Professor Stephen D McDowell is the director of School of Communications at the Florida State University. He is a renowned personality across the world with his contributions to the field of communication studies, media policy and mass media research. Several of his students are providing their services to various media organisations and other relevant departments all over the world. The professor, being energetic and visionary, aims to set up the South Asian Media Center at the university and is on a visit to Pakistan to search for media partners and collaborators in this regard. McDowell’s decision to involve Pakistan in such an initiative at a time when terrorism, economic crisis and other issues are repelling foreign media scholars and educational institutions from investing time, energy and money in the region, is a ray of hope and a step towards pulling the country out of crises. With the establishment of the South Asian Media Center, local media and communication scholars and students would get an opportunity to study the subject in depth and contribute their share in global media communications. During his visit to Lahore, Pakistan Today got an opportunity to conduct an exclusive interview with McDowell. McDowell, while discussing his specialisation, said his area of teaching was media policy, research and development and he was interested in promoting the field through establishing a state-of-the-art media centre. He said research on the media policy of South Asian countries was a part of his study and he was visiting Pakistan to meet educationists, university officials, journalists and government officials to understand the scope of and issues regarding the local media policy. He expressed his plans to visit Islamabad and other cities to assess the feasibility of Pakistan’s contribution to setting up an exemplary South Asian media study centre in the US. The professor said media education was important because in recent times the media had gained immense power all over the world. He said the field of communication studies was very broad and with mushrooming TV channels, radio broadcast centres, newspapers and public relations and advertising agencies, the study of media had become significant in understanding global trends. Highlighting the importance of investigative journalism in the US, McDowell said investigative journalism was becoming a major mart of the print media. He said the electronic media was also playing its part in global communication through media channels such as CNN, CNBC and Fox News and the success of both print and electronic media depended on investigative journalism. He said investigative journalism was expensive and time-consuming with reporters usually taking five to six months to complete an investigative news article. Organiasations that could not afford expensive investigative journalism because of limited resources were forced to rely on short-term news stories and journalism and had low viewership, he added. McDowell said research activities were actively being taken up in US universities under various programmes with students and faculty working on numerous projects. He highlighted the role of US universities in eradicating plagiarism from academia by introducing modern technologies and softwares to analyse data and research work and check for plagiarism. He believed that teachers and faculty members must act as a role model for students by discouraging plagiarism and acknowledging honest and genuine work. He said the Florida State University encouraged its faculty to be fair to the students and promote talent. Pakistani universities, he said, should also promote research-based and honest learning among students and teachers. He expressed hope that after finalising on media partners and collaborators in the region, he would hold a conference at the end of this year to frame a strategy for the establishment of the South Asian Media Center at the Florida State University. Discussing his trip, McDowell said Lahore was a cultural and beautiful city with a historic background and old buildings. He said he had delivered lectures at several universities in Lahore in the past and had observed the city’s rich culture. He appreciated local food and the recent beautification of the city. He also advised on improving the environment by expressing the need to develop a mass transit system in the city.
