faculty

Faculty experts earn recognition at influential media conference

Joe Arney — Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:43:42 +0000

Faculty experts earn recognition at influential media conference Joe Arney Wed, 09/17/2025 - 18:43

Iris Serrano

PhD student Mushfique Wadud, right, accepts a best paper award at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. His paper looked at how long-form journalism publications have adapted in the social media age.

Growing up in a remote part of Bangladesh, Mushfique Wadud couldn’t afford copies of The Economist and Time as they came out.

He could, though, afford back issues. Reading those, he said, opened his eyes to how big an influence those magazines had on politics in the United States.

“These magazines carried news from all over the world—even remote parts of it,” said Wadud, a journalism PhD student in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at the �鶹��Ƶ. “It was like I had the whole world in a single cover.”

Little did he know those early forays into American journalism would shape his career as a researcher.

“As the internet evolved, these magazines struggled with viewership,” Wadud said. “They’ve had to reshape their content by investing their time on social media.”

For longtime readers of these magazines, Wadud’s interest makes sense. In their heydays, they were champions of long-form journalism, offering profiles and think pieces each week that are difficult to visualize translating to bite-sized social content.

To understand how they adapted, Wadud performed a qualitative study, immersing himself in their reporting. For four months, he spent hours each day on their websites and scrolling through platforms like Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

“I wanted to see how they handled storytelling during the 2024 election across different platforms,” Wadud said. “Both The Economist and Time have changed their content strategy. They’re focusing on creating short videos, but at the same time, they’re not compromising their brands.”

A strong showing

“Both The Economist and Time have changed their content strategy. They’re focusing on creating short videos, but at the same time, they’re not compromising their brands.”

Mushfique Wadud

Wadud was among the dozens of CMDI students and faculty recognized with top paper awards at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place Aug. 7 to 10 in San Francisco. The college contributed 40 peer-reviewed papers and brought home four awards.

Founded in 1912, AEJMC is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level. Today, the nonprofit organization includes thousands of educators and students from around the globe.

“Our success this year shows that CMDI is building the next generation of scholars,” said Patrick Ferrucci, chair of the journalism department. “The entire college does an amazing job of producing quality, important, impactful research.”

Patrick Ferrucci teaches a CMDI precollege class. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

Ferrucci was the winner of two faculty papers, one of which he co-wrote with Qiongye Chen, another PhD student studying journalism. That paper, which won second place in the cultural and critical studies division, focused on the ways journalists are reporting on artificial intelligence and how it would change the industry.

“This is a story about labor. We found that trade magazines were publishing two different types of narratives,” Ferrucci said. “Some discussed how it makes professionals’ lives easier. Others focused on how it’s a threat to employment.”

Ferrucci also received third place in the newspaper and online news division for an analysis of virtual newsrooms.

“What surprised me was that places that have mostly or all-remote work hadn’t thought of ways to build community within their workforce, or of ways to onboard people intentionally and fully,” he said.

Bringing A.I. to class

When it comes to A.I., Ferrucci is thinking about ways new tools could be incorporated into the classroom, so students are better equipped to use them in the workplace—but that requires educators to first understand the technology themselves.

“Our commitment to students is to prepare them for what the field looks like. And we need to understand the changes that are happening with A.I. to be able to do that,” Ferrucci said. “Although it’s impossible to predict the future, it doesn’t mean we can wait until things settle and then figure it out.”

The conference doesn’t just celebrate research excellence in journalism. Erin Schauster, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design, added to the list of top paper winners in the media ethics division, as she presented her research on teaching media ethics and fostering moral development in students and early career practitioners.

In collaboration with four other researchers in different universities, she studied the moral development of graduates of media programs.

“We asked ourselves, how are these students who are learning journalism, advertising and public relations developing morally after they leave our programs and start working in the industry?” Schauster said. “We wanted to capture a moral profile of the people doing work that’s really impactful for society.”

She also presented a paper on reflective journaling incorporated into weekly writing assignments as part of her strategic writing course. Students were split into groups and were asked to reflect on their assignments, such as writing news releases and creative briefs from ethical or business perspectives.

“At the end of the semester, the group that reflected on the ethics perspective of their strategic writing had an increase in their moral reasoning,” Schauster said. “We can use these findings to guide how we design courses so students are prepared to face ethical challenges in their careers.”

The work presented at the conference highlights the impact of CMDI’s research, showing how these projects contribute to the content being taught in the classroom.

“It’s a source of pride to be a part of a productive research community, which shows in the volume and quality of work,” Schauster said. “We are educators, and our research informs other educators about the best practices to help shape future industry professionals.”

A full list of CMDI presentations at AEJMC follows. Names in bold are CMDI 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.

Advertising Division

The Novelty Effect of AI-Chatbot: Examining Consumer Engagement and the Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy. Md Shahedur Rahman, APRD.

Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division

Blurring Boundaries: How World Travel YouTubers are Redefining Travel Journalism. Hun Shik Kim, journalism.

Understanding User Engagement with AI-Anchor Disseminated Content on Facebook: A Uses and Gratifications Theory Approach. Muhammad Ali, journalism.

Commission on the Status of Minorities

Analysis of Alaskan Native and American Indian Women Health Issues from an Indigenous Standpoint Theory. Henry Ugwu, APRD; Shreyoshi Ghosh, journalism.

Commission on the Status of Women

Menstruation in the News: A Feminist Analysis of Dominant Narratives in U.S. Newspapers. Dinfin Mulupi and Shreyoshi Ghosh, both journalism.

Communicating Science, Health, Environment, Risk Division

Environmental Justice and Flood Risk Communication: A Decade Reflections from the 2013 Colorado Flood. Wen Lei and Rania Al Namara, both journalism.

Communication Technology Division

Defining Algorithmic Journalism: A Scholarly Explication of the Concept. Hina Ali, journalism.

Community Journalism Interest Group

Exploring how Personal Trauma Impacts a Professional Community Journalist’s Role Through Netflix’s After Life. Carl Knauf, journalism.

Pacific Palisades Under Fire: Community Journalism, Social Media and Public Participation During the 2025 California Wildfires. Mushfique Wadud, journalism.

Cultural and Critical Studies Division

“AI Is a Story �鶹��Ƶ Labor Automation”: Journalism, Tech and Perceptions of Precarity. Patrick Ferrucci and Qiongye Chen, both journalism. Top faculty paper (second place).

Controlling the Narrative: Press Freedom, Power and the Emergence of a Hybrid Developmental-Authoritarian Media System in Pakistan. Muhammad Ali and Hina Ali, both journalism.

