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At J-Day, student enthusiasm overwhelms challenges facing industry

Joe Arney — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:44:08 +0000

At J-Day, student enthusiasm overwhelms challenges facing industry Joe Arney Fri, 10/03/2025 - 09:44

Iris Serrano

Alumnus Marshall Zelinger welcomes high schoolers to J-Day with a talk about how students journalists can stay adaptable in the face of changes disrupting the news industry. Nearly 1,300 students from around Colorado attended the event. Photo by Nathan Thompson.

For the nearly 1,300 student journalists who attended J-Day at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information on Wednesday, the sweeping changes hitting the industry—from technology, to geopolitics, to economics—were impossible to ignore, especially as many of them consider majoring in journalism when they get to college.

9News investigative reporter Marshall Zelinger (Jour’02) was not there to sweep those concerns away. But he encouraged students to rise to meet challenges, rather than backing down.

“Be adaptable,” Zelinger said. “Break habits and adapt to the change that comes with the unexpected.”

Photo by Jack Moody

For Zelinger, the keynote speaker and a presenter, adaptability means more than just learning new skills. It’s about facing the challenges the journalism industry brings head-on. And it’s a lesson he learned as a newly minted �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder graduate pivoting from the sports he covered as a student to the news side of the business.

He quickly found he had a talent for simplifying complex political topics for an audience, a skill he’s used throughout his career. As a political journalist on Next With Kyle Clark, he asks newsmakers hard-hitting questions while providing balanced reporting in a time of heightened polarization and diminishing press freedoms.

Objectivity and journalism ethics were the themes of his breakout session. Truth has become harder to come by, as politicians stoke outrage among increasingly partisan bases and new tools allow for increasingly sophisticated deepfakes. Reporting, he said, is no longer as simple as presenting both sides of an issue and letting the reader decide what’s actually happening.

“When it comes to politics, and political ads, it’s just truth testing,” Zelinger said. “It’s doing what is factual and dissecting what is being said, instead of hearing opposing views with no contextual explanation between them.”

‘Energy and excitement’ from students

Photo by Nathan Thompson

J-Day is an annual celebration of journalism put on by the Colorado Student Media Association. For the second year in a row, CSMA brought its signature event to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder, giving high-school students an up-close look at the industry through the eyes of reporters, CMDI alumni, faculty and others.

“I understand why people are concerned about the state of journalism, but I would encourage those people to experience an event like J-Day, to see how enthusiastic young people are about news,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI and a former journalist. “Talking to the students who attended, and seeing their energy and excitement, gives me great confidence that journalism’s future is brighter than the pessimists believe.”

For student journalists like June Meehan, the chance to hear from Zelinger and others left her inspired to keep pursuing challenging stories. The senior from Fairview High School, in Boulder, has faced administrative roadblocks in reporting on controversial topics, but left Zelinger’s talk ready to handle these challenges.

“Even if I’m interviewing people in power like our principal or our teachers, I’ll make sure to do the right thing and ask tough questions—even if it’s not the most comfortable subject,” she said.

That’s just the takeaway CMDI wanted for the students who attended J-Day.

“I hope students leave the day inspired to continue doing great journalism at their high schools and equipped with a powerful network of peers, alumni, faculty and industry pros who encourage them to pursue journalism as a field of study and career,” said Christi Wade, student recruitment program manager at the college.

Unsurprisingly, a session on artificial intelligence in journalism attracted a large crowd of students who were curious about the technology’s potential to simplify tedious tasks—like poring through thousands of pages of public records—but also replace or corrupt traditional reporting.

Photo by Nathan Thompson

“We as professionals are taught that journalism is unbiased, but A.I. doesn’t know everything,” said Sean Marcus, an interactive learning designer at MediaWise, the media literacy arm of the prestigious Poynter Institute.

