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Journalism Day makes triumphant return to Boulder

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 15:15:05 +0000

Journalism Day makes triumphant return to Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/08/2024 - 09:15

By Iris Serrano
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18) and Jack Moody

The last time the Colorado Student Media Association held its tentpole celebration of high school journalism in Boulder, most Americans got their news in print or on TV. Facebook didn’t yet exist. And the most advanced thing you could do on a mobile phone was place a call.

J-Day, too, has changed as young people increasingly ask thoughtful questions about the future of the industry and its need to innovate.

But pessimism was nowhere in sight last week at the University of Colorado Boulder, which welcomed more than 1,400 high school students and advisors for a day of learning about journalism, the media and more.

Shelby Javernick, director of student recruitment and outreach at the College of Media, Communication and Information, has regularly attended J-Day in the past, when it was held at Colorado State University, “so I had an idea of what to expect, in terms of energy and enthusiasm,” she said. “But my expectations were completely blown away, in terms of the number of students, their passion and curiosity for learning about the media, and how they engaged with speakers, our campus and each other.”

Students had the opportunity to hear from industry and academic experts who discussed topics like social media, generative artificial intelligence and career readiness. Some of the most popular sessions included a panel featuring representatives of ��Ƶ Boulder student media organizations, a career prep session with 9News personalities, and multiple talks about sports journalism. Hundreds of students also attended tours of the campus, CMCI studios and academic spaces, and the campuses’ sports media operations.

For students like Colton Kominski, who’s active with Longmont High School’s yearbook, the event gave a new perspective on how to do his work effectively.

“The photography and videography session highlighted the importance of capturing people and their stories—and whether that’s through emotion, action or being spontaneous, it showed me the power that you can have in your photography,” said Kominski, a senior. “When you’re done with the yearbook, it’s like a time capsule—it will be held in the hands of your classmates for years to come.”

In her opening remarks, Lori Bergen, CMCI’s founding dean and a former reporter, spoke to the need for students to lead the charge as the news industry changes.

“I hope you leave here inspired about the craft of journalism and the importance of the media in today’s world, even as the industry adapts and innovates in the face of new challenges,” Bergen said.

Bigger than the news

While it’s called J-Day, the event isn’t just about journalism and the news—which is why it’s such a natural fit for CMCI. In addition to its journalism department, CMCI incorporates communication, information science, media studies and other related fields, challenging both students and faculty to explore the areas where these changing disciplines intersect—fertile ground for the careers of tomorrow.

“Journalism includes telling stories in a more interesting, intriguing and immersive way to get people to care about something,” Javernick said. “Within our college, there's a lot of overlap with journalism—everything connects because we're always going to need good storytellers.”

High school students who attended the workshops said the sessions reflected the balance CMCI aims to offer in its academic programs, including an emphasis on leadership and communication skills useful in any career—not just journalism.

Marley Rich, a junior from Aspen High School, said she enjoyed a session on how to be an editor for student media.

“I’m definitely going to try and connect with the other members of the staff more, and not isolate myself just because I’m editing their work,” said Rich, adding that the chance to see journalism “not as a concept, but actually as a career, has been really enlightening.”

Career insights

CMCI welcomed back Savannah Sellers (Jour’13), anchor for NBC News’ Morning News Now, as the keynote speaker. From the network’s New York headquarters, she offered words of encouragement from the perspective of someone who had once been in the shoes of the students in the room.

“Exploring journalism as a career opportunity can lead you to so many fantastic things in your life, and incredible opportunities,” she said. “It is a fun, rewarding, fulfilling path that is only getting more interesting, no matter if it’s changing. Also, I will say that ��Ƶ Boulder was a fabulous place to study it.”

Sellers knows a thing or two about those changes: She is a co-host on Stay Tuned, a daily NBC news program aimed at younger viewers and delivered via Snapchat. She encouraged the audience to continue to make strides as journalism evolves.

“We need young people who are interested and invested in getting the true and correct information—getting real journalism onto any and all platforms that consumers are migrating to—and you are best positioned to be able to do that,” Sellers said.

Having the opportunity to learn from an alumna like Sellers inspired many students, including Kominski, of Longmont.

“Hearing from Savannah Sellers was so amazing, because now I know it’s possible to get into this career and make it my own,” he said.

That’s a perspective Iris Berkeley (Jour’01), operations manager for the student-run Radio 1190 station, recalled from her own time as a ��Ƶ Boulder student.

“As an undergrad, I was heavily involved in student media, including not only Radio 1190 but also ��Ƶ’s campus press,” said Berkeley, who attended J-Day along with student representatives for the station. “Both of those activities were hugely important when it came to establishing a career, and just helping me figure out what I loved most about the media field.”