Otherness in Media Representation of Diverse Celebrity Hosts. Shreyoshi Ghosh, journalism.

Will They Defend Their Own? A Critical Discourse Analysis and Comparison of Corporate Newspapers and NewsGuild Coverage of Journalist’s Labor Strikes. Qiongye Chen and Ever Figueroa, both journalism.

“You’re Only Hurting the Journalists”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of “Don’t Unsubscribe” to The Washington Post and the L.A. Times. Ever Figueroa and Patrick Ferrucci, both journalism.

International Communication Division

African News Audience Engagement with LGBTQIA+ News Framing in Digital Spaces. Dennis Okeke and Patrick Ferrucci, both journalism.

Golden Girls, National Heroes and Resilient Champions: An Intersectional and Computational Analysis of Social Media Commentary During the 2024 Paralympics. Dinfin Mulupi, journalism; Shannon Scovel (Tennessee); Frankie Wong H.C. (Lingnan University); Aman Misra (Tennessee).

How Adaptation to New Technology in Legacy Media Affects Journalism in Bangladesh. Ershad Khan, journalism; Harsha Gangadharbatla, APRD.

Journalists' Perceptions of their Role and the Role of Humanitarian Organizations in Covering Humanitarian News from Crisis Zones in the Digital Age. Rania Al Namara, journalism.

Revenue Pressures vs. Journalistic Autonomy: How Bangladeshi Journalists Navigate Business Interests of Media Outlets and Owners. Ershad Khan, journalism.

Three Worlds Imagined Through News: A Cross-National Analysis of Country-Based Issue Ownership Networks. Zhuoyu Wang (Fudan University); Lei Guo (Fudan University); Mengmeng Wu (Chicago University); Chris Vargo, APRD.

Law and Policy Division

Criminalizing Journalism: Rethinking Global Press Typologies Through the Lens of Defamation Laws. Ershad Khan, journalism.

Magazine Media Division

When Print Prestige Meets Platform Performance: A Netnographic Study of Time's and The Economist's Digital Strategies During the 2024 U.S. Election. Mushfique Wadud, journalism. Top student paper (first place).

Media Ethics Division

Taking the Long View: The Case for a Life Story-Based Media Ethics Pedagogy. David Craig (Oklahoma); Chris Roberts (Alabama); Erin Schauster, APRD; Patrick Lee Plaisance (Pennsylvania State); Katie Place (Quinnipiac); Daniel Thompson (Oklahoma); Jiaqi (Agnes) Bao (Pennsylvania State); Yetter Casey (Cherokee Nation 3S). Top faculty paper (third place).

A Journaling Intervention in Advertising and Public Relations: Moral and Deliberate Psychological Education. Erin Schauster, APRD; Christopher Vardeman (Towson); Toby Hopp, APRD.

Saving the Fixers in Wars: Metajournalistic Discourse, Paradigm, Repair, Global War Journalism Industry, Global Media Ethics and War Journalism Practice. Mushfique Wadud, journalism.

To Eat the Fig or To Not Eat the Fig: Examining the Influences Behind Arts Journalists’ Decisions to Accept Perks Related To Covering Their Beat. Carl Knauf, journalism; Lindsey Maxwell, Southern Mississippi.

Minorities and Communication Division

Health News Analysis of Alaskan Native and American Indian (ANAI) Women. Shreyoshi Ghosh, journalism; Henry Ugwu, APRD.

Newspaper and Online News Division

When Software Becomes the Newsroom: Journalists and the Loss of Organizational Connections. Patrick Ferrucci, journalism. Top faculty paper (third place).

Reporting on Environmental Justice Cases Involving Indigenous Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis of African Press Coverage. Dinfin Mulupi, journalism; Khamadi Shitemi (Indiana University).

Participatory Journalism Interest Group

Journalists and Humanitarian Organizations Perceived a Participatory Role for Reporting on Crisis Zones and Disasters. Rania Al Namara, journalism.

Political Communication Division

Audience Engagement with Politico-Religious Digital News: A Computational Analysis of Comments on Trump's Bible Ad on CNN's YouTube Channel. Dennis Okeke, journalism; Christiana Ibiwoye (Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Ousman Mbaye (Wisconsin-Milwaukee); Anthony Obi Okeke (Nnamdi Azikiwe University).

Media Framing of Populist Discourse: A Rhetorical Analysis of Erdoğan’s Strategic Communication in Turkey. Muhammad Ali, journalism; Matea Beukelman, APRD.

Mediate Public Diplomacy in Africa: Critiquing Praxis, Research and Theories. Success Osayi, journalism; Samson Omosotomhe (Ambrose Ali University); Chioma Agboh (University of Nigeria Nsukka).

Politics of Reinvention: President Prabowo’s Populism Political Rebranding from General to “Gemoy.” Pulung Perbawani, APRD.

When Administration Supports Ally Israel, U.S. Dailies Focus Plights of Palestinians: An Analysis of 15th Gaza War Through CAM Lens. Ershad Khan, journalism.

“You’re Gambling with World War III”: An Analysis of Donald Trump’s Weaponization of Victimhood. Brock Mays, APRD; Carl Knauf, journalism.

Scholastic Journalism Division

Navigating Journalistic Values in Student-Run Media’s Organizational Culture. Nihal Alaqabawy, journalism.

South Asia Communication Association

Rap as Resistance: Music, Digital Activism, and Youth Mobilization in Bangladesh’s 2024 Quota Reform Movement. Mamunor Rashid, journalism; Fei Xue (Southern Mississippi); Rezaul Karim (Arizona State).

Visual Communication Division

A Heuristic-Systematic Model Exploration of Video Strategies and Production Techniques. Hunter Reeves, APRD.

In Search of the Ethical Exposure: How Extensions From Centering Fractures Practitioners. Ross Taylor, journalism.

CMDI also had a number of faculty and doctoral students who served as moderators, discussants, panelists and workshop leaders: Rania Al Namara (PhD student, journalism), Angie Chuang (associate professor, journalism), Patrick Ferrucci (associate professor, journalism), Ever Figueroa (assistant professor, journalism), Mark Heisten (PhD student, APRD), Ershad Khan (PhD student, journalism), Dinfin Mulupi (assistant professor, journalism), Josh Shepperd (associate professor, media studies), Ross Taylor (associate professor, journalism), Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism) and Mia Wang (assistant professor, APRD).

CMDI continues to have an impressive reputation at the annual AEJMC event, with multiple top paper awards in both the faculty and student divisions.

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It takes a village

Joe Arney — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:04:33 +0000

It takes a village Joe Arney Wed, 09/03/2025 - 18:04

Joe Arney

Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

Phaedra C. Pezzullo has worked with media scholars, journalists, documentary makers, advertisers, architectural experts and more as she seeks the broadest possible approach to the challenge of sustainability.

