Mohammed uses the IIJ to launch international aspirations
by Katie Annarino
Graduate student, Aisha Mohammed, has found her niche at Scripps in the Institute for International Journalism.The IIJ is designed to prepare international journalism students for the job market. It also serves as a support system for students doing research and creates opportunities for students to network with journalists who work abroad.
“The reason I chose OU was because of the Institute for International Journalism,” according to Mohammed.
Mohammed’s goal is to become a foreign correspondent and one of the opportunities offered by the IIJ is the opportunity to work abroad.
After graduating from UC Berkley where she studied peace and conflict studies, she went on to work for several non-profit organizations such as The Salvation Army, doing development and fund raising. She also spent a year in Trinidad doing research on Chutney music, which is music native to Trinidad and Tobago.
Her most recent research project will be conducted in Pakistan this winter. She will spend three weeks researching the local media coverage of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The method is not yet set in stone but she may include focus groups, containing primary Pakistani journalists, coupled with a content analysis of news coverage. She credits Professor Yusuf Kalyango, Director of IIJ with locating people for the focus groups.
After she gets her master’s she wants to do independent work as a foreign correspondent. “I’m thinking I will probably end up working independently, or work for an NGO like Human Rights Watch as a researcher and reporter.”
Like many graduate students she is still unsure of what her thesis will be, but she is considering a few options. “I am thinking of doing a professional project.”
She may expand on her research of the media coverage of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto or she may write a series of magazine articles, which she hopes will be instrumental in developing a professional portfolio.
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