International journalists to study election media coverage at Cronkite

ASU’s Cronkite School is one of seven partner universities participating in this year’s Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists. Cronkite will host nine journalists from the East Asia-Pacific region.
Photo by: ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

The U.S. State Department’s prestigious Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists is sending a group of international media professionals to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication to witness media coverage of the American electoral process.

Named in honor of the late CBS News journalist, the Murrow Program brings young international media professionals to the U.S. to study journalism practices and create new professional contacts. The program is a public-private partnership between the State Department and several of the nation’s top journalism schools. Since 2006, more than 1,100 international journalists have studied in the U.S. through the Murrow Program. This is the program’s fifth year at Cronkite.

Over 100 emerging leaders in the field of journalism from around the world are participating this year. The three-week program starts in Washington, D.C., and ends in New York. ASU is one of seven partner universities hosting groups of Murrow Program participants as they travel the country to understand media coverage of politics and government.

Cronkite will host nine journalists from the East Asia-Pacific region. This year’s cohort, nominated by U.S. embassies in their home countries, comes from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia. In the previous four years, Cronkite has brought 55 journalists from regions including sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

“The Edward R. Murrow Program offers a rare opportunity for our international participants to see a democracy in action,” said Cronkite associate professor B. William Silcock, director of Cronkite Global Initiatives. “We are thrilled to have this prestigious program at Cronkite for the fifth consecutive year.”

The journalists will visit the Cronkite School from Oct. 30 to Nov. 5, receiving a firsthand look at American civic life and how local and national media cover politics and government. This year’s program will focus on the 2014 midterm elections.

Cronkite faculty and Phoenix-area media leaders will lead in-depth seminars on the American political and media landscape, providing an overview on the rights and responsibilities of a free press in a democracy. Sessions will cover the elections process, newsroom convergence and investigative reporting, among other topics.

On Election Day, the Murrow visitors will be paired with Cronkite student journalists as they report on local, state and national elections for professional news organizations around the region and Cronkite News, the school’s multimedia media outlet featuring a nightly news broadcast and digital news bureaus in Phoenix and Washington, D.C.

Besides ASU, other universities participating in the Murrow Program include Syracuse University, University of Georgia, University of Minnesota, University of North Carolina, University of Oklahoma and University of South Florida.

The Cronkite School also hosts the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in journalism, a partnership with the U.S. State Department and the Institute of International Education that brings accomplished mid-career journalists from designated countries to the U.S. for 10 months of intensive academic study and professional experience.

Both the Murrow and the Humphrey Fellowship programs are operated at ASU through Cronkite Global Initiatives, which aims to foster meaningful connections among Cronkite students, staff and faculty, and international media professionals, scholars and citizens. Other major Cronkite Global Initiatives programs include study abroad trips, overseas faculty research projects and invited scholars, as well as professionals in residence.