That emphasis on connections among people, especially in different disciplines, is why the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information named her the first Kleiman Faculty Scholar in Communication this summer.

“What I love about being part of a college like this are the opportunities to publish, edit, co-author or just talk to people in so many different disciplines. So, when we have a challenge like sustainability, we approach engaging people from a more holistic perspective—from face to face to social media,” said Pezzullo, a professor of communication at CMDI who was trained in environmental rhetoric. “And when we work together, we’re smarter. We all bring different experiences from the institutions and companies and communities we’ve worked with.”

It isn’t just her affinity for connections that led to Pezzullo earning this honor. Earlier this year, she launched the Sustainability and Storytelling Lab, which studies the role communication plays in advancing environmental, economic and social justice goals. She is an influential author whose most recent book, Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care, won multiple awards from the National Communication Association; her 2007 book, Toxic Tourism: Rhetorics of Travel, Pollution and Environmental Justice, inspired a punk rock song about the cause. She also maintains the Communicating Care podcast, featuring insights from experts working across disciplines to address issues of sustainability and environmental fairness.

Be involved

Interested in establishing a faculty scholarship at CMDI? Contact Mary Beth Searles, assistant dean for advancement, at marybeth.searles@colorado.edu.

“It gives me such pride to announce Phaedra as the college’s Kleiman scholar,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI. “When we envisioned what this college might look like during its founding, 10 years ago, we imagined breaking down disciplinary silos and empowering the kind of cross-disciplinary work that would allow us to take on the most complex problems of our time. By inviting students and faculty from across the college and university to work with her, Phaedra has brought new and invaluable perspectives to sustainability.”

The Kleiman Faculty Scholar is supported by an endowment from alumnus David C. Kleiman (PhDComm’73), who said he considers his support to be a way of paying forward the influence others had on his career.

Stepping up ‘in any way they can’

“With the various challenges going on right now, I think it’s important for people to step up in any way they can,” said Kleiman, who taught at CUNY Bronx, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Northwestern before spending three decades working for his family’s business, LA-CO Industries Inc. “For me, it’s also about being able to honor the people who have been generous to me—in money, but also in spirit and in kindness.”

He called Pezzullo “a renaissance woman” whose research certainly fits the bill of tackling current crises, bridging rhetorical studies with a range of disciplines.

“I expect Phaedra is one of those people who really make a difference to their students—who inspire you in ways that stay with you throughout your life,” Kleiman said. “That was true of so many people I learned from at Boulder, and it gives me such pleasure to be able to honor someone who has those same gifts and can inspire the next generation of students.”

“I expect Phaedra is one of those people who really make a difference to their students—who inspire you in ways that stay with you throughout your life.”

David C. Kleiman (PhDComm’73)

A way she combines her gifts for teaching and collaboration is through her work with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Alongside her students, she creates story maps that illustrate how different communities are affected by environmental and climate injustice. She’s careful to work alongside, instead of lecturing down to, people in those communities, which improves public participation and engagement in demanding solutions.

It’s why she’s so committed to storytelling as being part of the solution for issues of climate and the environment.

“Storytelling is a survival skill without which imagining, let alone building, a more sustainable future is not possible,” Pezzullo said. “It’s important to recognize that people who study the science of sustainability do better, build more public trust and more effectively explain their ideas when they collaborate with people who have expertise in communication.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Phaedra Pezzullo’s talent for bringing people together to tackle problems like climate and environmental injustice is a key reason she’s been awarded a distinctive faculty scholarship.

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Materials girls: New exhibit highlights the role women are playing in reimagining built environments

Joe Arney — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 18:37:21 +0000

Materials girls: New exhibit highlights the role women are playing in reimagining built environments Joe Arney Thu, 08/28/2025 - 12:37

Sharon Waters

‘The accelerating realities of climate change demand that we reconsider our built environments, our landscapes and our material practices,’ says Caitlin Charlet, who is curating an exhibit on biogenic building materials this fall. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

Caitlin Charlet never uses the word “sustainability.”

“Anything can be called sustainable,” said Charlet, associate teaching professor in CMDI’s environmental design department. “Like any overused language, it loses meaning.”

That’s why her upcoming exhibit avoids the term altogether. Biogenic Futures: Women Shaping Material Ecologies, which runs Sept. 4 through Jan. 5 at the �鶹��Ƶ, was curated by Charlet and presents new directions in materials design and research.

If you go

What: Biogenic Futures: Women Shaping Material Ecologies

When: Sept. 4 through Jan. 5. An opening reception is planned for 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4.

Where: CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder

Who: The exhibit is curated by Caitlin Charlet, an associate teaching professor, and two student researchers, seniors Kaija Galins and Brielle French.

Learn more

Biogenics refers to timber, mycelium, algaes and other regenerative materials—locally sourced, plant- or soil-based substances that are redefining the future of construction. The exhibit features work from nearly 50 female innovators worldwide, along with samples from CU Boulder’s materials library.

“We have extracted from the earth to exhaustion, damaging landscapes and communities,” Charlet said. “But there is so much to reclaim. Healthy building isn’t just about new materials—it’s about reusing, reimagining and building holistically.”

The exhibition assembles samples from the research and practice of nearly 50 women, supplemented by contributions from CU Boulder’s materials library. By centering women, Charlet seeks to highlight the quiet revolution within materials science over the past decade—one that diverges from the historically male-dominated spheres of engineering and architecture.

“Materials science is collaborative, tactile and iterative. Experimentation requires repetition, and failure is often the condition for discovery,” she said. “Many women have cultivated laboratories in relative obscurity, conducting extraordinary research into construction and design alternatives that do not inflict harm—on us, or on the planet.”

Her aspiration is for visitors to recognize how profoundly material choices shape lived experience, and to reconsider their own role in those choices.

“The exhibition invites touch and engagement,” Charlet said. “Visitors will encounter biogenic materials firsthand, learning not only about their current applications but also about the ways they are being developed for the future.”

Bringing community perspectives to class

Charlet, who is also head of CU Boulder’s Biomodernity Lab, considers herself an educator, urbanist, designer and advocate. She started her career as a visual artist before moving into design architecture.

“As a designer, I learn alongside communities—working with them, not merely in them—and I bring those lessons to my students,” said Charlet, who holds dual master’s degrees in architecture and design and urban ecology from Parsons’ School of Constructed Environments at The New School. “Designers must be prepared to adapt, to function as Swiss Army knives—ready to respond to the complexities of place, project and community.”

