Mission
The objectives of the Special Interest Group are to:

* Facilitate the sharing of ideas among faculty and students
* Facilitate collaboration on research projects
* Coordinate initiatives to secure external funding
* Facilitate communication across department and college boundaries on issues relating to international and global media
* Facilitate communication between TCOM faculty/students and interested community members
* Facilitate joint research projects across universities
* Facilitate the development of a rolling cohort of undergraduate research assistants
* Construct and help maintain an international/global media studies focus area in the TCOM curriculum
* Coordinate the development of interdisciplinary courses on international and global media issues
* Develop an online clearinghouse of website links and bibliographic resources for students and scholars in the field
* Encourage the best of our students to co-author conference papers for presentation at such venues as the Annual Third World Conference (University of Nebraska at Omaha).
* Development of textbook on international media.

Faculty Resources and Projects
Currently the Special Interest Group is comprised of these core faculty members:

* Dr. Louisa Ha, Associate Professor
* Dr. Srinivas Melkote, Full Professor
* Dr. Ewart Skinner, Associate Professor

In addition, research projects associated with the Special Interest Group are supported by Associate Members at other universities in various countries: Dr. Sundeep Muppidi (University of Hartford), Dr. Kim Neunendorf (Cleveland State University), Dr. Vandana-Magal Pednekar (Grand Valley State University), Dr. Prahalad Sooknanan (University of the West Indies-St. Augustine, Trinidad), Dr. Faith Gaithu (Daystar University, Nairobi, Ke0nya), Dr. Peter Pavlik (Charles University, Czech Republic).

The Special Interest Group Seminar
The Special Interest Group hosts a seminar every third Monday of the month. Research ideas and projects are presented. Typically, a TCOM faculty member or faculty guest leads the discussion. Students pursuing promising lines of research are also encouraged to present their work.

Research Interests and Projects

Dr. Louisa Ha
Ha's research expertise is in the areas of international advertising, media management and convergence, new media technologies and health communication. Her international geographic interests are Asia (especially the greater China regions) and Africa. She has created an International Advertising Resource Center web site that was first established in 1996. It contains the most comprehensive bibliography in international advertising research and links to international communication and business web sites. She has published 11 articles on international media topics in refereed scholarly journals, including the most recent one in the Journal of Communication. She is currently conducting a cross-national webcasting business model comparison between the U.S. and Korea. TCOM 451 (New Electronic Media) students will be contributing to this project in Spring 2003. Contact Dr. Ha.

Dr. Srinivas Melkote
Melkote's expertise is in the area of communications and development and international media studies. He is author of three books including the foundational and widely cited Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice. He has also edited two books, one of which, International Satellite Broadcasting in South Asia: Political, Economic & Cultural Implications was co-edited with fellow Special Interest Group member Dr. Peter Shields. He is an ex-member of the interest group and also the author and co-author of numerous articles in such journals as the Gazette, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Development Communication and the International Third World Studies Journal and Review. Dr. Melkote is currently working with Dr. Pradeep Krishnatray on a study of Uses and Gratifications of Mass Media in India (an edited book is planned). Contact Dr. Melkote.

Dr. Ewart Skinner
Skinner's expertise is in Caribbean area studies and comparative media studies, particularly of the role of the media in language acquisition and cultural change involving high-school youth in India, Germany, United States, Trinidad and Kenya. He has also published work on the New International Division of Labor, particularly, the internationalization of the data processing industry. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals such as Gazette, Telecommunications Policy and Studies in Latin American Popular Culture. He was also a major contributor to the International Satellite Broadcasting in South Asia: Political, Economic & Cultural Implications that was co-edited by fellow Special Interest Group members Drs. Srinivas Melkote and Peter Shields. He is currently working on the evaluation of a health information project designed to address the spread of STI/HIV and HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. Specifically, the study analyzes the effectiveness of St. Vincent and Grenadine Planned Parenthood Association media education and information campaign. Students from across campus have worked on this project via independent studies and internships. Also working as the Trinidad & Tobago Representative for Consumers International (a transnational public interest group). Contact Dr. Skinner.