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By Iris Serrano

Empowered by social media and generative artificial intelligence, fake news is spreading faster than ever online—and it’s becoming harder to avoid, let alone identify.

Muhammad Ali hopes his research helps users battle back against malicious misinformation.

Ali, a PhD student studying journalism in the College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder, analyzed how extremist organizations use  stories and messaging on social media platforms to enforce their ideologies to individuals and networks.

“Platforms like Facebook and X are increasingly recognized as hotbeds for extremist narratives,” Ali said. “There is still a big gap in understanding the personal and psychological aspects of online radicalization, but the findings of this research show us how we can protect ourselves from propaganda.”

Ali was among the CMCI students and faculty recognized with best paper awards at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place Aug. 8 to 11 in Philadelphia. All told, CMCI won five awards and presented 47 peer-reviewed papers at AEJMC.

“Our college was created to catalyze and nurture research like Muhammad’s, which doesn’t fall into any single category,” said Patrick Ferrucci, chair of the journalism department at CMCI. “The cross-disciplinary approach to our doctoral programs means our students are challenged to bring an unconventional approach to research and problem-solving. It was incredible to see that recognized over and over at this year’s conference.”

Another CMCI best paper publication also turned on social media trends. Kyle Harris, a PhD student in the advertising, public relations and media design department, co-wrote a paper on disability influencers and self-representation on Instagram with his mentor, Erin Willis, an associate professor. Their research, which conducted a visual and textual analysis of the narrative discourse of 14 influencers to see how they represent invisible and visible illness—won second-place honors.

“I owe a lot to the APRD department and CMCI for believing in me and my research and valuing my contributions, and providing the resources and support to shepherd the work of Dr. Willis and myself to the conference,” Harris said. “The college does a great job promoting a diversity of viewpoints, research interests and intercollegiate venues.”

A full list of CMCI presentations at AEJMC follows. Names in bold are CMCI faculty and students. In addition, many CMCI faculty and students in journalism, APRD and media studies moderated or served on panels, or led workshops, in addition to serving as heads of different divisions.