Her commitment to biomaterials deepened during graduate study, while living with her young family in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. Observing widespread asthma, allergies, and sensitivities among local children—including her own—Charlet began examining not only external pollutants from the Superfund site and nearby expressway, but also the hidden toxins within domestic interiors: paint, drywall, upholstery and flooring.

That work helped her realize the potential of regenerative materials to safeguard both human and planetary health.

“Everyone deserves to understand the environments they inhabit, because health, community and ecology are inseparable,” Charlet said. “The accelerating realities of climate change demand that we reconsider our built environments, our landscapes and our material practices—and imagine new, restorative ways forward.”

A materials science expert will showcase the use of regenerative materials in building designs to improve health and limit environmental damage.

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Over a Barrel: The branding misfire that put a restaurant chain in the crosshairs

Joe Arney — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 19:18:51 +0000

Over a Barrel: The branding misfire that put a restaurant chain in the crosshairs Joe Arney Wed, 08/27/2025 - 13:18

Joe Arney

Morgan Young says Cracker Barrel’s rebranding about-face reminded him of Coca-Cola in the 1980s. ‘The issue with New Coke wasn’t the flavor, it was doing away with an iconic brand that meant so much to people,’ he says. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

One week after Cracker Barrel unveiled a new logo—part of a reported $700 million investment into updates for the restaurant chain—the company announced it will revert back to its old branding.

And while the political overtones that drove such an intensive backlash against the company are a more contemporary feature of our culture, Morgan Young said the brand likely made the same error Coca-Cola committed in a short-lived rebrand in the 1980s.

“I’m sure Cracker Barrel did the research, ran focus groups and asked good questions—one of them being, do you like this logo better?” said Young, an associate teaching professor of advertising at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “What Coca-Cola didn’t do, and perhaps Cracker Barrel didn’t do, as well, was ask the next question, which would be, ‘How do you feel about the brand as an identity to you?’ Because the issue with New Coke wasn’t the flavor, it was doing away with an iconic brand that meant so much to people.”

“We are in a moment of rapid innovation, and if you are older, change is not necessarily a good thing—because it can mean being left behind. And I think that’s what’s happening here.”

Morgan Young, associate teaching professor, APRD

Young (Hist’94) has never worked on the Cracker Barrel brand, but has decades of experience, both in running his own agency, Young Ideas, and as a former senior vice president and creative director at Goddard Claussen. So, he has a keen eye for what happens when a brand misses the mark.

In trying to grow its customer base, Cracker Barrel alienated its dedicated fans by not only drastically simplifying the logo, but changing the look and feel of some of its restaurants to get away from its farmhouse aesthetic.

“Cracker Barrel likely didn’t understand that their fanbase—likely an older group of customers—doesn’t want a change,” Young said. “We are in a moment of rapid innovation, and if you are older, change is not necessarily a good thing—because it can mean being left behind. And I think that’s what’s happening here.”

In the undergraduate classes he teaches, Young asks his students what their most admired brands are. In each class, Nike and Patagonia top the list, and it’s not because of the clothes they sell.

“They feel Nike has a set of values they stand by. Same with Patagonia, which calls itself an environment-first company,” Young said. “I think in 2025, you can’t hide from your values as a company. Nike and Patagonia have built a devoted fanbase by leaning into those values, which inspires loyalty among customers and help them grow.”

So, in a hyperpolarized moment—when a new logo sets off a political firestorm that even the president of the country feels inclined to weigh in on—what is the lesson for advertising and branding professionals? Young shared some thoughts he brings to the classroom:

Don’t be afraid to take chances. “If you’re always in the backseat, waiting for someone else to lead, you’ll always be Pepsi,” Young said. “In my agency days, we were always about change, trying to help brands stay with the times. That’s how you succeed.”
Know your audience. You can’t sell to everyone—and when you try, you invite backlash like Cracker Barrel is going through, or like Bud Lite a couple years back. “Think about your target audience and how to communicate with them effectively, and bond with them,” he said.
Question yourself. Young had several campaigns he was quite proud of die in focus groups. “When I would do anything that harkened back to the past, we would have focus group members—especially with Black audiences, and especially women—say, ‘Those 1950s Americana themes might look good to you, but they bring up bad feelings for me. You have a different history than I do,’” Young said. “And they were right.”

Ultimately, the swirling controversy around Cracker Barrel’s re-rebrand is unlikely to cost the chain in the long term, Young said. But it is a reminder—especially in the digital age, where social media can both burnish and tarnish a brand’s bona fides—that companies have less control than ever over their value and meaning.

“We don’t determine a brand—the consumer does,” Young said. “Just ask Cracker Barrel.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

An advertising and branding expert weighs in on Cracker Barrel's rebrand and reversal.

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In its milestone year, CMDI welcomes more than a dozen new faculty

Joe Arney — Fri, 15 Aug 2025 20:40:01 +0000

In its milestone year, CMDI welcomes more than a dozen new faculty Joe Arney Fri, 08/15/2025 - 14:40

Joe Arney

Kevin Hoth is among the new faculty at CMDI this fall, though he's been lecturing at the university since 2011. ‘It feels like a perfect home for me; I’m very grateful to be with such a forward-thinking department,’ he says. Photo by Hannah Howell.

Kevin Hoth probably knows what it’s like for a longtime AAA pitcher to at last get the call to join the big leagues.

Hoth has been teaching at CU Boulder since 2011—originally as part of the ATLAS Institute—but this fall, he joins the critical media practices department at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information as an assistant teaching professor.

“I’m so excited to have this department as my home on a more permanent basis,” said Hoth, previously a lecturer in critical media practices. “It feels like a perfect home for me; I’m very grateful to be with such a forward-thinking department.”

Hoth is one of 14 new professors to join CMDI this fall, bringing experience in artificial intelligence, surveillance studies, technology, journalism and more to the college. Coincidentally, the college is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its founding this year.

Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI, said while the quantity of new faculty is impressive, it’s the quality that helps this group stand out.

“I am so impressed with the credentials our new faculty are bringing to the college,” Bergen said. “Whether it’s their published work, varied research interests or boundless enthusiasm for teaching young people and preparing them for professional and person success after college, I know we have an impressive group that will create a lasting impact on the college and university.”

