James M. Cox Center and Faherty Laboratory Team for Management Seminar in Chile

Thirty newspaper journalists and Chilean professors were encouraged to recognize that change is a constant in the current media environment at a media management workshop in Concepción, Chile, in May.

The James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research and the Catholic University of Chile jointly sponsored the workshop, which was held at the offices of the two newspapers El Sur and Chronica in Concepción May 10-12.  Dr. Lee B. Becker, Director of the James M. Cox Jr. Center, Dr. Ann Hollifield, Coordinator of the Michael J. Faherty Broadcast Management Laboratory, and Dr. Melinda Hawley, Director of Public Service and Outreach for the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, represented the University of Georgia as instructors.

Presenters from the University of Chile included Professor Eduardo Arrigada, head of the Center for the Study of the Press, Professor Bernadita Grove, formerly in the School of Management and now involved in university outreach programs, and Professor Paulina Gomez from the School of Communication. Paulina Bakovic, an assistant at the Catholic University’s Center for the Study of the Press, handled most of the arrangements for the workshop and also participated in the seminar.

Dr. Hawley presented sessions on time and conflict management, while Dr. Hollifield discussed techniques for increasing organizational creativity, and for attracting and retaining employees.  Hawley and Hollifield also jointly presented a session on managing organizational change.  Leadership and organizational team building were topics covered by Professors Grove and Gomez, while Professor Arrigada led discussions of emerging trends in the Chilean media industry, including the rapidly increasing level of competition and the movement of foreign media companies into the market.

Prior to the workshop in Concepción, Drs. Becker and Hollifield met in Santiago with the faculty of the School of Journalism of the Catholic University to discuss possibilities for future collaboration in teaching, research and outreach to the media industries of the U.S. and South America. The discussions revealed several areas of mutual interest and discussions about collaboration are continuing.