Major Part of Work on Evaluation Project Completed
--originally on home page January, 2000

Cox Center Director Dr. Lee B. Becker has completed the bulk of the work on an evaluation of the Knight International Press Fellowship Program and delivered preliminary reports to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami. The Foundation is using the findings of the study for internal purposes.

The Cox Center, in collaboration with the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C., undertook a year-long assessment of the impact of the Knight program, an international journalism training initiative operated by ICFJ.

To obtain reports of impact from those with whom the Knight Fellow worked, Dr. Becker and two colleagues attempted to find as many of those who worked with the Knight Fellows in 11 different countries as possible and to conduct interviews with them. The 11 countries studied were the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Chile, Ecuador and Peru.

Cox Center Director Becker celebrates completion of interviews in Chile with Magdelena Echeverria, one of the many translators who helped with the project. Dr. Melinda Hawley and Claudia Llinas, another translator, look on.

The researchers used two interview techniques. First, they asked those they contacted to complete a written questionnaire, generally with one of the researchers in close proximity. Next, they asked most of those they contacted to answer follow-up questions. The first questionnaire contained clusters of items designed to measure the perceived impact of the interaction with the Knight Fellow. The interview included a variety of questions designed to obtain both discrete indications of impact and examples of that impact.

The researchers interviewed at least 31 people in each of the 11 countries they visited. The smallest number of interviews completed was in Poland, where they successfully contacted and interviewed 31 persons who had worked with the Knight Fellows there. They completed 92 interviews in Ecuador. In sum, they completed 531 interviews.

The project was designed to examine evidence of impact of the Knight International Press Fellowship program on the journalists and on others in the country with whom the Knight Fellows came into contact, the practice of journalism in the countries visited by the Knight Fellows, the media and media-related institutions in the countries visited by the Knight Fellows and the countries themselves.

Graduate students in the Cox Center currently are transcribing taped interviews with the 33 Fellows whose work the project assessed. They also are compiling electronic records of the responses of those interviewed to specific questions on examples of program impact. These will be released to the Foundation and ICFJ in early 2000.

"This has been a very important undertaking for the Cox Center," Dr. Becker said. "It has given us the opportunity to look at the effectiveness of an important international exchange program as a way of gaining insight generally into the effectiveness of the training of journalists abroad. The findings will help not only the Knight Foundation and ICFJ, but others of us who engage in these types of initiatives."

Dr. Becker said he expects to be able to release results of the study later in the year.

Dr. Melinda Hawley and Dr. Patricia Priest assisted in the evaluation project. Dr. Hawley is a public service associate in the Grady College and associate director of the James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Newspaper Management Studies, the domestic sister organization of the Cox Center. Dr. Priest was a postdoctoral fellow in the Cox Center at the time of the project.

New Program Facilitator Joins Cox Center
--originally on home page December, 1999

Kornelia Probst-Mackowiak joined the Cox Center as program facilitator at the end of the summer, replacing Kristina White, who left the Center to devote more time to her business.

Ms. Probst-Mackowiak shares responsibilities with Dale Wechsler, who joined the Center in the summer of 1998.

Before joining the Cox Center, Ms. Probst-Mackowiak operated an antiques business. Prior to her 1991 move to Athens with her husband and three children, she worked as a German and French translator, conference facilitator and liaison for a subsidiary of Finnish medical supply conglomerate in Lyon, France.

Her experience also includes serving as liaison and interpreter for an international exhibition center that holds conferences and exhibits for different companies and government agencies.

"The job here at the Cox Center combines all the positive aspects of my previous jobs, which include the human contact, using my language skills with the international contacts and my organizational skills in maintaining an office," Ms. Probst-Mackowiak said. "Being in an academic environment, the center further enriches my experiences."

Ms. Probst-Mackowiak worked for the Athens Chamber of Commerce and local non-profit organizations such as the Athens Area Newcomers Club. She also served as liaison for the women's German soccer team during the 1996 Olympics.