Poynter partnered with CMDI as a stop on the institute’s 50th anniversary celebration, which includes a traveling exhibition on the history and future of journalism. J-Day students were invited to visit Moments of Truth, which remains open through Oct. 9.

“A.I. companies and products can be inaccurate,” Marcus said. “Other organizations and entities have control over how these technologies are created and implemented, so at its heart, A.I. is problematic.”

Sam Rauscher, a sophomore at Centaurus High School, in Lafayette, and junior editor-in-chief of the newspaper club, recognizes the struggles newsrooms face as A.I. becomes part of the conversation. It’s something he already sees as a student.

“As it makes its way into all of our classes and assignments, it does cause some fear—but there are still going to be some ways that humans can regulate it,” Rauscher said. “We have to be the center of the A.I., instead of running away from it, to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.”

He is eager to take what he learned at J-Day back to the classroom and use it to lead his team next year, when he’ll be editor-in-chief.

“A.I. is a tool that can be used to make our content better, but only if it’s used very strategically and carefully,” he said. “We’re not going to generate articles with it, but we can definitely get ideas and help from it.”

J-Day by the numbers

1,295
Students attended J-Day in 2025

62
High and middle schools that sent students to the event

48
Speakers led sessions

10
Sponsors supported J-Day at CMDI

Nearly 1,300 student journalists visiting CMDI were urged to remain adaptable and innovative as A.I. and other changes disrupt newsgathering.

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Slow your scroll: Experts talk news, TikTok and critical thinking in Poynter panel

Joe Arney — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:07:41 +0000

Slow your scroll: Experts talk news, TikTok and critical thinking in Poynter panel Joe Arney Thu, 10/02/2025 - 11:07

Joe Arney

Phaedra C. Pezzullo, left, welcomes the audience as she prepares to moderate a panel discussion on journalism at the Boulder Public Library. The other panelists are, from left, Mark Trahant, Amanda Williams and Jade Liu. Photos by Jack Moody.

Much ink has been spilled, airtime spent and pixels devoted to questions around news engagement and the youngest generation.

So, rather than speculate, a panel session earlier this week invited a high school journalist to join seasoned reporters, editors and �鶹��Ѱ�� faculty to explore intergenerational storytelling and the future of the news media.

It started from the first question that moderator Phaedra C. Pezzullo, a professor of communication and director of the Sustainability and Storytelling Lab at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, pitched to Jade Liu.

Pezzullo asked Liu, a senior at Boulder’s Fairview High School, how technology shapes her approach to journalism, especially when telling stories for different generations.

“And you’re going to tell us that Twitter is old news now,” Pezzullo said; Liu drew a lot of laughs when she playfully fired back that “It’s X now, you know.”

“I’m honestly not the most online person, so I don’t know how well I can speak to this,” Liu said. “But years ago, I don’t think anyone was reading the newspaper for eight hours a day—yet today, there are people watching TikTok or scrolling Instagram for that long. When you’re taking in that much information at that rapid of a pace, there’s no stopping to think critically about what you’re seeing.

“I think that the main threat facing journalism today isn’t that it’s going to be replaced, but getting people to really care about it at a time when we’re facing so much information constantly coming at us.”

The panel discussion, which took place Tuesday at the Boulder Public Library, was presented in conjunction with Poynter’s 50th anniversary exhibition, Moments of Truth: An Exploration of Journalism’s Past, Present and Future. This traveling showcase traces journalism’s history, from movable type to A.I.-generated content, and illustrates how the industry has adapted in the face of technical innovation.

“Long before journalism as we know it today took shape, the need to tell our stories and share the truth of the world has been central to the human experience,” said Jessi Hollis McCarthy, a program specialist at MediaWise, the media literacy arm of Poynter. “Across time, we’ve created the tools and techniques we need to communicate the information that shapes our lives. Journalism is a vital part of that tradition.”

CMDI has been honored to be a stop on Poynter’s national tour. The college’s founding dean, Lori Bergen, has been a member of Poynter’s national advisory board and currently serves as a trustee.

