graduate students

CMCI Now: In design, finding creative excellence outside her comfort zone

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 19:49:03 +0000

CMCI Now: In design, finding creative excellence outside her comfort zone Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/12/2024 - 13:49

Before winning a statewide best in show award, Kate Chambers was among the more experienced students in her master’s cohort. Her success, she said, came from professors who pushed her to try new things.

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Biology tells a story about the natural world. What about communication?

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 20:09:15 +0000

Biology tells a story about the natural world. What about communication? Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/09/2023 - 13:09

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)
Photos courtesy Jo Marras Tate (PhDComm'23)

Growing up in a family surrounded by animals and plants helped Jo Marras Tate (PhDComm’23) develop a love of science and the environment. It’s why she completed bachelor’s degrees in marine biology and psychobiology.

But inspiration turned to frustration as she realized the work she and her colleagues were doing in areas like conservation wasn’t reaching the general public, leading to her pivot from biology to communication.

“I fell in love with the study of how we talk,” she said.

Over the course of her six years studying communication at CMCI, she was a fellow with NEST—Nature Environment Science and Technology—Studio for the Arts, served as science communication facilitator at Fiske Planetarium, and was on a team that brought science and art together via murals sprinkled throughout campus.

Across her research, Marras Tate has strived to encourage and build relationships between nature and humans, which is why she jumped at the chance to be part of the NEST Mural Quest, a series of larger-than-life murals created during the pandemic, and a Campus Field Guide that both catalogs the wildlife that call ��Ƶ Boulder home and allows users to journal about their findings.

She also served as a peer mentor and with Science Under the Dome at Fiske Planetarium, giving her avenues to help other graduate and postdoctoral students bring their research to wider audiences.

“One of the things I really hoped for the field guide is for people to learn about the species we share our campus with, because it’s their campus too,” she said.

For her doctoral dissertation, she studied human-animal relationships between people and different animals during COVID lockdowns. Among them: captive garden eels—people held video calls with the eels so they would not “forget” humans—wild mountain lions that ventured into empty urban areas and wild dolphins, which had regularly interacted with humans and brought gifts to the shore in an apparent attempt to reconnect.

“I don’t do animal behavior research at the moment, I research the human’s understanding of the animal’s behavior and communication,” Marras Tate said.

Take, for example, the dolphins in Queensland, Australia, that made headlines for “bringing gifts” to humans during the COVID lockdowns in 2020. Calling such a behavior gifting is controversial within the scientific community because it ascribes human-like behavior to animals.

But sociologically, experts argue that the act of reciprocity happens across cultures, so calling the dolphins’ actions “gifting” allowed for greater engagement with these animals. That could, by extension, shape how humans engage with the natural world.

“When we engage with gifting as a practice with nature, how does it make us think about what we give back? We might do things differently if we saw them as gifts to nature,” she said. “That’s my hope for my work, that we can continue to think about those things that happen and see new conservation practices.”

Marras Tate’s unique perspective on nature and communication—especially her eagerness to collaborate with others across disciplines—will serve her well as she moves her career forward, said her dissertation advisor, Leah Sprain.

“Jo’s infectious energy and enthusiasm peaks for all things science communication. She came into our department with a desire to build on a deep history of citizen science and thinking about communication for scientists,” said Sprain, associate chair for graduate studies in communication. “She is able to draw on cultural communication approaches to help more fully understand animal communication in ways that engage with biology’s work on animal behavior and communication—and go beyond their approaches too.”

Marras Tate’s unique work—as well as her involvement in various campus organizations, such as ��Ƶ Boulder Colorado Ocean Coalition Chapter and the Communication Graduate Student Association—led to her recognition as the 2023 Forever Buffs Student Award recipient, which was presented at homecoming.

For Marras Tate, the honor is a reminder of how students at ��Ƶ Boulder can create impact, both through extracurricular involvement and research.

“��Ƶ Boulder was my first choice for graduate school,” Marras Tate said. “I ended up where I wanted to be, and winning this award at the end of my PhD career was an amazing feeling and a culmination of all the work I’ve done on behalf of our different communities.

Jo Marras Tate studied biology to work in science. She got her PhD in communication in order to mediate change.

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Photos: Spring 2023 Graduation Celebration

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 16:58:12 +0000

Photos: Spring 2023 Graduation Celebration Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/26/2023 - 10:58

Students, their families, friends and CMCI faculty gathered last week to celebrate graduating. At CMCI's Recognition Ceremony May 12, 2023, nearly 700 students crossed the stage, accepted their diplomas and became alumni. In total, more than 800 bachelors, master’s and doctoral students completed their degrees.

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Communication department celebrates 12 national awards

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 19:10:39 +0000

Communication department celebrates 12 national awards Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/12/2022 - 12:10

Congratulations to the CMCI Department of Communication for receiving 12 awards from the National Communication Association.