From those opportunities as a campus journalist, Berkeley has enjoyed a varied career in media and communication that has included radio production, hosting and DJing.

That sense of possibility is what Patrick Moring, executive board president for the Colorado Student Media Association, wants for the students who bring such enthusiasm to J-Day.

“J-Day fires students up, it gets students excited,” said Moring, also the advisor for Rampart High School’s television broadcast program. “It gives them ideas about the tools that they need to work on if they want to have a career in this field and be a better journalist.”

More than 1,400 Colorado high school students and advisors visited CMCI to sharpen storytelling skills and learn about careers in media and communication.

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Demonstrative democracy: At forum, students show energy, curiosity about engaging with politics

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 21:32:25 +0000

Demonstrative democracy: At forum, students show energy, curiosity about engaging with politics Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/02/2024 - 15:32

By Joe Arney
Photos by Arielle Wiedenbeck

In sports, it’s often said, offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

For Cody Walizer, when it comes to politics, that’s inverted—good defense can win a debate, but it’s offense that wins elections. And that’s unusual because of how little time candidates spend on offense when they are sparring onstage.

“When someone has an opportunity to build, to go on the offense, but choose to play defense, that’s a bad sign for their position,” Walizer, an assistant teaching professor of communication in the College of Media, Communication and Information, said. “It’s also a sign maybe they’re trying to play these political games, as opposed to being a good debater.”

Walizer was one of nearly a dozen panelists speaking at a voter engagement fair put on by CMCI, ��Ƶ Student Government and the Office of the Chancellor, in association with ��Ƶ Boulder’s Conference on World Affairs. ��Ƶ 150 students attended on Tuesday night to ask questions about politics and elections, register to vote, and learn how to become involved in local elections.

Walizer was invited to participate because of his expertise in debate. He captained his high school debate team and has extensive experience coaching debaters, and said, “I can very firmly state that I have never seen a presidential or vice presidential debate that was a good debate.”

That’s because politicians rarely play offense, which Walizer described as constructing arguments and showing why your side is right. Instead, they play defense—deconstructing arguments and saying why the other side is wrong.

Three panels answered questions submitted by students ahead of time, which covered issues such as the role social media plays in political messaging, how ideology plays out with voters, and how students can involve themselves and help ensure electoral integrity.

Not taking sides

Leah Sprain, an associate professor of communication and director of the university’s Center for Communication and Democratic Engagement, co-moderated the event and frequently praised the quality of questions that students contributed.

Sprain studies democratic engagement, particularly how to support the ways people come together to make decisions on public issues—enabling participation, designing better meetings or rethinking civic norms. When she has worked to help other groups structure their meetings more effectively, she found participants may assume more knowledge about a particular issue than they actually possess.

“They wanted to hear more about how this election would have consequences throughout their lives,” Sprain said. “They were asking about how to make sense of politics, versus just taking sides on issues. That surprised me.”

Of nearly 200 student registrants, dozens submitted questions, “which is a proportion of interest you don’t typically see, especially when some people are registering for things like extra course credit.”

Some of the liveliest discussion concerned social media’s capacity for good and harm, through generative artificial intelligence, advertising and the like. Sandra Ristovska, associate professor of media studies, and Alex Siegel, associate professor of political science, said elections have always been shaped by new technologies. Siegel said the railroad and telegraph helped create a national audience for Abraham Lincoln by offering more timely coverage of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

“They were asking about how to make sense of politics, versus just taking sides on issues. That surprised me.”
Leah Sprain, associate professor, communication

Bogus content isn’t new, Ristovska said, and recent research suggests we’re good at not letting it influence how we vote, but in India’s elections earlier this year, “deepfakes did contribute to sexual harassment of women, the intimidation of journalists and the intimidation of human rights activists in the country,” she said. “We need to be paying more attention to those things.”

Michaele Ferguson, an associate professor of political science, talked about an essay she has students write at the start of her undergraduate course on modern ideologies. Each student describes his or her ideology; she consistently finds students support a mix of free-market economics and social justice issues, like reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.

That’s not a coalition you typically see in the United States, she said, as those issues are claimed, respectively, by the right and left of the spectrum. Ferguson said she’s intrigued by Vice President Kamala Harris’ attempt to signal support for both camps “as a way to peel away voters who would otherwise sit out elections or vote Republican.”

“It’s really exciting to me to see her doing the very thing that my class exercise would tell you is the strategy to win an election in the United States.”