“It’s a tremendous privilege to get to bring Poynter’s perspective about news literacy to the university and Boulder communities, especially in a time of hyper-partisanship and ceaseless technical innovation,” Bergen said. “Poynter is personally important to me, and also critical to the work that I do as a journalism educator and a citizen.”

Focus on environmental reporting

In addition to a general discussion of intergenerational storytelling and technology, the panelists spoke specifically about environmental journalism.

Mark Trahant, who has held multiple leadership roles in news, including at SeattlePI and ICT, said the industry is struggling to cover complex, slow-moving environmental crises. He shared stories he’s written about communities on the Taholah River, in Washington, which have been besieged by storm surges and flooding.

One village, Trahant said, has moved itself to higher ground. “But when I went up there with a photographer, we went through 35 villages facing the same lowland situation. Yet none of those communities are going through the same process.

“We have to get people to understand what the big picture is, and then act on it,” he said. “But journalism is not very good on the second part. We can talk about the issues and some of the complexities, but it boils down to policymakers and citizens who have to take the next step and decide what they want to do about it.”

Amanda Williams, a special projects editor for NPR’s 1A, is spending the year at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism. She said the news is responsible for giving people resources to take that action without journalists becoming activists.

“At the end of a conversation, we try to end with things you could do or think about, or a place you could go to learn more about what we’re talking about,” Williams said. “It’s important to leave people with a direction to go after your story, your conversation or your podcast, so they don’t feel you were just dumping all these problems on a page and then walking away.”

A lengthy question-and-answer session with the audience followed the discussion. Topics ranged from technology, news disengagement, and the political and legal climate journalists are confronting.

A lighter question came from an audience member who asked whether games like Wordle, Connections and “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” encourage younger audiences to pay attention to the headlines, in addition to the diversions. Williams credited The New York Times with its boldness in moving into directions like cooking, puzzles and podcasting faster than other outlets.

“I know a lot of people who have New York Times subscriptions because they love the games so much—and making the mini crossword not free anymore probably led to more subscriptions, too,” Liu said. “But I do think the challenge is bridging that gap, and going from playing New York Times games to reading New York Times stories.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI and the Poynter Institute gathered a group of experts to discuss intergenerational storytelling, with a special focus on environmental reporting.

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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��Ѱ��. “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 About 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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On Poynt(er): Global journalism leader visits Boulder to celebrate 50 years

Joe Arney — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:12:04 +0000

On Poynt(er): Global journalism leader visits Boulder to celebrate 50 years Joe Arney Tue, 09/16/2025 - 09:12

Joe Arney

False reports on social media. Altered and A.I.-generated images. Fewer local journalists embedded in the community.

What do these technical and business changes mean for the way we get our news—and, with the speed of change increasing, where do we go from here?

Later this month, the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information will address these questions through a multiday public series, presented in partnership with the nonprofit Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism.

If you go

What: Moments of Truth: An Exploration of Journalism’s Past, Present and Future

When: Sept. 23 through Oct. 9. The exhibition includes a community conversation at Boulder Public Library on Sept. 30 and a journalism-themed happy hour Oct. 1.

Where: The main exhibit is on view at Norlin Library, southwest study area, second floor.

Why: Moments of Truth is a national traveling exhibit marking the 50th anniversary of the Poynter Institute.

Learn more

At the center of the series is a traveling exhibit tracing the history of American journalism—from colonial print to A.I.-generated news—called Moments of Truth: An Exploration of Journalism’s Past, Present and Future. Additional programs include a panel discussion with distinguished journalists, hands-on media literacy workshops and a trivia night at the Denver Press Club.

“This initiative is about helping people think critically about the information they see every day—while giving them techniques they can use to navigate their information ecosystem,” said Brittani Kollar, deputy director of Poynter’s MediaWise media literacy initiative. “We are thrilled to bring our event series to Boulder in celebration of Poynter’s 50th anniversary, especially at a time when press freedoms are under threat. It is crucial to have meaningful conversations about those challenges.”

