It is a humid Thai evening. I find myself smothered by body heat in a walking street’s bustling market place amidst the finely painted portraits of the ancient Lanna kingdom. Many would find such a setting claustrophobic. However, I find comfort in being so close to people I will never know. This is just one of the many things I love to do to absorb the essence of Chiang Mai. More frequently, I find myself fawning over the peaceful gaze of the “subduing Mara” statue of the Buddha, a familiar monument from my study of religion at Hamline.

I feel so blessed to know the stories of those around me. The monks on U-Mong Temple Road regularly break the rules by yelling from down the street to greet me on their meditative alms round; the fruit vendor on my block always takes the time to laugh with me about my Thai grammar, and the university café barista knows I drink an iced cappuccino on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Every day I am here, I come to

discover that living in a country that values collectivism reiterates the significance of why I practice journalism. As global citizens, we are all interconnected.

“What is the point of sending your meditation onto someone else? I was the one who did the hard work, so shouldn’t I receive the merit and the happiness I accumulated?” This was a big question I tried not to attach to while I was meditating at a forest temple in Lampang province. I had practiced meditation many times before in the United States, but before now no one had ever expected me to pass on my hard earned merit after enduring nearly two hours of muscle cramps, fatigue, and uncontrollable wandering thoughts.

I asked the temple’s abbot about why we had to send on the merit we had accumulated.

He merely smiled and with a soft voice said, “To study the way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, to forget the self is to be enlightened by all things. To be enlightened by all things is to remove all

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Thinking Critically:Students explore media studiesBy Gino Terrell

Continued on p. 5

Certificate in International Journalism • Hamline University • Spring 2013 • Vol. 7 • No. 1

Growing up as “digital natives,” our generation is immersed in media and communication technology 24/7. Since we are so used to having them around us, many of us usually don’t stop to think what effects these media might have on us as individuals and as a society. One class in the CIJ program that challenges students to question the different ways media and communication technology might influence our life and our worldview is Introduction to Critical Media Studies (COMM 1320).

Since Fall 2005 when Professor Suda Ishida first taught this class, Introduction in Critical Media Studies has become an integral part of the CIJ program curriculum, and it’s gaining high popularity among Hamline students. Although this course is an elective in the Communication Studies major, it attracts diverse pools of students. According to Ishida, last spring semester the class had a good mix of students ranging from first years who were interested in communication and media studies, global studies, management to sophomores and juniors in biology, criminal justice and physical education,

barriers between oneself and others.” I didn’t quite understand what he meant

by reciting this wisdom to an impatient “farang” (a Thai word for foreigner and guava fruit) but when I went to bed, his words resonated with me like a mantra.

I awoke at 4:30 am the following morning to join the Buddhist monks on their habitual alms round in the community. The saffron robes of the monks contrasted with the dark sky as they guided the way to the village center. Once we arrived, the local community was waiting barefoot with food for the monks. The act of almsgiving was such a beautiful sight. I had been told this particular village was rather impoverished, but they still gave the best they had.

When we returned to the temple, the monks set three tables full of the food they collected from the people. Many members of the village community joined us. The monks, the school children, and my study abroad group ate at a table together alongside the rising sun.

While I washed my plate, the abbot called me and said, “Tuptim (my Thai name meaning “Ruby”), do you understand what I meant earlier by saying ‘to be enlightened by all things is to remove all barriers between oneself and others’? Through being awakened by one another’s stories and their lives, we are able to remove the ego and come to the

realization that we are all a part of each other. Everyone’s suffering becomes yours, just as everyone’s happiness becomes yours as well.”

This abbot’s words were not only inspiration for social justice advocacy, but they also helped me to come to a better understanding of international journalism. To be awakened to the narratives of the people I may interview or write about is to come to the understanding that as a global citizen their stories interact with my own. For that reason, it was frightening for me to remove barriers as I traveled across an unfamiliar culture. Every day I tried to grow as a writer who learned from the interconnected narratives that had been shared with me to be a source of happiness and concern to us all as journalists and as readers.

At meditation retreats, laptops, cell phones, and pens are not allowed, ensuring that we are not distracted from the seven hours of daily meditation. Although we mean to stay connected, I believe we global citizens can sometimes be too attached to our simultaneous social media interactions to simply take a breath and realize we no longer reside in the here and now. I must admit I am very guilty of this. Perhaps, I can become awakened to a different form of communication technologies, but I indeed missed my pen.

Cont. from p. 1 ‘Thailand Travels’: study abroad

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A Bangkok local smiles while driving water taxi through canals.

AdvisorSuda Ishida

EditorMegan Bender

Associate EditorSarah Sheven

Contributing WritersGino TerrellEva Heithausen

Contributors

The Certificate in International Journalism program enables students with advanced language skills and majors in global studies, area studies, modern languages, English, communication studies, history, political science, and other majors to supplement their programs with preparation in international journalism.