Ms. Probst-Mackowiak was born in the city of Bad-Breisig on the Rhine River in Germany and attended the local university in Koln where she studied French and Spanish linguistics.

Ms. White worked in the Cox Center from 1993 until the beginning of the summer. She started a business making specialty soaps several years ago and began sharing the Cox Center Program Facilitator position with Ms. Wechsler in the summer of 1998.

"I am extremely appreciative of all that Kristina did for me and the Center, particularly during the time of transition from the directorship of Center founder Al Hester to my own term," Cox Center Director Lee B. Becker said. "I will miss her experience and insights, but I wish her well in her new ventures.

"At the same time, I'm extremely pleased to have someone with the talents of Kornelia join our team. She and Dale have worked extremely hard to cover for the loss of Kristina's expertise. I am most fortunate to have both of them working as my assistants."

Ms. Wechsler works the first half of the week, and Ms. Probst-Mackowiak works the second half.

	Dale Wechsler		Pat Priest
	Heather Hammatt		Soon-Chul Shin
	Kathe White		Iris Groscurth
	Edmund Lauf

New Faces in the Cox Center
--originally on home page October, 1998

There are lots of new faces in the Cox Center this Autumn! Dale Wechsler joined the Center in late summer. Dale and Kristina White are splitting responsibilities as program facilitators.

Pat Priest joined the Center in September. Pat, who holds a doctorate from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, is serving as postdoctoral fellow and research scientist. She has primary responsibility for gathering data for a collaborative evaluation project between the International Center for Journalists in Washington and the Cox Center.

Also new to the Center this autumn are Heather Hammatt and Soon-Chul Shin. Heather is working on a master's degree in the Grady College. "Shin" completed his master's degree in the Grady College this summer and is now working on his doctorate. Heather and "Shin" will share responsibilities for a variety of Center projects. "Shin" is the 1998-99 Cox Scholar.

Kathe White joined the Center as a research clerk in September. Kathe is completing her undergraduate studies in the Grady College. She joins undergraduate research clerks Michelle Duke, Nicole Carroll and Amy Haddix in the Center.

Two international Visiting Scholars joined the Center at the end of the summer. Iris Groscurth, a graduate student in political science at the University of Hannover in Germany, and Dr. Edmund Lauf, on leave from the University of Music and Theater, also in Hannover, will be at the Center until the end of November.

Kristina White, who has worked in the Cox Center since 1993, decided at the beginning of the summer to reduce her hours to be able to give more time to her business, making natural soap products. Center Director Lee Becker and Kristina agreed on a job-sharing arrangement for the full-time program facilitator position.

Dale Wechsler has a degree English Literature and a background in library science and currently operates an antiques business with her husband in Lexington, Georgia. She works Mondays and Tuesdays and a half day on Wednesdays. Kristina works a half day on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays.

Pat Priest has been teaching in the telecommunications department in the Grady College and last year served as editorial assistant for the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, housed at the University of Georgia.

Pat and Center Director Lee Becker will conduct a year-long examination of the impact of the Knight International Press Fellowship program on three Latin American and eight European countries where fellows served over the years. The Knight International Press Fellowship program is an activity of the International Center for Journalists, located in Washington.

Iris Groscurth is using her stay in the Cox Center to learn about advertising and public relations instruction in the Grady College and to help Center Director Lee Becker with research.

Edmund Lauf and Center Director Lee Becker are collaborating on a variety of research projects, including an update of earlier work by Becker on audience media behavior around the world and a comparative study of media coverage of international trade issues.

Upon his return to Europe at the end of the year, Lauf will move to the University of Amsterdam, where he will be a research scientist in communication science.

Romanian Faculty Member Visits Cox Center
--originally on home page September, 1998

Doru Pop, a faculty member in the Department of Journalism at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj- Napoca, Romania, spent a week as a guest of the Cox Center in September, learning about journalism instruction at the University of Georgia and making plans for collaborative work with the Cox Center in the future.

Professor Pop and Cox Center Visiting Scholar Dr. Edmund Lauf visit the restored home of Georgia political figure Robert Toombs in Washington, Georgia.

