Interdisciplinary Field Study, Focus: Political Mass Media, Ethics, Gender, Democracy

Student Research

As a Wayne State junior double-majoring in journalism and political science, with a peace & conflict studies minor, I completed a field research trip to Accra, Ghana via the Irvin D. Reid Honors College and the Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society (FOCIS) - African Democracy Project. The mission of this program is to facilitate an interdisciplinary understanding of the ways by which we, as American students, understand Africa - as a continent, within a sociopolitical and historical narrative, and within the context of extended introduction and examination of a specific county. From Oct. 21, 2016 to Nov. 2, 2016, my team of student researchers lead by Dr. Jennifer Hart, Wayne State professor of history and President Emeritus Dr. Irvin D. Reid. While in Ghana the focus of my studies was the relationship between political mass media and gender. I wanted to understand just how necessary journalism is to the maintenance of democracy, what role gender plays within newsrooms, to what extent did media ethics shape news coverage, and whether or not ethical practices by media professionals differed among genders.