For more information on the program visit: www.hamline.edu/cij

Or contact Suda Ishida at sishida@hamline.edu

About:

The global CorresPondenT

Ishida in her Critical

Media studies class

Page 5

as well as seniors in conflict studies and political science.

“This class is not at all how I thought it would be… it’s covering a whole wide range of topics and I feel like I’m learning so much more,” first year Sophia White said. She had thought the class would be more about entertainment because when most people refer to media, entertainment seemed to be a dominant topic.

In this course students read and discuss the course text and watch movies relating to the readings. The topics varied from historical development of newspapers to the role of media in U.S. foreign policy to advertising, public relations, films and digital media. The class also includes four hands-on projects: media-less analysis, news analysis, advertising analysis, and the final presentation.

First year Christian Russell’s favorite assignment in the course was a news analysis project, where students worked in pairs to analyze a news source of their choice. Russell and White worked together to analyze the popular online news website, The Huffington Post.

“I felt like that was an opportunity to think about how informing this media source is,” Russell said. “A lot of the information is out there but it takes effort to search for it… [to] become a well-informed citizen.”

White said that her favorite project was the advertising analysis project. This project helped her realize that stereotypes play a huge role in advertising. “[I learned] how people can implement stereotypes into the smallest commercial and we don’t really realize it,” White said.

Professor Ishida said that her experience as an environment news reporter back in her home country of Thailand, after she graduated from college, and her research about media and social and political movements gave her the insight and passion to teach critical media courses.

Ishida realized that her students

today have grown up in a world where they’re surrounded by the media 24/7.

Her main objective is to get students to think critically about media messages so they become savvier, both as citizens and as media consumers.

“To be well-informed is extremely important to democracy… that’s always [been] my kind of passion,” she said. “Living in a mediated environment as if it is “natural” to them, students don’t stop to think how the media can affect their lives and their ways of thinking as individuals and as a society. So if I can make them stop to think and to get that point across, I would die very happily, as a teacher,” she said.

Ishida’s passion for media is something her students also admire. It translates into her students’ enthusiasm in class.

“She’s very passionate about what she does and about how she teaches her class,” White said, “She wants [students] to get excited. She always sends us updates about news events and current affairs relevant to class materials.”

Russell said learning from Ishida is effective because students learn about the U.S. media from an outsider’s perspective.

“She has this outsider’s perspective on the United States, and it’s funny because one would think [that] if you’re a citizen in the United States you would be informed. But she knows much more… than I think the average person… she’s so knowledgeable,” Russell said.

White said that she thinks other students who are interested in media should consider taking this class.

“I definitely recommend it for anybody who wants to get their foot in the door with these kinds of topics; I’ve really been enjoying it,” she said.Political Science Senior John Lovasz said he has learned a great deal about the business side of the media industry in this course.

Lovasz likes how the class was

structured and wouldn’t change anything.

“Everything is structured pretty well… I don’t see [any need] for major improvements,” he said.

Ishida wants to reach out to all students because she believes that the media affect everyone.

“Students are growing up in this media-saturated world. They ought to understand that media can affect their life in many ways,” she concluded.

Cont. from p.1 ‘Critical Media Studies’: In the classroom

Photo by Sara Nester

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Jennifer Vinas-Forcade participated in the CIJ program from February to December 2006. Since then, Jen has been utilizing her certificate in international journalism as well as her Master of Science in Development and Cultures degree from Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Belgium which she received in 2012. Currently she is living and working abroad in Montevideo, Uruguay. Jen reflected on the impact the CIJ program has had on her experience in class at Hamline and overseas.

“CIJ is a great program, with knowledgeable professors and great opportunities to work [in] the field and gain experience,” she said. “The tools you learn are certainly valuable for those who plan a career in journalism but also of use in many other professions.”

Jennifer reminisced on the courses she enjoyed the most in the CIJ program.

“I really enjoyed ‘Fundamentals of Journalism’ because of the workshop approach to it,” she noted. “Moreover, as there were also a lot of non-CIJ students taking it, those of us who were part of the CIJ program were able to contribute a lot. Having taken the internship in the first semester, I arrived in this course with quite some experience and background. This helped me write for this class some articles I’m quite proud of.”

Jen spent her sophomore year studying in Montevideo. It wasn’t until her junior year that she began taking the CIJ program, only to return to Uruguay for her senior year in 2007. Although the experience of going between two international education systems was at times challenging, it was worth it, she noted.