The full lineup of new faculty:

Ian J. Alexander, assistant professor, media studies. He researches the implementation and effects of media technologies in U.S. prisons.
Ashley Carter, assistant teaching professor, journalism. Carter earned her PhD in journalism from the college in the spring. As a a student, she took first place in a best paper competition at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has written for The Denver Post, 303 Magazine and elsewhere.
Yiran Duan, teaching professor, information science. Duan studies how different types of users shape the flow of information using machine learning models, inferential statistics and data visualizations.
Cheri Felix, assistant teaching professor, advertising, public relations and design. Felix has been a lecturer at the college since 2022. She brings varied experiences to CMDI, including work as a writer, founder and program manager.
Kevin Hoth, assistant teaching professor, critical media practices. Hoth is a fine art photographer who has won multiple grants for his work.
Erica Hunzinger, assistant teaching professor, journalism. Hunzinger has been a lecturer at the college since 2022. Her journalism experience includes work for The Associated Press, The Denver Post and elsewhere.
Seonah Kim, assistant teaching professor, media studies. She studies global discourses around racial and gender identity in media that are shaped by structural inequality.
Julia Proft, teaching professor, information science. Proft brings experience in software engineering in educational technology to the college.
Mehak Sawhney, assistant professor, media studies. Her research interests include sound and media studies, surveillance studies, and environmental humanities.
Victoria Pihl Sørensen, assistant teaching professor, media studies. Sørensen conducts research at the intersection of media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and the history and philosophy of science and technology.
Ilana Trumble, teaching professor, information science. Trumble also is returning to Boulder, having earned her bachelor’s degree here in 2014. She is an expert in statistics and data science.
Hong Tien Vu, associate professor, journalism. Vu brings a decade of experience in journalism from living in Vietnam, including a stint with The Associated Press, to the classroom. He also is director of the college’s Center for Environmental Journalism.
Cody Walizer, assistant teaching professor, communication. Walizer has been teaching game studies, sports communication and related topics at CMDI since 2022. He specializes in debate and game studies.
Jonathan Zong, assistant professor, information science. Zong joins CMDI from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT. He also studied at Princeton University and was a visiting student at the University of Oxford.

Alexander said he’s excited to join the college as part of such a large group of newcomers.

“It almost feels like a cohort, which is really exciting,” he said. “And at the same time, there are folks in the media studies department who have been around awhile, so it feels like I get to join a new group, and also a good, established one.”

Alexander brings particularly interesting research to CMDI. His work studies the introduction of media technologies—radio, telephone, tablets—into the U.S. carceral system. Through his research, he’s interviewed incarcerated people over phone and video call to better understand how technology advances have been used to isolate politically active people trying to create community within—or among—prisons, or to broadcast to communities in the event of an escape.

The newest tool he’s interested in are tablets, PDFs and video visit systems, which are starting to replace letters from home and legal communications.

“I look at these technologies as tools of struggle, oppression, isolation and manipulation—but also as tools of connection,” he said. “So, for instance, the way people inside are using them to make radio shows or podcasts, produce literature, or build solidarity and community and raise political consciousness.”

It’s work that is historical in its approach, but is worth studying in the current moment—both as the nation dramatically increases investment in policing and incarceration, and with generative artificial intelligence strongly reshaping how we communicate.

“It feels like I get to join a new group, and also a good, established one.”

Ian J. Alexander, assistant professor, media studies

“Like many people who study systems of structural oppression, I wish it were less relevant,” Alexander said. “But beyond just the massive expansion of ICE, and the so-called Alligator Alcatraz, there’s a larger question around what social and political function prisons serve—and what the state is saying about itself through its carceral system.”

Proft, who was a lecturer in the information science department in the spring, said she’s excited to bring her industry experience to the classroom, especially since she worked in educational technology.

“I enjoyed that work, but the impact I was able to have was pretty far removed from the actual students,” she said. “I really value having that smaller, but closer, connection to the students.”

Information science, she said, is a comfortable fit for its attention to creating human impact. That’s something she felt she missed while studying computer science.

“I think information science is one of those things where you ask people what it is, and you get tons of different answers,” she said. “But I think having that diversity—whether it’s technical, or business, or design applications—is really important, because that brings back the more human aspects of technology. So we get away from talking about computing as a topic divorced from anything else in the world.”

She said A.I. and large language models are a topic she’s excited to explore with her students, some of whom consider the advent of LLMs as an invitation to not have to learn to code anymore. Crucially, students must learn to use these tools—but they must be taught that they are tools, not shortcuts.

“When you learn to code, you’re developing a problem-oriented mindset, and learning how to approach and solve those problems,” Proft said. “If they’re leaning on LLMs to generate code, they don’t think about what the code is actually doing, which means when something goes wrong, they can’t address it.”

Hoth, as a fine art photographer, has given plenty of consideration to A.I.’s disruptive impact on the creation of images.

“Especially in media production, A.I. is a huge concern,” he said. “But I don’t put my head in the sand and say, ‘You can’t use any of this, we’re not going to talk about it.’ We have to talk about it. We have to integrate it into our teaching and our practices. But I have to show them where the line is.”

Hoth mentioned a conversation with a past student, who used A.I. to touch up nighttime photos in a project he did that took him around the state.

“I liked that he wasn’t afraid to share that with me,” Hoth said. “In this case, these were meant to be creative pictures—he’s not a documentary photographer—and so we discussed, you couldn’t put this in the Denver Post or New York Times, but with limited usage on a creative project, this kind of tool is OK.”

A major lesson in his classes, outside of technology, is that the right kind of failure is required for growth. He often shares failures from his own career to show how getting things wrong can be helpful.

“The learning environment should be a place of safety, in terms of play and also of learning how to fail well,” he said. “If you put forth your best effort, you’re trying something new and you fail, that’s commendable. That’s how you get to great things.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

The college is welcoming experts in artificial intelligence, surveillance studies, technology, journalism and more this fall.

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A positive influence

Joe Arney — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 21:22:31 +0000

A positive influence Joe Arney Tue, 08/12/2025 - 15:22

Sharon Waters

Few people think about disability until it happens to them or someone they love. Now, a new book by an expert in health communication is challenging scholars to rethink how they consider disability in their own research work.

“Really being aware of disability, and asking about it and learning about it—that’s what we're trying to do with this book,” said Erin Willis, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design at CU Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “How are you experiencing it in your life? Who do you encounter? Do you see it on TV?”

Those are fundamental questions that scholars have long ignored—and she puts herself in that category, as well. Willis is an expert in online health communities who has done pathbreaking work in the study of patient influencers, who amass a following by sharing their lived experiences with medical conditions.

But though she’s been interested in health communication since graduate school, “I haven’t come across this idea of disability,” she said. “It’s not something we think about on a day-to-day basis.”

That led her to the new book she co-edited, Communicating Disability: Expanding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Health Communication and Mass Media.