Professor Pop visited faculty members in the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and attended classes in his area of specialization, advertising. He also met with Dean Thomas Russell in the Grady College and Associate Dean Leonard Reid. Professor Pop also met with Cox Center staff members and learned about activities of the Center.

Cox Center Director Lee B. Becker and Pop discussed two projects for the coming year. First, Pop and Becker outlined a book on copyright law. Second, Becker and Pop discussed ways in which the Cox Center can assist Babes-Bolyai University in developing a graduate program in journalism and mass communication in the future.

Babes-Bolyai was the site of a workshop on copyright law conducted by the Department of Journalism and the Cox Center in June. Presenters at the conference have been invited to submit versions of their presentations for the book on copyright Becker, Pop and Doru Vlad, also of Babes-Bolyai University, will edit. Professor Pop also visited the New School for Social Research in New York and gave a lecture at Bard College, also in New York, before traveling to the University of Georgia. He visited the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina following his week in Athens.

The International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) organized the three-week visit by Professor Pop to the United States. IREX is a non-profit organization that administers academic exchanges between the United States and the Newly Independent States (NIS), Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Mongolia and China.

	Jay Smith speaks as Dean Eisner looks on.
	Smith and Eisner field questions from Grady faculty and students.
	Dean Eisner and Dr. Lee Becker

Cox Enterprises Executives Speak on Successful Polish Venture
--originally on home page July,1998

Cox Enterprises Inc. made its decision to invest in the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza in part because the paper's value fit well with those of corporate Cox, Dean Eisner, vice president of Corporate Development at Cox Enterprises Inc., told faculty and students at the Henry Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Eisner and Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers Inc., a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, visited the Grady College as guests of the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.

Dr. Lee B. Becker, director of the Cox Center, said he invited Eisner and Smith to UGA because he wanted Grady undergraduate and graduate students to have a chance to learn about American media company decisions to invest abroad.

Eisner said the international venture represented by Cox's 12.5 percent stake in the media company Agora-Gazeta is and will remain an anomaly for locally-focused Cox Enterprises, but that Cox was "very happy" with the outcome of this investment.

Cox made its initial 12.5% investment of $5 million in 1993 in the Gazeta, a newspaper that grew out of the Solidarity trade movement. Gazeta itself was formed in 1989 when the communist authorities allowed Solidarity to have a paper of its own.

Even in 1993, Smith reported, Gazeta had the feel of a radical paper. "It reminded me of a college newspaper of the late 1960s and early 1970s," he said.

Gazeta today is the largest daily newspaper in Poland. It competes with other papers in its Warsaw home market and with papers nationally. The company also owns seven local radio stations, is a shareholder in Canal+ Polska, the largest pay TV service in the country, and has interests in printing and speciality advertising.

Eisner and Smith told the students the Cox investment had returned "a significant return over the past four years." It has produced dividends in excess of $1 million. Cox's 12.5 percent stake in the company is now worth $60 million, they reported.

Thirty-five undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty in the Journalism Department of the Grady College joined Eisner and Smith for an informal lunch before the presentation and question-and-answer session. Eisner and Smith toured the Grady College facilities after they spoke.

Eisner has been at Cox since early 1992 and served as treasurer of Cox Enterprises before moving to his current position in 1995. He has degrees from Purdue University and the University of Michigan and held positions at AGB, Sony, CBS and General Electric before joining Cox.

Smith was named president of Cox Newspapers in late 1994 and, in that capacity, has responsibility for overseeing 16 Cox newspapers as well as the company's interest in direct marketing, magazines and book publishing. Smith joined Cox in 1971 after graduating from The Ohio State University. He also holds a degree from the University of Dayton.

E-Mail from Egypt: Current Cox Scholar Checks In
--originally on home page Spring ,1998

1997-98 Cox Center Scholarship recipient Jason Mundy recently sent an e-mail message detailing his experience since arriving in Cairo, Egypt, in August.