“I learned I enjoy going to the grassroots, talking to people and putting myself in their shoes to understand their situations … I learned I can establish good relationships with people I do not know and make them feel comfortable and tell their story,” Jen said. “I learned there is a lot of information publicly disclosed and available for those who take the time to access and analyze it. I learned I enjoy doing research, which shaped my current job as a researcher.”

Currently, Jen is working at National Institute of Educational Assessment (INEEd) as a researcher and a coordinator for the technical research area of the institute. This year, she is leading a project that aims to understand issues surrounding the transition of pre-teens from elementary to middle school, and to compare where the repetition and dropout rates cost to the state and society. Additionally, she is hiring researchers and assistants to join the project team.

“It is very challenging to take on this kind of project

at the national level, but also very rewarding to know you can have a great impact in national policies and contribute to make your nation a better place,” Jen said.

She has found her life full of travel opportunities the have been enriched by the connections she has formed from her international-oriented job.

“With such an international life, you make friends from all over the world, which adds to your opportunities to travel abroad for a wedding, a seminar and so on,” she noted. “Last year, for example, I attended a wedding in Bolivia and was the Uruguayan Delegate in the ICPD Global Youth Forum [revision of a UN compromise] in Bali, Indonesia, as well as in a preparation meeting in Panama City.”

Jen suggests that all future and current CIJ students take advantage of the opportunity to learn from the program and all it offers.

“I advise all CIJ students to make the most of this program and invest time and effort on learning from those in charge,”she pointed out. “On a social level, as the CIJ involves people from all over the world, it is a great chance to have an intercultural experience while in the U.S. and through the semester abroad ... this kind of experience is very valuable for you as a person, as well as for you as a student and professional.”

From Minnesota to MontevideoBy Megan Bender

Photo courtesy of Jennifer Vinas-Forcade

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At the University of Trier’s Media Studies Department in Germany, Professor Hans-Jürgen Bucher and his team of researchers explored the functions of local media in the quaint town the University resides in. Bucher ventured to Hamline University in the fall to share with students in Media in Global Perspective class the statistical findings from the use of television. His lecture opened up dialogue to a larger community of media consumers about his experience studying human interactions with local media in Germany.

“If you just think about the functional aspects, like the way our world is becoming more global, the more you find that we are dealing with local issues ourselves,” Bucher said.

Bucher feels that local journalism is crucial in this era of globalization because of the direct impact it has on the community.

“Our everyday life is so highly influenced by local situations that it is worth looking at these issues, of course every global issue can have consequences for the local issue,” Bucher said. “The perspective is different, but the scope of issues is broad.”

Yet, the current status of local television in Germany isn’t focused on improving local television journalism.

“Local television is so commercialized in Germany that we don’t have a lot of good local journalism,” Bucher said. “The main intention is to entertain people and not to inform them.”

According to Bucher, local journalism ought to serve as a good neighbor by being concerned about the community needs and offering solutions. However, local journalism must also be a watchdog and report on issues in the community.

“The crucial question is how to get the [good neighbor and watchdog] models in a balance,” Bucher said.

A concern of Bucher’s which sparked interest during the research was the lack of a thriving local television network in Trier.

“Our idea was to see what factors made local television successful,” Bucher said.

Bucher worked with researchers and constructed a panel survey that was conducted in five different methods, which became the core foundation in the research.

“The distinctive characteristic of our research project is that we produced the programs by ourselves,” Bucher said.

One of the programs utilized in the research was eye tracking, which monitor how the eyes react to various visual aspects.

“Obviously [eye tracking research] works very well

because the recipient is focused on what is relevant,” Bucher said.

Bucher’s research led him to believe that citizens’ expectations toward local television demanded more hard news stories.

“Despite the normal structure of what most local televisions have in topical selection, the most popular topic found in our research was politics,” Bucher explained.

With the information Bucher gained, he plans to further implement a platform for hard news in the study of local television journalism in Trier.

“At present, we are thinking about building up a kind of campus television,” Bucher said, adding, “It’s an experimental field.”

To be a good international journalist, Bucher recommends journalism students begin with a career focused on local issues.

“Start as a local journalist and learn to survey your environment very seriously,” Bucher suggested. “As a local journalist you need a global consciousness and a good eye for what happens outside your front door.”

Professor explores German local mediaBy Megan Bender

Professor Hans Jürgen Bucher

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CIJ alumna takes on broadcast mediaBy Sarah Sheven

Photo courtesty of Ann Alquist“The value of a little program

[like] the one at Hamline is that you

really have the freedom to be as ambitious

as you want to be.”

Certificate in International journalism alumna Ann Alquist is working as the Director of radio engagement at the National Center for Media engagement in Madison, Wisconsin. Alquist applied to be in the CIJ program in 2000 as a post-baccalaureate student.

During her time in the CIJ program, Alquist interned at KFAI radio in Minneapolis, where she was volunteered prior to participating in the CIJ program.