Health communication has traditionally focused on health disparities or health equity, with an emphasis on how to change patient behaviors. Willis wants to bring disabled people into the conversation—“not just in a way that we’re trying to fix or prevent the ailment, but that really includes them in the community,” she said.

One chapter of the book that Willis co-authored looks at two models of disability, and how they impact health communication. The medical model focuses on patients, and fixing what is wrong: the ailment or disease.

“When you think about disability in the medical model, you can never be fixed. Your disability might be permanent, and so therefore, something is always wrong with you,” she said. The social model, meanwhile, encompasses the environment and stigma that limit accessibility—literally and figuratively—and calls for structural change to foster inclusion.

Overcoming shame, isolation

Another chapter Willis edited is close to her influencer work, and dives into how online amplification of disabled peoples’ experiences erases stigma.

“Social media have given opportunities to a niche group to really be seen, whereas traditional media might have overlooked them,” Willis said.

Take ostomy, for example, a surgery that creates a new opening for urine or poop to exit into a pouch outside the body. Grassroots efforts to discuss the condition on TikTok and Instagram have helped people with ostomy overcome the shame and social isolation they may feel.

That means people with disabilities no longer have to rely on mainstream media outlets to define their issues or the challenges they face in doing their work.

“Social media have given opportunities to a niche group to really be seen, whereas traditional media might have overlooked them.”

Erin Willis, associate professor, APRD

“Social media has really opened the doors to find each other,” Willis said. “This really fills a gap where all these people did not have this peer support before. It’s all these small things that make a difference.”

Willis is doing further research into disability influencers, some of whom have millions of followers on social media and are reaching far beyond people with the same condition.

“It's an emotional connection. Some kind of curiosity is being stemmed,” she said.

Willis co-edited the book with Chad Painter, an associate professor of communication at the University of Dayton. Some of the book’s authors are disabled—including Willis, who has had severe rheumatoid arthritis since she was 2.

“I do have a disability,” she said. “Despite me saying that, I have never identified as having a disability. This book has really made me think about myself and how I identify with disability—and what that means, even.”

A new textbook edited by a CMDI professor aims to show how scholars can think about disability in their own research.

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The roads net taken

Amanda J. McManus — Wed, 28 May 2025 20:10:55 +0000

The roads net taken Amanda J. McManus Wed, 05/28/2025 - 14:10

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

Robert Frost once wrote of two roads diverging in a yellow wood, and imagining his narrator eventually regretting whichever choice he made.

“I want to introduce a sense of wonder and marvel about what has happened—and what could still be possible.

Lori Emerson
Associate Professor
Media Studies

Lori Emerson is also fascinated by the road not taken. But unlike Frost, who is looking forward down those roads, she is looking backward, to the technology-related choices—around networks, protocols and structures—that led us to this moment.

And, especially, what we can learn from the choices we didn’t make along the way.

It’s something Emerson, an associate chair of media studies at CU Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information, explores at length in Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook, which she published last month.

“I want to introduce a sense of wonder and marvel about what has happened—and what could still be possible,” Emerson said.

It can be difficult to imagine what something like the internet might look like in an alternate timeline. But in fact, just calling it “the internet” makes it feel like the preordained platform that we were inevitably going to get.

“The internet is just a network of networks,” she said. “There are other networks of networks, and there could be others in the future. What bothers me is this unquestioned narrative about the internet as this singular endpoint—that it only could have been created in the U.S. in the way in which it currently exists.”

A quiet activist

There is a quiet strain of activism in Emerson’s work that’s getting a little louder: She’s trying to be more outspoken at a time when technology is increasingly consolidated in the hands of a few major players.

“The future feels predetermined and has left most people feeling like they have no power to intervene, and we all just have to accept things as they are,” she said. “And so what I’m trying to do is poke holes in that ideology with very simple, compelling examples from the past.”

Simple and compelling are rarely adjectives used to describe an academic publication, but Emerson leaned on her background in experimental poetry and poetics to break a few boundaries. The result is a beautifully designed book that wouldn’t seem out of place among the vintage instruction manuals created for telephones and telegraphs from generations ago.

“Women played a huge role in the creation, adoption and maintenance of networks, from the telephone to the radio, but have been erased in favor of individual white guy inventors,” she said. “I wanted to create an alternate universe in a book that echoed that history you see in those cloth, hardcover, gold-foiled instruction books—but in a way that was feminized.”

Her book isn’t the only public-facing space where Emerson offers critical thinking around technology. CMCI’s Media Archaeology Lab started as a way for Emerson, the lab’s director, to collect Apple IIe computers in order to run an experimental kinetic digital poem in class. It has evolved to become an extremely thorough repository of obsolete, but still functioning, technology, from Ataris to Zip drives.

“The more we gathered, the more I became convinced that hands-on access to historical technology is essential to understand how it actually works,” she said. “You have to be able to use it, to take it apart. By doing so, you come to appreciate how we got to the point where these technologies were created, and imagine alternative presents and futures.”

New book, old story

The book is new, but the story of technology as a linear narrative isn’t. Beyond the lab, Emerson’s work has gone as far back as how rural communities created the party-line phone system by tapping the miles of barbed-wire fence spanning their properties. That kind of alternate network—one Ma Bell didn’t control—is something she wants readers to think about while questioning the narrative Silicon Valley has put forth as the internet’s origin story.

It’s almost a book that didn’t happen. Emerson was well past her deadline before realizing she had to narrow how deep her focus would go; “a full accounting of all the networks out there would never get finished,” she said.

As it was, the manuscript tripped some wires in China—censors objected to a part discussing how activists in the Tiananmen Square massacre used faxes to communicate with one another—which meant printing had to be moved to Turkey. As the materials arrived for printing, a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm struck, delaying production by almost a month.

Finally, her publisher declared it was going out of business after the first run of books was printed. A limited run is available, and Emerson plans to get it to a new publisher once the existing copies have sold.

“The whole thing has been one surprise after another, honestly,” Emerson said. “When you think about Chinese censorship—of course it happens, but to actually have it happen to you is something else altogether.”

She hopes readers appreciate the look and feel of her text, while maybe finding in it a reason to be hopeful about technology by re-examining its past.

“I hope people take from it a different sense of the history, and feel excited and empowered, rather than just absorbing the dominant narrative about how everything is terrible,” Emerson said.

Lori Emerson’s research work examines forks in the road where networks and technology diverged. Her new book argues technology as we know it isn’t inevitable—and should be open to reexamination.

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CMCI names its first endowed professor

Amanda J. McManus — Wed, 28 May 2025 18:24:06 +0000

CMCI names its first endowed professor Amanda J. McManus Wed, 05/28/2025 - 12:24

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

She’s done pathbreaking research in technology ethics and internet law, has been featured in The Washington Post and NPR, and does extensive public scholarship as an outspoken expert on social media.