Notably, Moments of Truth opens the same week that CMDI hosts J-Day, the annual journalism showcase presented by the Colorado Student Media Association. The event gathers more than 1,000 high-school students interested in journalism and communication for a day of learning, connecting and networking. Several industry speakers from Poynter’s media literacy arm, MediaWise, will deliver talks to Colorado high school students in attendance.

CMDI’s founding dean, Lori Bergen, is a former journalist who now serves as a Poynter trustee. She previously served on its national advisory board.

“It is a tremendous privilege to get to bring Poynter’s perspectives about news literacy to the university and Boulder communities, especially in a time of hyper-partisanship and ceaseless technical innovation,” Bergen said. “CMDI was built upon a century of journalism at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder. In launching the college, we were interested in how changes in technology and changes in how people communicate would continue to influence the way news is gathered, verified, reported and shared. Our students study the ways industries like data science, communication, journalism, design and public relations influence one another, preparing them for success in a professional world where these disciplines intersect.”

The anchor for the series is the 12-panel pop-up exhibit created by MediaWise. Visitors move through key moments in journalism’s evolution, interacting with historical artifacts, testing digital verification tools and reflecting on how media has shaped public understanding across generations.

Moments of Truth will be housed in the university’s Norlin Library, but the exhibit is designed to reach beyond just the university community. The Boulder Public Library will host a moderated panel discussion Sept. 30 in the Canyon Theater.

Journalists from the community will discuss the power and complexities of intergenerational stories before taking a deep dive into a specific example of local importance: environmental reporting. That session will be moderated by Phaedra C. Pezzullo, a professor of communication at CMDI and director of the college's Sustainability and Storytelling Lab, which studies the roles communication and stories play in advancing environmental fairness and justice.

In addition, on Oct. 1, the Denver Press Club will host MediaWise and CMDI for Is that Legit?!, a journalism-themed trivia challenge in which participants test their knowledge on topics like misinformation, journalism history and fact-checking.

The national exhibition visits Boulder between Tuesday, Sept. 23, and Thursday, Oct. 9. For dates, times, and locations, visit the CMDI website.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI is honored to be a partner and featured stop on Poynter’s 50th anniversary celebration later this month.

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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��Ѱ��, 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: �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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 �鶹��Ѱ��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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Public defenders: Alumni in news are undeterred as Congress claws back funding

Joe Arney — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:13:19 +0000

Public defenders: Alumni in news are undeterred as Congress claws back funding Joe Arney Mon, 07/28/2025 - 09:13

Joe Arney

Kirk Siegler reporting on location for NPR in the Amazon. The rescission package will almost certainly limit the ability for rural stations to afford journalism from NPR and PBS; Siegler says he's trying to let his reporting into rural communities and the challenges they face—especially related to climate—speak for itself.

Going-to-the-Sun Road is known for its natural beauty, its sweeping views of Glacier National Park, its white-knuckled masses of tourists travailing its winding roads.

It is not known for cellular service.

So, when Kirk Siegler was driving the road while on assignment in the park, he turned the dial to the local NPR station to see what he’d missed while being away from coverage.

“I tuned in to the top of the hour newscast and got it loud and clear,” said Siegler (Jour’00), a correspondent for NPR News. “There have been a lot of investments in towers and infrastructure by local public radio stations in recent years—especially here in the West, where the topography is so challenging—to ensure information gets out during disasters, as well as basic news services.

“In some of the more rural areas, you don’t have 5G and may not have reliable broadband, but you do have public radio.”

Last week, Congress signed off on Donald Trump’s $9 billion rescission package, which claws back more than $1 billion in previously approved funding for public broadcasters. For Siegler and other alumni of the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, that’s meant a major shift in an industry where seismic shocks are becoming the norm.

