Students learn a new cultural perspective on media at Radio Free Europe

On 13 March, students in the Empire State College Political Communication class travelled to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) for a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Todd Nesbitt, chair of the department of Communication and Media at UNYP.

The panel consisted of Vaclav Havel and Jiri Dienstbier Journalism Fellowship participants, who described the particular realities of reporting in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Russia and Ukraine. The panel theme – Disinformation, oligarchization, commercialization – is this the whole story? – was designed to allow the students to explore differences in journalism related to media and politics outside of the American and Western European focus.

The audience, consisting of political communication students from ESC/UNYP and a number of journalists from RFE/RL, was able to get an intimate perspective on the difficulties of being a young journalist in restricted news media environments. Students gained new perspectives by comparing and contrasting the media environments studied by students in class with the contexts of the journalists, 

Photo courtesy of Jan Rambousek/RFE/RL.