So, it’s no surprise that when it came to naming its first endowed professorship, the College of Media, Communication and Information turned to Casey Fiesler.

“When we created CMCI, we were energized by the vision of a college where we would study and teach not just a set of related disciplines, but the areas where those disciplines come together,” said Lori Bergen, CMCI founding dean. “Casey is a model for that. Her ethical and legal perspectives on important questions surrounding technology help us make sense of complex problems. And she is able to break down those complicated problems in ways that help the public ask more thoughtful questions about the platforms and tools they use each day.”

More: Building a better ‘bionic pancreas’

In July, Fiesler, an associate professor of information science at CMCI, will be named the William R. Payden Endowed Professor. The honor recognizes the demonstrated, sustained national reputation she has brought to her discipline, and comes with an annual research budget to continue her important work in social media platforms and online communities, education, and generative A.I.—especially from an ethics standpoint.

“She is able to break down those complicated problems in ways that help the public ask more thoughtful questions about the platforms and tools they use each day.”

Lori Bergen, founding dean

In fact, she’s created a public syllabus—consisting of her social media videos and select texts and other websites—to help others start thinking about the ethics of A.I. It’s still in beta, so to speak, but has attracted attention, including from teachers searching for relatable, approachable perspectives on these complex issues.

“Considering how much admiration and respect I have for everyone in the college, I’m beyond honored to be recognized,” Fiesler said.

The position comes with a small stipend, which Fiesler was interested in using to attract well-known speakers for guest talks—to expose students to great researchers—and to be able to pay student researchers for their contributions to her work, such as a grant-funded pilot project to create educational content on A.I. that’s delivered over social media.

“If that goes well, I’d like to be able to keep it going beyond the grant,” she said. “And if we were to do so, it would be important to make sure we’re fairly compensating our students for the work they do.”

Fiesler said she also attributes the successes of her research to collaborative work, particularly with the graduate students she’s worked with at the college. One of her former students, Shamika Klassen (PhDInfoSci’24), said having Fiesler for an advisor during her doctoral work “was like having a celebrity for a parent.”

“When I mention her name, people would say, ‘Oh, Professor Casey on TikTok,’ or ‘I watched her videos on YouTube when I was applying to graduate school,” said Klassen, now a user experience researcher at Google. “Casey is a testament to what public scholarship can be, in addition to being an incredible advisor and advocate of me and my work.”

More: Questions about A.I.? Let’s Chat

The endowed professorship was made possible through a donation from Joan Payden, a co-founder of the Payden & Rygel investment management firm, in memory of her brother, William Payden (Jour’57). Bill Payden was known for his curiosity, as he was a journalist, college professor, sports fan, cinephile, pianist, world traveler, and collector of aviation memorabilia and classic cars.

The family also created the Payden Faculty Excellence Award, which recognizes excellence in teaching and research or creative work, and the Payden Teaching Excellence Grants, which are awarded to faculty to support innovative teaching endeavors, such as new interdisciplinary courses, revamped classes that support enhanced student engagement, or to purchase resources or training to improve teaching and the student experience.

Casey Fiesler, whose perspectives on law and ethics in technology have given her national cachet, has been named the William R. Payden Endowed Professor at the college.

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Courting justice

Amanda J. McManus — Wed, 28 May 2025 17:49:03 +0000

Courting justice Amanda J. McManus Wed, 05/28/2025 - 11:49

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18) and Nandi Pointer (PhD candidate, Media Studies)

Ask any of her students how they prefer to get their news, or search for recommendations, or learn about their favorite TV shows, and Sandra Ristovska will tell you that they go on TikTok.

Yet their educations—from the time they first set foot in a grammar school classroom—have focused on textual literacy, with almost nothing devoted to how video and photos are analyzed.

“We just assume that everybody intuitively knows how to understand images, because we don’t have to teach you an alphabet, or grammar,” said Ristovska, associate professor of media studies at the College of Media, Communication and Information. “But we know from research that people can watch the same image and arrive at a vastly different understanding about what that image says or does.”

More: Bringing student activism to TikTok videos

That’s fun when we’re overanalyzing a plot twist in Severance. But Ristovska’s work centers around what happens when videos make their way into a courtroom, where interpretations can influence a person’s guilt or innocence.

According to one estimate, video appears in about 80 percent of criminal cases, but no guidelines exist for how video can be presented as evidence in court. And that’s also the case for deepfake videos or media created by generative artificial intelligence.

“Anybody who’s seen a legal document knows they’re standardized—if it doesn’t look a certain way, it’s not going to be admissible in court,” Ristovska said. “But when it comes to video, different courts have different guidelines and understandings about what’s admissible.”

Ristovska has been an important contributor to scholarship in media and the law. At a daylong event in April, she helped steer the conversation around these topics while formally presenting the Visual Evidence Lab, a new lab at CMCI that will advance her work in this area.

The workshop, Justice by Video, brought together judges, attorneys, journalists, and scholars from the humanities, social sciences, law and STEM to develop new avenues for research and potential policy proposals around how to ensure justice is best served.

Ristovska’s personal history plays a role in all this, too. Growing up in what is now Macedonia during the Yugoslav Wars, she still recalls how footage from the fighting upset her parents—even if she was too young to understand the news bulletins interrupting her evening cartoons. As part of her graduate school work, she went on to study how footage from civilians and activists made its way to the United Nations’ criminal tribunal, in The Hague.

“I realized the law was an important place to be asking questions about video evidence,” she said. “Some of the citizen footage in the tribunal wasn’t verified through the person who shot it, which had never been the case before. And this footage was both establishing the truth in court while constructing a historical memory about the wars.”

Cross-disciplinary expertise

Sandra Braman, a professor of media and information at Michigan State University, said she was excited to participate in this event because of the range of expertise involved, including practicing judges as well as legal scholars and researchers from across the social sciences.

Braman has twice served as a visiting professor at CMCI, and is considered among the leading scholars in digital technologies and their policy implications. She was impressed with the agenda, which included small group discussions intended to stimulate cross-disciplinary discussion and a detailed reading list to review beforehand.

“Usually, when you go to the first conference of its kind, it’s just a chance to gather and talk generally about the topic,” Braman said. “Sandra has put together a very structured set of tasks that are actually very hard questions to guide us on visual evidence.”

Roderick Kennedy, who retired from the New Mexico Court of Appeals after serving as its chief judge, was part of an afternoon panel discussing the issues raised by Incident, a documentary of a police shooting in Chicago and the role security footage plays in creating a narrative explaining what happened.

