logo credit: mccormicktribune.org

Coral Gables, FL (June 18, 2008) — The University of Miami School of Communication has received a grant for $50,000 from the McCormick Foundation, headquartered in Chicago, to study media and Haitian audiences in South Florida, one of the largest Haitian communities in the United States.

“A primary goal of our School is to connect with our community in all of its diversity and to better understand the role of media influence on ethnic groups and how we can support the journalistic impulse in all arenas,” says School of Communication Dean, Sam L Grogg. “We are grateful to the McCormick Foundation for their support of this important work.”

“The study will identify the needs and document the practices of Haitian media and audiences in South Florida who are sometimes marginalized from wider society by language, economic resources, or political status. We want the study to become a useful resource for the Haitian community and our wider South Florida community, as well as engage broader academic questions about how transnational communities create, use and are influenced by media that cross borders,” said Dr. Sallie Hughes, who will direct the study in collaboration with fellow journalism faculty members Tsitsi Wakhisi and Yves Colon.

The research, which is expected to begin in late July, will be conducted in two parts. The audience study will assess how Haitians receive and are influenced by media in Haiti and in Florida. The second phase of the study will examine the needs, practices and perceptions of journalism in South Florida’s Haitian community media.  Yves Colon, who has worked in South Florida and Haiti as a journalist, is leading the fieldwork and is seeking Creole-speaking seniors or graduate students to work as interviewers. “This study is going to give us information that is going to be useful to the Haitian community itself, and to the larger community in South Florida. This is going to open a window for us into one of most interesting and complex communities in our area,” adds Colon.

“The McCormick Foundation is pleased to make this grant in support of the University of Miami’s work with local Haitian media,’ said Clark Bell, director of the Foundation’s Journalism Program. “We are working with a number of nonprofits and journalism schools across the country that are discovering a wealth of opportunity in partnering with local ethnic media. This project in particular is very exciting because it will lead to a better understanding of the role of Haitian news organizations in the Miami area. We’re glad to be affiliated with this work.”

The study will commence in the fall of this year with results to be made available in early 2009.

About the University of Miami
The University of Miami is the largest private research institution in the southeastern United States. The University’s mission is to provide quality education, attract and retain outstanding students, support the faculty and their research, and build an endowment for University initiatives.  http://www.miami.edu

About the McCormick Foundation
The McCormick Foundation is a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening our free, democratic society by investing in children, communities and country. Through its five grantmaking programs, Cantigny Park and Golf, and three world-class museums, the Foundation helps build a more active and engaged citizenry. The Foundation was established as a charitable trust in 1955, upon the death of Colonel Robert R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago Tribune. The Foundation is one of the nation’s largest charities, with $1.2 billion in assets.