Drop-in Hours

Spring 2025: Wednesdays 12:00 - 3:00 pm or by appointment

What is Sujatha’s story? 

Sujatha Sosale studies media and social change in Global South countries, with a focus on South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, especially areas with a history of Anglophone and Francophone colonization. Her publications include research on news and public affairs reporting about contemporary development, trade agreements in the news, national identity and news discourse at critical historical junctures, the political economy of the development of media technologies in colonial contexts, and media technology use in contemporary urban, postcolonial contexts. Her current research examines the integration of mobile and electronic media in the daily lives of communities in rural South India. Sujatha was selected for the Faculty Scholar Award in the College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa for the period of 2019-2021.

Sujatha is originally a native of Bengaluru, India, where she got her first graduate degree. She worked as a copywriter, writing for a variety of media, for commercial as well as public service campaigns. She also worked as a freelance journalist, contributing features and reviews to regional and local dailies and weeklies on public affairs and the arts. 

At The University of Iowa, Sujatha teaches a variety of courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. At the undergraduate level she teaches courses on global media, research methods for audience engagement, writing and journalistic storytelling, and the sociology and culture of social media. At the graduate level she has offered courses on social science theories of the media and qualitative methods for media research in past curricula. She continues to teach a seminar on the global political economy of the media in the current curriculum. Sujatha has also offered some of these courses online for undergraduate and Master’s level students with Distance and Continuing Education.

Sujatha has served as Director of Graduate Studies at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She served as Head of the International Communication Section of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), 2007-2012 and in this capacity, coordinated and set the Section’s research program for five consecutive annual international conferences. She now serves on the Advisory Board of International Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and on selection board of the University’s Fulbright Program. Sujatha is past elected member of the University Faculty Senate, and now serves as an elected member of the College’s Faculty Assembly as the social sciences representative.

Courses

• JMC:1000 - First Year Seminar, Watching the World: Topics in Global News
• JMC:1500 - Introduction to Social Media
• JMC:1500 EX – Social Media Today (Study Abroad, Italy) 
• JMC:3116/IS:3116 - Media and Global Cultures
• JMC:3185 - Topics in Understanding Media, Community Communication and International Development
• JMC:3185 EX - Topics in Understanding Media, Multimedia Storytelling and Development: India (Study Abroad, India)
• JMC:3400 – Topics in Writing: Travel Storytelling
• JMC:3510 - Audience Engagement: Marketing Research (also online)
• JMC:5235 - Strategic Communication Research (online, MASC program)
• JMC:6210 – Social Scientific Theories for Media and Communication
• JMC:6320 – Media Communication Research Methods II
• JMC:6333 - Seminar in Media Communication: Global Political Economy of the Media

Publications

Articles and book chapters (selected)

• Sosale, S. & Rosas-Moreno, T. (Forthcoming). Emerging economies in business news: Re-positioning leaders in the Global South. Global Media and Communication.
• Paul, S. & Sosale, S. (2023). Cultures of Restraint and Towards an Appraisal of Non-Western News Values, Journalism Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2023.2183063
• Sosale, S. (2022). National authority and public interest in Facebook’s Free Basics Indian Encounter: A case of ‘slowbalisation’? Journal of International Communication, 28(2), 169-187. doi.org/10.1080/13216597.2022.2028265
• Paul, S. & Sosale, S. (2020) Witnessing a Disaster: Public Use of Digital Technologies in the 2015 South Indian Floods. Digital Journalism, 8 (1), 15-31.
• Carpenter, J. & Sosale, S. (2019) The role of language in a journalistic Interpretive community: Building on Indonesia's "biggest scoop ever," Journalism Practice, 13 (9), 280-297.
• Sosale, S. (2017). Learning content creation in the field: Reflections on multimedia literacy in global context. In M.N. Yildiz, S.S. Fund, & B.S. De Abreu (Eds.), Promoting Global Competencies Through Media Literacy (pp. 125-137). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
• Sosale, S. & Rosas-Moreno, T. (2016). Framing cooperation among regional economic powers: The South in global spheres of influence. International Communication Gazette, 78 (8), 755-776.
• Sosale, S. (2014). Mapping and modernizing the Indian Ocean Rim: Communication technologies under colonial Britain. Global Media and Communication, 10 (2), 155-176.

Books, Monographs and Special issues

• Chitty, N. & Sosale, S. (2009) Editors, special issue on International Crises, Journal of International Communication.
• Sosale, S. (2008). Communication, development, and democracy: Mapping a discourse. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• Sosale, S. (2007). “Pre-modern” online: Converging discourses of globalization and development. Journalism and Communication Monographs, 9 (1), 2-52. (sole article for the issue).