Other presenters included Chuck Plunkett, director of ��Ƶ News Corps; Toby Hopp, associate professor of advertising; Patrick Deneen, a visiting scholar at the university’s Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization; Molly Fitzpatrick (PolSci’11), Boulder County clerk; and junior Grace Covney, a tri-executive with ��Ƶ Student Government.

Learning to lead through government

Tyler Rowan, another ��ƵSG tri-executive and a junior studying international affairs, said he hoped the energy of the room translated into active participants in the election.

He got into student government not for partisan reasons, he said, but because “I wanted to make the most out of school and learn how to lead. Student government has taught me that—it’s taken a majority of my time, but I’m very passionate about it and it’s the best decision I ever made.”

That youthful energy was exciting for Walizer to see, as well.

“The emotional intelligence students need to have to be asking things about how do I engage in politics in a way that’s healthy, how do I have conversations with my roommates in a way that’s respectful—those are not things I’ve seen asked in a situation like this before,” he said.

In addition to being open to all ��Ƶ Boulder students, the discussion was livestreamed to audiences at Colorado Mesa University, in Grand Junction, and Fort Lewis College, in Durango. It was followed by a live viewing of the vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz.

Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMCI, kicked off the event by encouraging students to seek out difficult conversations as a way to learn and grow.

“On our campus, we really are in a place where difficult conversations can and should occur,” Bergen said. “When we approach those with courage and curiosity and care and consistency, that’s when learning and growth and progress really happen.”

CMCI faculty panelists praised students for raising thoughtful, serious, nonpartisan questions about how to be active citizens.

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Make it STOP: Does replying to spam texts from politicians really block them?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 20:21:47 +0000

Make it STOP: Does replying to spam texts from politicians really block them? Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/26/2024 - 14:21

By Joe Arney
Illustration by Dana Heimes

Think your phone’s blowing up with spam text messages from candidates and campaigns?

Buckle up—you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Federal Election Commission’s final pre-election filing deadline for campaigns is Oct. 24. Expect a ton of texts as that date approaches, said Bridget Barrett, an assistant professor of advertising at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information.

What can you do to dodge the digital deluge? Not much, she said.

“This has been an extremely contentious election season,” said Barrett, who studies digital marketing and political communication. “Campaigns are chasing every advantage right now, and as long as texting continues to work, they’ll keep doing it.”

There’s no single way most people wind up on a list to receive campaign texts. Usually, she said, you gave money at some point, or you signed up for something without realizing that you were giving your number to a political organization. It might also be through a merchandise sale, or if you fill out an online poll.

“There are different national rules and state laws around list swapping among different companies and fundraising organizations, and many different data privacy laws at different levels—but once you’re on a list, you’re likely to get texts from people you did not directly opt in with,” she said. “It’s hard because there are so many ways for your data to be collected and then shared.”

“Campaigns are chasing every advantage right now, and as long as texting continues to work, they’ll keep doing it.”
Bridget Barrett, assistant professor, advertising

There are a few steps consumers can take to silence the annoying alerts. Replying STOP every time you get one of these messages will, eventually, cut down on the number of texts you get, “though it probably won’t stop them altogether,” she said.

Another step is to be discerning about giving out your information. “Consider using services where you can create burner email addresses, and think twice before handing over your phone number,” she said.

Barrett also advised consumers to register their phones through the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call registry, though candidates and campaigns are exempt from the protections it offers. Voters can also update their registrations to remove their phone numbers; however, she said, that is unlikely to be a source for texts like these.

Longer term, Barrett is watching the arms race between phones and campaigns—especially how political camps will respond as mobile service providers and handset manufacturers introduce better spam filters to protect user data.

She’s also interested to see whether campaigns start limiting this kind of outreach, especially if they see it’s turning people off.

“No one is concerned about that right now, because they’re still seeing a return on their investment,” she said. “There might be a postmortem in the future to look at whether this is sustainable—on the right, we did see some burnout and a decrease in donations after the 2016 election—but right now, the only concern is getting people elected.”

A CMCI expert offers advice on taking back your phone this election season.

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Class acts: CMCI’s new faculty bring new ideas on A.I., identity, culture to Boulder

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 20:16:32 +0000

Class acts: CMCI’s new faculty bring new ideas on A.I., identity, culture to Boulder Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 08/22/2024 - 14:16

By Joe Arney
Photo by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm'18)

When asked why they choose the University of Colorado Boulder, students and faculty alike tend to cite its location, along with academic prestige, research successes and access to opportunity.

That was a big draw for Joe Izaguirre III, as well. But it wasn’t the mountains he had in mind when he signed on as an assistant professor of communication at the College of Media, Communication and Information.

