Communication Professor Explores Team-Based Learning in Teaching Journalism Ethics
Posted on December 14, 2021 by Micaela Pickering
Dr. Mohammad Delwar Hossain, associate professor of digital journalism at the University of South Alabama, recently published an article in Journalism Education, a leading and flagship journal on journalism education. The article is titled "Looking at the Future and Seeking Alternatives: An Exploratory Case Study on the Uses of Team-Based Learning in Journalism Ethics Pedagogy in the United States."
Hossain’s study examines the impacts of team-based learning in teaching journalistic ethics. Team-based learning is an instructional strategy that shifts the focus from course concepts being conveyed by the instructor to the application of course concepts by students.
Hossain believes that team-based learning is an important and effective quality for journalists and students to incorporate into their work. He was able to identify the impacts of team-based learning while teaching media courses at South.
“Ethics is an important issue for all professions and journalism is not an exception,” Hossain said. “Journalists have to deal with ethical issues everyday. So, communication ethics is a very essential course. Students learn how to deal with real-life ethical concerns by learning both theoretical and practical aspects in the class.”
Hossain has worked at the University for more than six years. His teaching and research areas revolve around social media, new media, political communication, international communication, journalism studies, race and media, and mass media ethics. He currently teaches Communication Ethics and Communication Research Methods. Hossain also serves as the vice president of the USA Faculty Senate and the vice head of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, International Communication Division.
Most recently, Hossain co-edited a book titled "(Re)presentation of Refugees in Media: Local and Global Perspectives" with Dr. Nasir Uddin, a leading scholar in refugee studies. The book focuses on the refugee situations in the last two decades including Syrian refugees, Venezuela refugees, Afghan refugees, Rohingya refugees, South Sudanese refugees and Somali refugees.
Prior to coming to South, Hossain served as a lecturer in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin as well as an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Chittagong in Bangladesh. Before pursuing his Ph.D., Hossain worked for Reuters, Bangladesh National News Agency and an international non-government organization called the Hunger Project.
Hossain earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication and Media Arts from Southern Illinois Carbondale, where he focused on the patterns of using social media among the South Asian diaspora group in the United States.
“I enjoy working in the South because of the southern hospitality,” Hossain said.