“My experience was mostly out in the field; I spent almost all my time at the radio station,” Alquist said.

Alquist said when she first started volunteering at KFAI she expected to be charged with menial responsibilities, but to her surprise, they put her in the news department and assigned her stories to cover.

One story led Alquist to an interview with former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty about low income families receiving sub-prime mortgages.

In addition to her internship at KFAI radio, Alquist spent a month abroad in Germany studying. When she came back to the U.S. she presented a 4 minute radio story about the topic she investigated in Germany. Alquist said that Hamline funded her stay in Germany, making it financially feasible for her to travel internationally.

The CIJ program was first funded by the Ford Foundation. This financial support allowed Ann to be a part of the program.

“[My experience in the CIJ program] happened at a time where a lot of foundations were interested in funding experiments in journalism and different projects and alternatives, and started funding everything from journalism training programs to websites,” Alquist added.

Although Alquist’s experience is in broadcast journalism, she feels it is beneficial to have the knowledge of print journalism that students gain in the CIJ program. Alquist is working in public radio today, and she says many people are coming from the print journalism industry to broadcast journalism.

“Public broadcasting has really benefited from people who come from outside the system to bring skills. They are bringing skills into public broadcasting that the system very badly needs,” Alquist noted.

Alquist advises students who are interested in pursuing a career in

journalism to have a wide skill set. They should learn how to fundraise and be knowledgeable with technology. She says Hamline’s CIJ program has a leg up over other journalism programs because it focuses on the practical application of skills, and because faculty are always there to help and support you.

“If you can be in a program that is as small as the one at Hamline, I think if you met someone who went to Columbia [University], they have nothing on you,” Alquist said. “The value of a little program [like] the one at Hamline is that you really have the freedom to be as ambitious as you want to be.”

Alquist said she felt like the most valuable part of the CIJ program for her was the close relationships she developed with other students in the program. She said she still keeps in touch with some of the people she met while in the program.

Eva visiting Minneapolis

Studying abroad at Hamline, learning off campusThe global CorresPondenT Page 7

When Europeans plan to spend some time in the US, they think of visiting California, New York or Florida, but Minnesota rarely makes the list. Luckily, my university in Trier had an exchange program that brought me to Hamline.

My university in Germany (Universität trier) has nearly 15,000 students, so it is easy to feel small and on your own. But at Hamline I was surprised by how willing everyone was to help out other students, professors and staff members. Everybody here was so friendly, even the bus driver who wishes you a “good day,” when you get off the bus.

In Germany, I have to work to make enough money, I have to do my groceries, clean my flat and organize my life. At Hamline, everything was already organized and taken care of for me. This was so relaxing because I could focus on my education alone.

It has now been one year since I first arrived at Hamline. I remember it like it was yesterday when I arrived in Drew Hall extremely exhausted from my flight

and jetlagged. Yet, since everybody was immediately so friendly, I felt so welcomed and I was just happy to be here.

On the first day I met other international students and we soon became a great group. It was funny to see that in the beginning everyone presented their best side. It is a great feeling to meet so many new and different people and I really enjoyed being a part of it.

However, I think I still experienced Minnesota in a

more unique way than the other international students because I was also interning at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. Throughout the internship I saw so many places in Minneapolis that I probably would never have seen and I met so many Americans with whom I normally wouldn’t have gotten in touch with. I’m so grateful that I could have this experience because it gave me a unique view on Minnesota and on the people living there.

Although I’m back in Germany, I still have great friendships with people that I’ve met from Hamline. We’ve visited each other, and every time we Skype, write, or meet, we talk about our time at Hamline and the people there.

Fall is about to arrive and it will make me miss Minnesota even more: Old Main prepared for Halloween, the squirrels running around the campus, watching the sunset from the Bush library, sitting in front of the fire place in Anderson, meeting the other interns and Mary from the Twin Cities Daily Planet over a hot cup of tea and a granola bar, and the first snow.

I would love to come back to Minnesota and Hamline!

By Eva Heithausen

CIJ coffee chats are a great time to catch up with faculty and students on what is new in the field.

Watch out for future dates during the upcoming 2013-2014 academic year.

In this photo CIJ members from left: Khanh Truong, Christian Russell, Sarah Sheven, Megan Bender, Breanna Berry, and Professor Van Dusenbery.

International JournalismMS-094Hamline University1536 Hewitt AvenueSaint Paul, MN 55104

Career Possibilities for CIJ Graduates

• Print, Radio, Television Journalism• Online, New Media, Social Media• Public and Private Media• Political Campaigns• Local, National, International Organizations• Foreign Policy and Public Service• Legal and Educational Laisons• Public Relations and Advertising• Communications Technology