Izaguirre studies how political power influences Latin identities from the lens of public rhetoric and rhetorical histories. Plenty of the source material for his book includes texts produced by activists who lived in the Colorado area.

“I hadn’t thought of this, but I’ll be able to hand-deliver the book to families who participated, instead of just dropping it in the mail,” he said. “It feels like an opportunity to have a more personal connection to the things I’ve been studying.”

Izaguirre is among the seven new tenure-track faculty joining CMCI this fall. The college also is welcoming seven nontenure-track faculty, including new appointments for professors who previously held different roles.

“I’m so excited to welcome our new faculty to CMCI,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “As the media, communication, design and information landscape continues to dramatically change, the new perspectives these professors bring will ensure our students get a cutting-edge, immediately applicable education.”

“It was a great experience, as an instructor, to be able to work with students who were that interested in learning and participating.”
Dinfin K. Mulupi, assistant professor, journalism

Design thinking

For the first time, this year’s incoming cohort includes faculty from the environmental design program, which formally integrated with CMCI over the summer. Though there are no changes for current students, faculty in the program are enthusiastic about the chance to collaborate with colleagues eager to explore new applications for their work.

Martín Paddack, a teaching associate professor who joins CMCI and ENVD following seven years at Howard University, has a wealth of interests around architecture and sustainability, including participatory design—“understanding how we identify where there is need and trying to create connections with community for design.”

“I always try to inculcate into students that it’s not about coming up with an idea and saying, here’s the answer,” said Paddack, who also is founder and principal of the Washington, D.C.-based DesignMAP firm. “It comes down to communication—asking the right questions and really listening so you can identify where the needs are. If you are prescriptive, and don’t listen to your community, that’s when design starts to fail.”

Paddack brings a diverse set of interests—architecture, sustainability, social responsibility, writing, painting, woodworking—to the classroom, as well as a global perspective: He was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Peru and Uruguay before moving to D.C. as a boy. He also taught in South America and completed a painting residency in Barcelona. He helped set up a fabrication lab at Howard to ensure students developed both practical architecture experience.

“That’s something I really like about environmental design at ��Ƶ—the focus on how we can apply sustainable principles across four different areas, and an emphasis on doing hands-on fabrication so that students learn the theory, but also how to apply it,” he said.

‘Great experience’ connecting with students

Most new faculty who join CMCI say they feel an instant rapport with professors in their departments, which makes the college feel like home well before they start. That was true for Dinfin K. Mulupi, as well, but she felt an equally strong connection to the journalism students she taught as part of the interview process.

“I was fascinated by their interest in learning the research behind journalism practices,” said Mulupi, a native of Kenya who came to CMCI via the PhD program at the University of Maryland, College Park.

A discussion she led critiquing news coverage of immigration, Mulupi said, sparked so much insightful discussion that she felt bad moving on to the next topic.

“It was a great experience, as an instructor, to be able to work with students who were that interested in learning and participating,” she said. “When you’re a professor, you are creating knowledge with your students, and they were so attentive and involved that I know it will be a privilege to teach them.”

Mulupi’s research looks at sexism and sexual harassment in newsrooms, and came from working on her thesis as the #MeToo movement gained momentum. She was among the first scholars to explore the topic in Kenyan newsrooms; her work has since expanded to more than 20 countries.

It’s an important topic at a time when the news industry is contracting, as “when you have a newsroom culture with sexism, harassment, racism and bigotry, you lose talented journalists who don’t feel safe and included,” she said. “I am also focusing on solutions, especially exploring how we can build safer, more inclusive newsrooms that produce news content that serves the diverse needs and interests of a wider audience.”

Pooja Iyer, who joined CMCI from the University of Texas Austin, where she completed her doctoral work in the spring. She’s also doing timely work, researching the ethics around how advertising firms collect and use data in the course of connecting to consumers.

“In my industry days, I realized my own cognitive dissonance—asking how granular we could get on a target audience while having ad blockers on my computer,” said Iyer, an assistant professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design. “I believe the advertising world can play a more ethical role in how and why they’re using data, and how they’re protecting customers—because there isn’t enough literacy around this.”

It’s something her student will need to consider as they graduate, she said.

“Whether you’re in creative, account management, media planning, it doesn’t matter—you will be working with data,” Iyer said. “So, how can we best empower you to be ethical about the use of that data? As educators, that really needs to be front and center for our students.”

Incoming professors bring an interest in cutting-edge topics at a time when the media landscape is undergoing dramatic change.

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Influential media conference becoming a CMCI showcase

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Aug 2024 16:11:04 +0000

Influential media conference becoming a CMCI showcase Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 08/14/2024 - 10:11

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.”