Kennedy and Ristovska met through his work with the American Bar Association. Ristovska presented a series of webinars on video evidence and deepfakes to members. They also collaborated when she was a guest editor of an issue of The SciTech Lawyer last winter that took a deep dive on these issues.

Kennedy said video evidence presents similar challenges that he would see with eyewitness testimony throughout his career. Memory is unreliable, he said, as witnesses become suggestible when asked to remember details or are affected by the pressure to have a definitive answer for investigators.

“You have a single viewpoint, but it’s overlaid with other memories that can change things, and is subject to interpretation every time you recall it and restore it,” he said.

‘A vertical learning curve’

A video won’t change its memory under pressure, but how it’s captured and edited can influence the way a jury interprets what happened. And while footage from police body cams or the smartphones of bystanders may get the most attention, Kennedy said the issue crops up elsewhere—even police interrogations. He shared a case involving a pathologist whose findings in a homicide were influenced by hearing a woman confess to the crime on camera.

Her confession, however, was preceded by an exhausting, seven-hour police interrogation. And because we’ve been conditioned to believe videos show reality—without considering how they were framed, trimmed, slowed down or otherwise edited—they have significant potential to mislead jurors.

“That’s the power of video,” Kennedy said. If you only show a jury the last minute or so of that interrogation, “all you see is a mother saying she killed her baby.”

The workshop wasn’t just about editing techniques that may introduce doubt. Invited experts also discussed deepfakes, an emerging challenge for courts that must catch up to the technology. Kennedy said judges and lawyers “have almost a vertical learning curve” when it comes to the technology.

“You have to learn the language of the technology experts before you can accuse somebody of using a deepfake,” he said. “And the experts aren’t taught how to speak legal, or the legal rules for putting their expertise in evidence.”

One thread of Braman’s research on information policy is the history of facts themselves.

“Our social orientation around facts provides the context within which we think about evidence,” she said. “And though we are talking a lot today about A.I. and the problem of deepfakes, the question of the authenticity and validity of digital information in general actually first arose as soon as the internet became available to the general public. We need to solve this problem yesterday.”

Ristovska said she was pleased to see members of the public attend to watch Incident and start thinking about video as a communication tool that is overdue for guidance.

“We’re not going to solve all the challenges around how people see video—we can’t do that with any type of evidence,” she said. “But I hope we can develop research-based guidelines that promote consistency, fairness and equality in the use of video as evidence.”

Video evidence appears in 80 percent of criminal cases, but a lack of consistent guidelines means there’s no standard for how media are presented in court. A workshop led by CMCI faculty may change that.

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Communication that moves

Amanda J. McManus — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 18:25:25 +0000

Communication that moves Amanda J. McManus Wed, 02/26/2025 - 11:25

By Joe Arney
Photos by Jack Moody (StratComm’24)

The study of communication, as José G. Izaguirre III knows, is more than just interpreting the words. It’s also about how those words are heard—in a speech or an article, or in a post or on a poster.

It’s why he leans so heavily on showing communication in its original form, whether in the classes he teaches at CMCI or in a new book examining the formation of the Chicano movement.

“As I was analyzing these different texts, I was just struck by the intentionality to make things look a certain way, which really enriched the communication I was studying,” said Izaguirre, assistant professor of communication at the college, who goes by Joe. “It was clear that those aesthetics were part of the story, too—the degree to which photography, illustrations and designs played a significant role in movements.”

"It is possible for different people to come together around similar concerns, articulate different visions, but still try to work together to accomplish something good.
José G. Izaguirre III
Assistant Professor
Communication

Izaguirre’s book, Becoming La Raza: Negotiating Race in the Chicano Movement(s), traces the beginning of the movement—which originated among striking farm workers in California—through its early years. His research examines the communications that organized Latin American voices into a global political power.

“The book highlights how race is always implicated in different political circumstances—while demonstrating that however much we try to get away from the language of race, it’s always there,” he said. “I tried to show the inescapability of race as a part of communication through a story about how Mexican Americans navigated racial dynamics and promoted a racial identity.”

A good example: “Chicano,” once a pejorative label, was itself reclaimed by the organization as it rejected assimilation and sought to assert its Indigenous roots. But while the movement united under one banner, it was never a singular voice. Izaguirre’s book shows how activists created a political power against the backdrop of the Cold War.

“I think the book highlights the importance of everyday activist movements, or even politically interested individuals who have concerns that are part of a broader community or communal concern,” he said. “It takes seriously these moments of everyday communication and spotlights them in ways that are maybe not typical.”

“Everyday communication” in the 1960s was, of course, very different than today, when demonstrations largely exist and are communicated in ephemeral digital spaces—what’s trending today is tomorrow’s relic. Much of Izaguirre’s source material was donated documents—leaflets, photos, newspapers and so on—that made this project possible.

It’s how he was able to present so many period pieces in his book, alongside close readings of iconic artifacts like the National Farm Worker Association’s El Plan de Delano, or the poem “I Am Joaquin.” And there is value, he said, in seeing how those pieces are designed, even if it’s text-based, like the Delano document, co-written by Cesar Chavez, to guide their march through California. It contains a list of demands and concerns that, Izaguirre said, are valuable to see in their original context—and language.

Another level of engagement

“When I show these materials in classes, I want to show that communication as close as possible to what it would have been like to encounter it at the time,” whether that’s a picture, a pamphlet or a speech, he said. “I wouldn’t call it an epiphany, but there’s some level of understanding that happens when I show them the whole document. Because it’s not just text pulled out of somewhere—it’s communication they can see for themselves.”

That also means students encounter the original communication in its original language. For much of La Raza, of course, that’s Spanish.

“I do show them an English version, so they understand the meaning of the words, but seeing it in its native language, they get almost the emotion of the words,” Izaguirre said. “Seeing the original document puts it in that cultural or historical context.”

It’s something he hopes readers and students consider in the context of modern political movements, from the iconography at campaign rallies to how people find one another and organize digitally. But he also hopes those readers will be challenged to rethink the narrative that movements—or communities—can be viewed singularly. The Chicano movement is a prime example.

“It can be harmful, to see communities being labeled in such a way that they’re cast as the opposition,” he said. “It’s easy to consolidate groups and label them as friend or foe. What’s harder is politics—which is really about building partnerships and opportunities for equal engagement.

“What I hope the book shows is that it is possible for different people to come together around similar concerns, articulate different visions, but still try to work together to accomplish something good.”

A new book looks at the rise of the Chicano movement through the lens of communication, from speeches to newspapers.

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