NCA is a professional organization dedicated to advancing communication and serving the scholars, teachers and practitioners in the field. During the NCA 108th annual convention held in New Orleans in November, CMCI faculty, graduate students and alumni served as panelists, presented academic research and more.

“These awards provide evidence that ��Ƶ graduate students and faculty lead the communication field,” said Tim Kuhn, department chair. “Looking across the dozen awards, it’s clear that we’re attracting the very top PhD students to our program—and those students are able to work with some of the most innovative and devoted mentors the field has to offer.”

Doctoral students Sean Kenney and Nancy Maingi Ngwu win awards for top student paper and top published article, respectively, 2022 NCA convention.
Photo by Tim Kuhn, CMCI

Associate Professor Phaedra C. Pezzullo and Godfried Asante, an assistant professor of communication at San Diego State University, pose for a photo at the 2022 NCA Convention in New Orleans.
Photo by Constance Gordon, San Diego State University

Doctoral students Warren Cook and Mikayla Torres win a top paper award in environmental communication at the 2022 NCA Convention in New Orleans.
Photo by Constance Gordon, San Diego State University

During the convention, the Department of Communication received the following recognitions and awards:

The Department of Communication takes home 12 awards from the 2022 National Communication Association Convention.

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Journalism students investigate long-term impacts of the Marshall Fire

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 18:54:56 +0000

Journalism students investigate long-term impacts of the Marshall Fire Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/12/2022 - 11:54

Seven CMCI journalism students, with the help of established journalists in the field, are shining a light on the undercovered impacts of the Marshall Fire through a recently published investigation.

In terms of structures lost, the Marshall Fire was the most destructive fire in Colorado history. Beginning Dec. 30, 2021, the Marshall Fire destroyed 1,084 homes and commercial properties within a 10-square-mile burn area. The number of standing homes damaged by the fire and smoke is less clear, but for these homeowners, recovery has been an arduous, seemingly never-ending process. This fall, journalism students focused on sharing the stories of these homeowners.

The students conducted their reporting during an immersive journalism course created by Boulder Reporting Lab publisher Stacy Feldman and Hillary Rosner, a science journalist, teaching assistant professor of journalism and assistant director of the Center for Environmental Journalism.

In the pop-up newsroom, students teamed up with KUNC investigative reporter Robyn Vincent and interviewed more than 60 people. On Wednesday, their work appeared in the Boulder Reporting Lab and KUNC during NPR programs Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

Seven CMCI journalism students, with the help of established journalists in the field, are shining a light on the undercovered impacts of the Marshall Fire through a recently published investigation.

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CMCI Now: Mission for Change

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 20:43:48 +0000

CMCI Now: Mission for Change Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 12/02/2022 - 13:43

In 2022, the climate-action organization Mission Zero partnered with CMCI for the first time, donating $25,000 to further climate-focused work in the college. Faculty and students undertook seven grant projects, tackling climate issues through innovative storytelling.

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Mapping Injustice

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 17:01:49 +0000

Mapping Injustice Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/25/2022 - 11:01

CMCI graduate students worked with the state in their quest to map and track environmental injustice in Colorado. Through digital storytelling, students highlighted communities’ environmental concerns as well as the histories of people living in those places.

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INFO Grads Join Big Tech Fellowships

Anonymous — Wed, 14 Sep 2022 15:45:39 +0000

INFO Grads Join Big Tech Fellowships Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/14/2022 - 09:45

By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)

CMCI is excited to congratulate Jessie Smith and Janghee Cho, two PhD students in the Department of Information Science, on their acceptance into top-tier technology fellowships.

Last year, both students applied for the competitive fellowship positions, going up against students across the globe. Starting this fall, Smith, a third-year candidate, will join the Google PhD Fellowship for Recommender Systems, and Cho, a fifth-year candidate, will begin the Meta Research PhD Fellowship for AR/VR Future Technologies.

For the next two to three years, Smith and Cho will have support from Google and Meta to conduct research in their respective fields. Smith studies recommender systems, which filter and suggest information based on user preferences—like Netflix’s movie recommendations—and how to improve the systems to be more equitable. Cho investigates how people currently integrate technology into daily life and how that may evolve in the future.

Google and Meta celebrated their first classes of fellows in 2009 and 2012, respectively. Since then, each company has developed its program to cater to a wide array of students with different areas of focus. Students participating in these fellowships aren’t necessarily doing work for the companies. Instead, they are given resources, namely financial support and the opportunity to meet with company researchers, in order to conduct their own research.

Both CMCI students said they were grateful for the opportunity to participate in these fellowships. Cho added that he wants to support any ��Ƶ Boulder students who are going through the application process, and he has paid opportunities for students to help with his research.

“[Technology companies] want to know what academia is doing,” Cho said. “This is part of my dissertation. This project is specifically focusing on understanding remote workers working from home and trying to envision what kind of future technology we need to support [them].”