“The college does a great job promoting a diversity of viewpoints, research interests and intercollegiate venues.”
Kyle Harris

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.

With multiple best paper awards, CMCI is building an impressive reputation at the annual AEJMC conference.

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This entrepreneur is a whistleblower

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 15:15:13 +0000

This entrepreneur is a whistleblower Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/24/2024 - 09:15

By Joe Arney
Photos by Glenn Asakawa (Jour’86)

Part of being a successful entrepreneur is knowing when to pivot. Huck Sorock (StratComm’23) had an early lesson in that.

Growing up in hockey-mad Minneapolis, Sorock, like many boys his age, was lovestruck for the puck—and good enough at the sport to secure a spot in a junior league after finishing high school. But his love of the sport waned as he was traded multiple times, “and I started to feel like a commodity.”

Although he left the sport to enroll at the University of Colorado Boulder, it never quite left his heart. Sorock earned money on the side as a referee starting in high school, and was amazed at how inefficiently refs are deployed to cover youth games.

“It’s a contractor-based industry—except you’re not actually choosing the time or location of any of the games you work,” Sorock said. “So I was getting plugged into games that were 45 minutes from home, when I would see one in the software available five minutes away.” Payments, too, were subject to maddening delays.

As a student in the College of Media, Communication and Information, Sorock watched his friends score internships with Goldman Sachs and Deloitte as they prepared for life after graduation. He decided he wanted a different path, and formed Refr Sports during his junior year.

“I was bred into entrepreneurship,” said Sorock, co-founder and CEO of the company. “My dad is a serial entrepreneur and when it came to jobs—which he always called 'the J-word’—he’d say, ‘We make those. We don't get them.’”

Now in its third year, Refr (pronounced “ref-ur”) has earned nearly $1 million in venture capital funding as it rolls out its platform to youth sports leagues around the country. In April, Sorock claimed second place—plus an audience choice award—at ��Ƶ Boulder’s annual New Venture Challenge, which invites startups to pitch their concepts for the chance to win up to $100,000 in seed funding.

“There are so many entrepreneurs who try to do it all on their own. Huck understands the value of plugging into an ecosystem and working with mentors who’ve been there before,” said Stan Hickory, director of innovation and entrepreneurship at ��Ƶ Boulder’s Research and Innovation Office, which hosts NVC.

For go-getters willing to build those networks, Hickory said NVC offers students a mentorship platform of 350 mentors from the Boulder startup community—an invaluable resource for student-led startups.

A CRM for ref assigners

If you’ve never wondered about the referees who showed up to work your town soccer matches, you’re not alone—Sorock said few people who haven’t worn the whistle understand the system. Most municipalities contract officiating out to a middleman called the referee assigner, who then finds, manages, schedules and pays the refs who work the games.

Those assigners, Sorock said, often are former refs who’ve had to manage the complexities of this system, yet aren’t ready listeners when Sorock tells them he’s got a better way for them to do it.

“We’ve basically built a CRM for assigners to manage their business, providing incremental technology that enables them to better tag refs to games and get them paid faster,” he said. “But these aren’t C-suite executives—they’re basically mailmen with a side hustle. So, they aren’t always receptive to change. Or, they ask for features that, if we offer them, are just digitizing an inefficient system rather than offering innovation and efficiency.”

Selling to an older demographic has been Sorock’s hardest challenge. But it’s also given him opportunities to learn, which he said is his favorite part of the job. A lot of that learning has come from leading a team of 13 that includes developers, sales functions and customer engagement.

“My dad is a serial entrepreneur and when it came to jobs—which he always called 'the J-word’—he’d say, ‘We make those. We don’t get them.’”
Huck Sorock (StratComm’23), co-founder and CEO, Refr Sports

“Ultimately, I’m trying to become a better person, leader, entrepreneur in general,” he said. “My experiences with Refr are definitely helping me get there.”

So, too, did his time in Boulder. Sorock appreciated the chance to pair his strategic communication major with the business minor offered by the Leeds School of Business, giving him exposure to concepts in marketing, finance, analytics and product development while taking a deeper dive into topics around communication and leadership.

Communication skills, Hickory said, often are a differentiator for successful entrepreneurs.

“The hardest part with a competition like this is no matter how great your idea is—and Huck’s idea is great—so much comes down to how you make that pitch,” he said. “One of the things we talk about with our young entrepreneurs is communication—do you have the right person, have you practiced, have you sought feedback over and over—and over—again?”

Sorock credited Hickory with helping him connect to Boulder’s strong startup ecosystem.