Mundy currently works for "The Middle East Times," a subsidiary of the "Washington Times."At the independent weekly newspaper, Mundy has become familiar with the local news scene by attending several trials and meetings.

His coverage of the trial of two Islamic militants charged in the September bombing of a foreign tourist bus allowed him to meet with the defendants.

"I visited them and spoke with them through a wire cage in a military court deep in the Egyptian desert," he wrote.

Mundy has found press censorship to be an obstacle."Although officials are quick to point out that censorship has long passed, in reality, the practice still flourishes, especially among foreign periodicals critical of the Egyptian government."The Cox Scholar met and spoke with Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mafouz and wrote he was "awestruck" to meet the author.

Mundy has also found time to travel, going to the Valley of Kings in Luxor to attend a performance of Verdi's "Opera Aida." The opera was staged in front of Queen Hapshaput's temple, a "stunning" location, according to Mundy.

Hester Keeps Busy in Retirement
--originally on home page December 21,1997

Cox International Center Director Al Hester retired Aug. 31, 1997, after leading the Center for eight years and teaching 25 years at the University of Georgia. But retirement hasn't meant a lot of time for taking it easy, he said.

"I've found the problem with retirement isn't boredom--it's having too many things you want to do," Dr. Hester said. He was designated director emeritus of the Cox Center and professor emeritus at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"I have had time to look back over what we did the first eight years, and it hits me that we were able to have a real influence to improve journalism and to make training and research opportunities available throughout the world," he said.

Dr. Hester said he still hears from journalists and former students from over the globe.

"It's very satisfying to know that you were able to be of real help. I think that's what teachers want to do, and I more and more treasure the opportunity Mrs. Betty Holland and her husband Bill have given us by their funding of Cox Center activities."

"Also, I realize what a privilege it was to work over the years with so many nice people, especially Ms. Kristina White, program facilitator at the Cox Center, and with Ms. Nicki Parham, former administrative assistant at the Center."

Working toward common goals with them and other faculty and staff was very fulfilling, he said.

Some of his retirement activities have included travel in the United States, learning how to produce desktop videos on his Macintosh computer and continuing his strong interest in family history, genealogy and electronic music.

"I am more and more fascinated with the way we can combine digitized text, video, graphics, sound, etc., and output the results to a variety of formats. It's both fun and very frustrating. I certainly have more and more respect for our telecommunications department students and what they must learn these days," Dr. Hester said.

Dr. Hester has set up an office in downtown Athens, just across the street from the University of Georgia campus. The address is 191 E. Broad St., Athens, GA 30601. His phone and fax number is 706-549-8680, and his e-mail address is: alhester@negia.net.

Becker holds a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky. Becker joined the faculty at the University of Georgia in the autumn of 1997.

Prior to moving to Georgia, Becker was a member of the faculty of the School of Journalism at The Ohio State University (1977-1997) and of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University (1974-1977). Becker was interim director of the School of Journalism at The Ohio State University from 1994-1996.

Becker is the author of two books, "Using Mass Communication Theory" (with Maxwell E. McCombs) and "The Training and Hiring of Journalists" (with Jeffrey Fruit and Susan Caudill), and the co-editor of "Audience Responses to Media Diversification" with Klaus Schoenbach. Becker has held two Fulbright research appointments in Germany and taught at the Catholic University of Nijmegen in The Netherlands. He has lectured in Latin America, throughout Europe, in Africa, Australia, and Asia.

Becker is the recipient of the Distinguished Research Award of The Ohio State University, the Krieghbaum Award of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the Harold L. Nelson Award of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin, the Ameritech Prize Award of The Ohio State University, and the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research Fellow Award.

Becker has written extensively on audience uses of the mass media and the effects of media messages on audience members and on society. He currently directs a continuing research project examining characteristics and trends of the journalism and mass communication labor force. Other research interests are on media and sport, media performance, and comparative educational policy relating to mass communication.

Pictures from Earlier Workshops

A desktop workshop in Albania.

A Pacific Islander learns page design in Honolulu.

Cox public information workshop in South Africa.