“It’s not the most stable business generally, so when we hear about funding cuts, it’s hard not to start worrying about layoffs and that sort of thing,” said Siegler, who has done notable work covering climate disaster, wildfires and public land in the West. “But the directive has been to keep our heads down and keep doing the journalism, which hopefully will speak for itself.”

An outsized rural impact

“This is not the time to fall on our sword, but to raise our sword and cut a new path.”

Neal Scarbrough (Jour’84),
vice president and general manager, Marketplace

The cuts won’t be the end of NPR and PBS, both of which receive only a small amount of funding from the federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Where it will hurt are at the rural and smaller stations that won’t be able to afford to pay NPR and PBS for the programs they produce.

It’s why professionals like Neal Scarbrough (Jour’84) are trying to pivot and provide additional value to those smaller stations. Scarbrough is vice president and general manager of Marketplace, a publicly funded media outlet that licenses its business and economics coverage to stations around the country. He has an editorial background, but his day-to-day focus is on innovation.

“The strength of Marketplace is we’ve maintained our audience, even as radio listenership is dipping,” he said. “In this moment of economic turmoil, we do have relevance for our listeners, who are seeking answers to questions on tariffs, trade wars, the markets and so on. But we have to demonstrate our value every day—while paid syndication helps our partner stations save money, we don’t have the luxury to think that way.”

Scarbrough hasn’t been shy about exploring digital alternatives to radio—including podcasts, which have been hit or miss—but he sees a chance to add value by offering digital content to partner stations, instead of just sharing radio programming and keeping other news on Marketplace’s own platforms.

As he put it, “the longer we’re restricted to radio, the quicker we’ll decline.”

‘It’s not that simple’

For rural editors, publishers and station managers, innovation is a challenge, said Patrick Ferrucci, chair of the journalism department at CMDI and a researcher who studies the funding model of rural newsrooms.

“You’re mostly talking about family-owned newspapers that haven’t really changed their approach in a hundred years,” said Ferrucci, who’s mostly worked with newspapers in Kansas and Nebraska. “It’s easy to say, just innovate, but it’s not that simple.”

He said rural journalism needs to diversify its funding structures—away from solely focused on advertising—and change its community engagement practices. He’s also advised on using open-source technology, instead of costly platforms, and using their presses to take on commercial printing work.

“Rural journalism has always done a really good job of being part of a community, unlike a New York Times or Boston Globe,” he said. “We don’t want to change that emphasis on community-based storytelling, but we’ve seen some success with things like membership models and events that make the newspaper a public space.”

Those connections to the communities he covers are important to Siegler, who is based in Boise, Idaho. He’s happiest while melting shoe leather in the nation’s under-represented rural communities, asking people—especially those who’ve never been interviewed—about topics like federal funding cuts.

Those sources have usually never met a reporter, “and so I’m always asked, ‘Why would you want to come all the way out here to talk to me? I’m not that interesting,’” he said. “But they usually are.”

His work in climate reporting showcases the importance of local perspectives on national issues, and demonstrates what’s at stake for rural stations priced out of NPR’s journalism. Siegler has covered everything from raging wildfires, to access to the Colorado River, to development projects in Arizona’s fast-growing Maricopa County.

“If there aren’t reporters covering city hall, holding politicians and developers accountable, then people don’t see it in the news and change doesn’t happen,” he said.

Both Siegler and Scarbrough said there are other ways to make a living. But neither sounded ready to give up the fight.

“One thing about journalists is, we always believe we can win,” Scarbrough said. “This is not the time to fall on our sword, but to raise our sword and cut a new path. Rather than say, woe is us, we lost our funding, we need to see this as a moment to redefine what public media is in a way that continues to help our audience make sense of the world around them.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

The $9 billion rescission package is going to hurt local stations, but journalists and managers working in public broadcasting aren’t going away without a fight.

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