“I grew so much as a person at ��Ƶ,” he said, mentioning a business course with Dave Cass as being particularly instrumental to Refr’s success: “It gave me the confidence to jump in with both feet, and to believe it was going to work out the way it should.”

A CMCI graduate took second place in the university’s New Venture Challenge for a company aiming to digitize how youth sports leagues hire and schedule referees.

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No shot: Why we won’t pull the trigger on gun control

Anonymous — Wed, 15 May 2024 17:30:49 +0000

No shot: Why we won’t pull the trigger on gun control Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 05/15/2024 - 11:30

By Joe Arney

Whether you consider the Second Amendment a dangerous relic or inspiration for a tattoo, the U.S. public as a whole doesn’t consider guns an important issue, except in the immediate wake of a mass shooting.

“It’s a little depressing that only 8 percent of America thinks guns are an important issue,” said Chris Vargo, an associate professor of advertising and information analytics at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information. “It makes it obvious to me that, with this much disinterest, gun control isn’t going to happen at the national level.”

Vargo’s research, which was published in Mass Communication and Society in April, looked at agenda setting and gun control to better understand whether public sentiment around guns is strong enough to pressure legislators into taking action. He studied the impacts of traditional and partisan media coverage, posts on Twitter (now X), gun-related events, and Google search behavior to understand how important Americans consider guns against the broader tapestry of challenges facing the nation.

Long story short, they don’t. Vargo’s dataset goes back to 2015, and you can easily point out where devastating mass shootings like Parkland, Uvalde and even Boulder took place—there are spikes in Google searches for terms like “second amendment rights,” “concealed carry permit” and “sandy hook donations.”

But a spike is all it is. Particularly among conservatives, interest in guns and gun control quickly heads back to its baseline. And even in the immediate wake of the gruesome Parkland shootings, only about 30 percent of Americans considered guns an important issue.

“I expected to see a ramp on this across time—more and more interest as more people are shot, or as more people know people who are killed in mass shootings,” Vargo said. “Instead, it just resets.”

A zero-sum game

He admitted surprise at his findings, but as an expert on agenda setting, maybe he shouldn’t be. Scholars who study agenda setting look for ways that the news media plays an outsized role in determining what issues we find important. It’s particularly of interest for people in mass communications—like journalists, advertisers, PR experts and content creators—to ensure their work is more likely to generate audience interest.

“Agenda setting is a zero-sum game,” Vargo said. “We can only keep maybe five major national issues in our head at one time—and while some topics, like the economy, are always going to be there, for something new to rise to the top, something else has to come out.”

Guns are a new direction for Vargo’s work on media effects and agenda setting, which traditionally looks at everything from fact-checking and fake news to how we choose media to form a community around like-minded people. This topic was less about a new direction and more a reaction to how unimportant guns are to Americans. Survey data list guns as a top-25 problem—in other words, invisible.

“I expected to see a ramp on this across time—more and more interest as more people are shot, or as more people know people who are killed in mass shootings. Instead, it just resets.”
Chris Vargo, associate professor

Google Trends proved to be a rich source for understanding salience around guns. Surprisingly, that wasn’t true of the mainstream news media, which had almost no effect on the issue. Instead, partisan players on both the left and right—think the likes of Wonkette or Breitbart—drive interest, though that polarization comes with an interesting twist of its own: Right-aligned media barely move the needle, while progressive publications get a boost from conservatives who flock there after shootings.

Vargo called this “counter-attitudinal thinking.”

“When conservatives see the left is crying about something, it signals that it’s an important issue to me, but only in the sense that I’m going to refute it,” he said.

Looking at issue salience is important because when a topic does reach a certain threshold, the government tends to act. Vargo pointed to gay marriage as one issue where attention built consistently over a long period, leading to same-sex marriages being legalized in 2015. As more people realized they knew gay couples over time, it helped create momentum for the issue.

Gun control, though, “is really unusual, because we just don’t have a lasting memory for shootings,” Vargo said. “We have this psychological desire to push out bad news, which helps keep gun control out of the spotlight.”

It’s why he’s sure we’ll never see action at the federal level, though he didn’t rule out the idea of local legislation.

“Guns aren’t an intrusive issue until they are,” Vargo said. “But unless you have something like a Parkland every day, you’re not moving a bunch of senators to take action. In those communities traumatized by gun violence, you might see local and state policies enacted to protect us.”

Following years of high-profile shootings, Chris Vargo expected to find rising public salience around gun control. He didn’t.

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Class of 2024: William W. White Honorees

Anonymous — Sun, 05 May 2024 07:28:09 +0000

Class of 2024: William W. White Honorees Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 05/05/2024 - 01:28

William W. White Outstanding Seniors are chosen by department faculty to recognize academic merit, professional achievement and service to the college. The Outstanding Graduate award honors the CMCI student with the highest overall GPA in their graduating class.

