WSU Professor Uses Fulbright to Help Community Radio in Tunisia
OGDEN, Utah – Selected as a Fulbright Scholar for 2022, Weber State University communication professor Sheree Josephson will spend several weeks in May working to support and expand a public radio station in Tunis, Tunisia, that focuses on serving the needs of listeners in underserved and disadvantaged communities.
Josephson said because of COVID, the options available for Fulbright projects this year were limited and very competitive, but fortunately this opportunity fit perfectly with her interest and background.
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With a doctoral degree in communication, and a lifelong passion for media, Josephson will spend several weeks at the station, helping the radio staff launch a website with live streaming while bolstering their social media presence. She’s already collaborating with the station manager, Sara Fourti, to craft a mission statement and write grant proposals. Fourti, the second youngest person to be awarded a broadcast radio license in North Africa or the Arab world, has big plans for the station. With help from Josephson to secure funding and increase visibility, she wants to expand the reach of the station beyond its 40,000 listeners in Tunis.
The radio station is ML 102.3 FM. The call letters ML stand for Media Libre (free media) in French and sound like the Arabic word Amul, which means hope.
“It is a radio station that gives voice to the voiceless in North Africa and the Arab world,” Josephson explained. “One group that Sara and her staff of volunteers focus on is people with disabilities because they often don’t go to school and they don’t get out. The radio is their lifeline to the world.”
The radio station has live programming from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a variety of weekly shows, including living with disabilities, raising families, fighting corruption, and improving local government. They also air local music and interviews with artists as well as opinion shows to give space for people to express their views and feel heard.
”I am so excited to work with this group of devoted community radio volunteers,” Josephson said. “We have much in common with our devotion to free speech, open and transparent government, and serving disadvantaged communities.”
Josephson, who was selected as a 2018 Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor, has been a faculty member in the Department of Communication for nearly 30 years and served as department chair for nine.
A teacher at heart, Josephson has often looked for opportunities to engage students in her research. She has taught 23 different courses at WSU, including Honors and Master of Professional Communication classes.
She served as the founding director of the university’s Master of Professional Communication program. She also served as founding advisor for WSU’s student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the university’s chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the national honor society for communication students. She was the faculty advisor for The Signpost, WSU’s student newspaper, for six years. Her students won the national SPJ award for college journalism three of those years.
Josephson has been a pioneer in applying eye-tracking research to visual communication. She’s co-edited and co-authored two books: “Handbook of Visual Communication: Theory, Methods, and Media” and “Visualizing the Web: Evaluating Online Design from a Visual Communication Perspective.” She has published approximately 25 scholarly pieces, including book chapters and journal articles. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited in almost 700 published scholarly articles.
Fulbright, which was established in 1946, is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world. The program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually between scholars and students from the United States and other participating countries. Weber State faculty have received 15 Fulbright Teaching and Research appointments in the past 23 years.
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Allison Barlow Hess, Public Relations director
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu- Contact:
Allison Barlow Hess, Public Relations director
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu