Dr Rana Arafat will be presented with the Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award at the AEJMC Annual Conference in August
By City Press Office (City Press Office), Published
Dr Rana Arafat, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in City, University of London’s Department of Journalism, has been awarded the internationally prestigious Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award.
Dr Arafat is awarded the prize for her dissertation entitled: ‘Rethinking Digital Media Use for Diasporic Political Participation: An investigation into Journalism Advocacy, Digital Activism, and Democratic Divides’.
She will receive the award during the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)’s Annual Conference on Friday 5 August in Detroit, United States.
This award recognises “excellence in PhD dissertation research that demonstrates potentially significant impact and importance in the field of journalism and communication research”.
It is named after Ralph O Nafziger and David Manning White, authors of Introduction to Mass Communication Research, and Michael Salwen, co-author of An Integrated Approach to Communication Theory and Research.
Dr Gregory P Perreault (Appalachian State University) from the AEJMC’s research committee described Dr Arafat’s dissertation as having “an ambitious agenda, considered and extensive methodology and insightful findings”.
“This was a very competitive year for the Nafziger-White-Salwen Award with some great dissertations,” added Dr Perreault. “I’m very proud (but not at all surprised) to see such amazing work by graduate students in our field under some very difficult conditions.”
This week, Dr Arafat also presented a talk titled 'Mapping a Cross-Cultural Response to #metoo in the News Industry' at the 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference alongside Dr Lindsey Blumell and MA Erasmus Mundus in Journalism, Media and Globalisation alumna Dinfin Mulupi. Held in Paris, the ICA Conference themed One World, One Network‽ invites reimagining communication scholarship on globalisation and networks.
Words: Ruth Almodal
About Dr Rana Arafat
Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Arafat did her PhD at the Institute of Media and Journalism in University of Lugano (USI), Switzerland, including six months at City as a visiting PhD student under the supervision of Dr Zahera Harb. She holds Bachelor and Master's degrees in International Journalism. She worked as a journalism/media lecturer for five years at the College of Language and Communication in the Arab Academy of Science and Technology. She wrote for various local and international newspapers and magazines including Daily News Egypt, Egypt Independent, the German Orange magazine, the Swiss Saint-Gallen magazine, and the European Journalism Observatory (EJO), led by the Reuters Institute at University of Oxford. Her research interests cover a wide range of topics including activist/advocacy journalism, digital media and migration, diaspora journalism, conflict reporting, and journalism innovations.
About the AEJMC
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit, educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to cultivate the widest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multi-cultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication in an effort to achieve better professional practice and a better-informed public.
AEJMC holds an annual conference each summer, featuring sessions on teaching, research and public service in the various components of journalism and mass communication – from advertising and public relations to electronic and online journalism to media management and newspapers.
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