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Is communication around climate change just hot air?

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:31:20 +0000

Is communication around climate change just hot air? Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/17/2024 - 09:31

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

As an undergraduate student, Emily King Kinsey most enjoyed professors who brought work experience to the classroom.

That’s not the only reason she sought professional experience before enrolling in the doctoral program at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information. But when it comes to the impact her work is having, especially as a researcher, that professional experience is every bit as valuable as she expected it would be.

“I like being able to share those connections I’ve developed—to be able to show some of my own work and talk about my own experiences, and to help students as they prepare for their own professional journeys,” she said.

“I got to see this whole other decision-making component that has to do with how you set policies, how you get people on board with them, how you get the public to understand why these advancements and policies are important.”
Emily King Kinsey

Her own scholarly journey is rooted in the intersection between political science and public relations. After completing her master’s in communication at the University of Tennessee, King Kinsey worked at a prominent materials science research group, where she got to see up close the technical advancements needed to create things like lightweight cars or recyclable wind turbines that could help stabilize climate change.

But those developments weren’t the whole story.

Creating meaningful impact

As growing public pressure mounts on businesses to take a more active role for their responsibility for the changing climate, King Kinsey is interested in understanding how corporations and governments can effectively set policies to create meaningful impact. Finding that intersection of environmental matters, corporate governance and public diplomacy will help her create the impact she seeks, according to her advisor.

“Emily has a sense of certainty about herself, what she’s interested in and why it’s important,” said Jolene Fisher, associate chair for undergraduate studies and associate professor in CMCI’s advertising, public relations and media design department. “She has a lot of passion about her work, and while we don’t always agree, she’s able to stand up for her ideas and why she wants to try a particular direction.

“In a grad program, you shouldn’t just be a replica of your advisor. You should be your own person, your own scholar, and she is able to do that because she has that dedication and sense of direction.”

King Kinsey made her program her own by taking political sciences classes outside of CMCI, which helped her bring an international flair to her public relations focus in a way that PhD programs elsewhere didn’t readily offer.

That focus has helped her build on her experience in materials science and innovation to do research with global impact. Her dissertation incorporates renewable energy and climate change as it’s playing out in larger competition between the United States and China.

‘Saying things just to say them’

Both states, she said, are investing in renewable energy development worldwide; in Indonesia, both have poured billions of dollars—China significantly more—into these projects. King Kinsey looks at the consistency of messaging being shared around such investments to better understand the role communication plays in influencing public diplomacy around climate change.

“A lot of the communication around climate change is hand waving and saying things just to say them,” she said. “So, it’s worth looking at the messages being shared around these projects—are you making an impact, are your messages being received, is this how we should be spending public diplomacy money?”

Fisher said mentoring students is her favorite part of being a CMCI professor, and she said King Kinsey’s experiences beyond work—including pursuing a PhD during COVID-19 lockdowns and having a daughter part way through her degree—will make her “a fantastic role model for her students.”

“One thing I admire about Emily is she is figuring out how to find balance—she’s a great parent, she’s doing this intensive research work and she’s navigating a job search,” Fisher said. “That’s so hard for PhD students, especially women, and her experience navigating these things and staying true to herself will make her a great mentor one day. I’m excited to see where she goes and what she does—and I’m excited to keep learning from her.”

Becoming a parent while pursuing a PhD is a daunting proposition. Spend a few minutes in her company, though, and it’s clear that when King Kinsey sets her heart on something, she’s going to achieve it.

In her case, it will be getting to hug her daughter after she is hooded at commencement in May.

“My advisor and the faculty at CMCI were really supportive of me and advocated for me throughout my journey,” she said. “I’m very motivated to get things done, and they matched that, were supportive and helped me get things done.”

Researcher’s experience in advertising, marketing and PR gives her a unique angle to study organizational communications and policy around climate impact and awareness.

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The head—and the back—of the class

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

The head—and the back—of the class Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/04/2024 - 00:00

By Joe Arney

It’s often been said that where you choose to sit in a lecture hall says a lot about what you want out of a particular class. Those students who take the first row of chairs tend to be the hand-raisers, the participators, the ones who turn in assignments on time and can be counted on for lively in-class discussions.

When he’s teaching an advertising course in a lecture hall, Harsha Gangadharbatla appreciates those reliable go-getters—but he’s always got one eye on the back row.