Smith sees this fellowship as a great opportunity, since Google has been “kind of infamous” for their history regarding AI ethics research. She sees this award as recognition from big tech that AI and machine learning ethics research is important.

“My research is on understanding how [recommender systems] might harm people, and how we can design these systems to measure and mitigate that harm,” Smith said. “The more I learn about algorithms and computer science, the more I learn about what it means to be human.”

Information Science PhD candidates Jessie Smith and Janghee Cho have joined fellowships with Google and Meta. Starting this fall, they will focus on research projects with financial support from the two companies.

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CMCI researchers dive into ‘dual experience’ of LGBTQ users on TikTok

Anonymous — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:24:39 +0000

CMCI researchers dive into ‘dual experience’ of LGBTQ users on TikTok Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/21/2022 - 14:24

Log into TikTok for the first time, and you get a firehose of videos featuring lip-syncing, tutorials, robotic voice-overs and tidbits of daily life.

TikTok’s algorithm is supposed to help tailor the mass of content for each user, but for members of LGBTQ communities, the video-based social media platform can miss the mark.

In a study published in January, researchers Ellen Simpson and Bryan Semaan, both with the College of Media, Communication and Information, analyzed how 16 LGBTQ people adopted and experienced TikTok. The researchers found that while the participants enjoyed some aspects of the platform, they never quite felt at home using it.

“We started to do this because TikTok was getting a lot of bad press for suppressing queer content,” said Simpson, a PhD student in the Department of Information Science who led the research project. “There were people who were experiencing this, but at the same time, I think that a lot of the people who were on this app were all experiencing this ‘Oh, I’m seeing me’ moment, like a huge validation of yourself.”

On Jan. 14, Simpson, Semaan and Andrew Hamann, an undergraduate researcher at Syracuse University (now at the University of California Irvine) published “How to Tame ‘Your’ Algorithm: LGBTQ+ Users’ Domestication of TikTok” in the academic journal Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction.

The researchers conducted participant interviews in 2020, asking why individuals adopted TikTok and what challenges they encountered while incorporating it into their daily lives. They analyzed the responses using domestication theory, which breaks the process of routinizing technology into four stages: appropriation, objectification, incorporation and conversion.

They focused on TikTok’s “For You,” page, the entry page for users on the platform. The TikTok algorithm gathers trace data—the digital tracks people leave as they click, like, follow and otherwise engage with the platform—to feed customized content onto the “For You” page.

Although other platforms use algorithms to curate content, the researchers noted that TikTok users tend to have a higher awareness of the algorithm because of the prominence of the “For You” page on the platform.

“In understanding people’s motivations and strategies for adopting and working to resist how algorithms are controlling their lived experiences, we can gain a lot of insight for how to make these systems better,” said Semaan, associate professor of information science. “This is especially important in that we are focused explicitly on people at the margins—those members of society whose voices are often not included or even purposefully excluded from design processes.”

Based on participant interviews and past research, the researchers concluded that LGBTQ users have a “dual experience” on the platform, Simpson said.

For example, an Indigenous participant enjoyed seeing people from tribal communities engage with their Native identities; however, following Indigenous content also prompted the algorithm to show her people appropriating her culture.

Some people, like a participant who has struggled with her identity as a bisexual woman, found validation through interacting with TikTok’s LGBTQ community. Others felt they were connecting with other gay people but struggled to find diverse content within gay TikTok.

One participant, a Black college student in the Midwest “was on gay TikTok, but it was basically white, gay TikTok. There wasn’t like Black, gay TikTok she could put herself on,” Simpson said. “That’s an example of how you can end up with these moments where you are both validated and invalidated at the same time.”

Because the algorithm was continually shifting its recommended content based on trace data, the users also felt they could never relax into routine use of the platform. Users felt like one outlying click, or watching the wrong video for too long, would prompt the algorithm to significantly change their “For You” page.

“People have to be constantly vigilant. You have to constantly be thinking about this algorithm, so you can’t ever really routinize your use of it and render it invisible,” Simpson said.

Simpson and Semaan are continuing their research on TikTok with studies on the experience of content creators on the platform and users on other algorithmic platforms.

“Given that algorithms are controlling many aspects of our lives, it is important to learn about people’s lived experiences with algorithmic systems,” Semaan said. “In our work, not only are we learning about how people are routinely being challenged by algorithms, but we are also learning about how people are also challenging, and thus resisting, the status quo.”

In a study published in January, researchers Ellen Simpson and Bryan Semaan, both with the College of Media, Communication and Information, analyzed how people who identify as LGBTQ adopted and experienced TikTok. They found that, while the participants enjoyed some aspects of the platform, they never quite felt at home using it.

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Learn who won the Three Minute Thesis competition

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 16:45:42 +0000

Learn who won the Three Minute Thesis competition Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/17/2022 - 09:45

The fifth annual Three Minute Thesis competition held on Feb. 9, featuring 11 finalists, resulted in a winner, a tie for runner-up and a winner of the people's choice award.

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