Brian J. Bowe, Carolyn Nielsen and Joe Gosen present Tunisia research at AEJMC

Western Washington University Associate Professor of Journalism Brian J. Bowe, Professor of Journalism Carolyn Nielsen, and Assistant Professor of Journalism Joe Gosen and their L'Institut de Presse et des Sciences de l'Information colleagues Arwa Kooli and Rafia Somai presented their research, "After the Revolution: Tunisian Journalism Students and a News Media in Transition," on Aug. 7 at the virtual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference.

The collaboration grew from Bowe's 2019 U.S. Department of State U.S.-Tunisia Student Media University Linkage Grant, which took the three WWU journalism professors and six WWU students to teach, research, and learn in Tunisia last fall. This paper contributes to a growing body of global research about what motivates students in different countries to pursue journalism degrees. It found that Tunisian students choose to study journalism because of a strong sense of social responsibility and the desire to have a varied lifestyle that allows them to travel for work, continually learn, and to be creative.