“Once in a while, I’ll invite a student to visit during my office hours so I can ask them what’s going on, why they want to be there,” said Gangadharbatla, professor of advertising, public relations and media design and associate dean of faculty development at the College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder. “And somehow, through multiple conversations with them, there’s this shift in attitude, and I see them do really great work over the rest of the semester. And a few of them go on to do amazing things—and those are the ones I’m most proud of.”

That little adverb, “somehow,” hides the tremendous effort he puts into teaching. As his current and former students will tell you, Gangadharbatla may appear relaxed at the front of the classroom, but he cares deeply about sharing his knowledge and being the bridge that gets students from college to the careers they want.

And it’s certainly why, in March, Gangadharbatla was named winner of the Charles H. Sandage Award for Teaching Excellence of the American Academy of Advertising. He is only the 14th professor to win the award since it was created in the 1990s. The “Sandy” celebrates sustained and varied excellence in teaching and mentoring, and is considered the most prestigious award to recognize and celebrate sustained contributions to advertising education.

Unlocking prestigious internships

Nalina Datta, a senior studying advertising at CMCI, said Gangadharbatla’s impact is felt well beyond the classroom. He nominated her for the Vance and Betty Lee Stickell Award last summer, which unlocked an internship at TBWA\Chiat\Day, among the most prestigious advertising agencies in New York City.

“��Ƶ is so big and there are so many opportunities—it can be a little daunting to figure out where you belong,” Datta said. “Harsha did a great job of helping me understand where I am, where I want to go and how to get there.”

Ask Gangadharbatla why he won the award, and he mostly discusses his years of service to AAA, which includes working as its president and chairing committees in research and international advertising. But he considers the ability to connect with and inspire students outside of formal classroom activities to be supremely important, both for his success and in a future where artificial intelligence plays a growing role in university life.

“I see the next 20 years as being the most challenging for anyone in higher education because of the proliferation of technology, and developments like A.I. and automation,” he said. “The future will be less about giving people information, and more about identifying the potential in someone, the goals and aspirations they have, and connecting them to those outcomes they want.”

As you might expect from his interest in A.I., Gangadharbatla is a highly respected thought leader in the areas where communication, technology and business overlap. He said being at a place like CMCI, where communication-, media- and information science-related disciplines intersect, has been a great benefit to his research work, which straddles several areas.

“The other units in our college are very helpful in informing and also challenging the work that I do,” he said. “Their work really makes me think about my own work in a different light, and ask different kinds of research questions to bring a different perspective.”

Inspiring the next generation

Saima Kazmi, who is completing her PhD from APRD this spring, said she considers herself lucky to have Gangadharbatla as her advisor. She’s tried to absorb the relaxed, yet attuned, way he conducts himself both in and out of class.

“That’s the most gratifying feeling there is—someone is literally attributing their entire life trajectory to something you told them, or said in a classroom.”
Harsha Gangadharbatla, associate dean and professor, APRD

“He’s got so many students who he’s in touch with, and people who just turn up to ask for his help or get him as a guest speaker,” she said. “I really aspire to be like that—where students remember me and reach out when they need help or have news to share.”

Harry Morof (StratComm’18), associate director of media and analytics for ad agency Duncan Channon, said studying advertising at CMCI gave him access to many incredible professors, “but Harsha stands out for his passion for, and commitment to, his students.”

Morof’s work has a decided healthcare theme, having worked on campaigns concerning vaccines, vaping prevention and opioid abuse in California. He still recalls how effective his former professor was in helping students make valuable connections as they began their careers.

“Both in and out of the classroom, he is approachable and supportive, and he regularly makes efforts to connect people within his network,” Morof said. “Just take a look at his LinkedIn.”

It’s not just connections he shares with his students. Datta said Gangadharbatla “encouraged me to say yes” and show up in the office even when the culture was hybrid. By coming in on one of her remote days, she had the chance to meet and speak with Rob Schwartz, an influential leader in advertising who’s held several leadership roles at TBWA.

“Harsha taught me to raise my hand, to volunteer, to show up and be present, which is how I got to meet Rob,” she said. “It’s helped me get where I am now.”

Those little interactions, he said, are the most rewarding part of teaching.

“I still hear from students from some of my earliest classes, who are now VPs and directors and that sort of thing,” he said. “And I love getting emails where they tell me, I was in your intro class, I was another major—but you inspired me to change to advertising, and so now I’m doing this.

“That’s the most gratifying feeling there is—someone is literally attributing their entire life trajectory to something you told them, or said in a classroom.”

Harsha Gangadharbatla loves the challenge of inspiring students who sit in the last row of the lecture hall. His attention to his craft and his classes led to a prestigious teaching award from the American Academy of Advertising last month.

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