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Dimitrova recognized for research on war coverage

By Matt Neznanski
Graduate Assistant

Daniela Dimitrova, an assistant professor at the Greenlee School, has been chosen as one of the members for the September panel for Ithaca College in New York.

When Daniela Dimitrova received a phone call from Ithaca College, she was excited about the opportunity to speak at the school’s “Lessons from Iraq” conference in September.

More than that, however, was the thrill that someone had been interested in Dimitrova’s research.

“I was jumping up,” she said. “It is possible that someone has read the research?”

The New York school included the Greenlee School assistant professor on its panel of journalists, Middle East scholars, communications researchers and journalism educators.

“It was not like an ordinary conference, there were small groups of people discussing ideas all the time,” she said. “Some of the journalists felt a little attacked because of the criticism, but it was good.”

Dimitrova, with a colleague in Sweden, had published a comparative study of news coverage of the Iraq War in the United States and Sweden. She compared two large national dailies in each country and then considered how each framed the war.

They revealed that Swedish papers presented war coverage from an anti-war protest frame, while U.S. papers focused on the military conflict side of news coming from Iraq.

Dimitrova said she is interested in this kind of cross-national research and is devising a similar study with media from Turkey and other countries.

“I love it (international research), but sometimes it is very difficult because I don’t understand the language,” she said.

Dimitrova has collected a rack full of her published work on her office wall. In fact, she could use a larger one to hold it all.

In addition to the Iraq framing study, Dimitrova’s publications this year have included a similar look at online news, an investigation of television coverage of the 2004 presidential election, a study of Internet adoption in formerly Socialist countries and an ongoing examination of online citations with Greenlee School Director Michael Bugeja.

Additionally, Dimitrova serves as the vice head and program chair of the communications technology division of the AEJMC conference scheduled for San Francisco this year.

This fall marks the beginning of Dimitrova’s third year at the Greenlee School.

“It’s been a really good experience and a very supportive environment,” she said. “What I’ve learned about Iowa students is they are hardworking, respectful and thoughtful.”

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