College News

Pressing on

Joe Arney — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:05:27 +0000

Pressing on Joe Arney Fri, 09/25/2026 - 10:05

Joe Arney

Before joining the journalism faculty at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, Vicky Sama covered news from New York, Washington, Atlanta and around the world as an international journalist with CNN.

You can imagine how she felt when journalists—including those from her former network—were barred from the White House.

“We saw this in Donald Trump’s previous administration, but not to this extent,” said Sama (MJour’02), who teaches media law and ethics at CMDI. “Almost every president has acknowledged at times they didn’t like what journalists reported. But they handled it differently.”

Vicky Sama

A First Amendment expert, Sama expected the court to reject the government’s ban on White House reporters; on Tuesday, the judge presiding over the case ordered Trump’s administration to restore credentials for CNN, MS Now and Politico.

“We see this pattern with President Trump—when he’s unhappy with journalism he disagrees with, he reacts quickly and emotionally, and then his lawyers have to backtrack and reframe the conversation,” Sama said.

“And that’s what we saw here. Trump’s original outbursts were critical of what the journalists were reporting—he complained about their coverage, he called them ‘liars’ and ‘fake news.’ The White House seems to understand that’s an unconstitutional argument, so they’re now saying in the court filing that the reason for the ban is the conduct of the reporters. That’s an entirely different argument.”

Sama also pointed out the flaws in Trump’s national security argument—one he’s used to justify his ballroom project and proposed Triumphal Arch. After Trump’s initial complaints about coverage, the White House said the banned outlets published classified information related to, among other topics, the Iran war and dwindling munition stockpiles.

It’s a common argument, she said, “but in multiple Supreme Court cases, justices have ruled the government has the burden to prove a restriction on the free press is necessary to protect national security before it can violate the press’ First Amendment rights. And here, you can see Trump tell them you’re fake news and you’re liars, which would seem to invalidate the national security argument.”

Bringing the Constitution to class

“There are definitely times I’m afraid, but there are other times where I feel empowered—that the work I’m doing really matters, and is deeply meaningful to society.”

Avery Clifton, journalism

In her classes, Sama leans into critical thinking and media literacy, asking students to picture an information economy entirely subject to the whims of a monarch and pushing them to bring a less-trusting perspective to social media—a challenge for a generation that grew up alongside digital platforms.

“People in power no longer have to go through journalists, and be edited, be vetted, be verified. They can bring their message directly to the public on social media,” she said. “Trump is not the first president to do this, but he realizes its power to construct his truth, control the message and hide from the public anything he doesn't want them to know. And you can’t do that when you’re surrounded by reporters who ask the tough questions.”

If one of the goals of Trump’s sustained attack on the press is to dissuade people from studying and entering the profession, he might be in for a surprise at a place like CMDI, with both its journalism department and a healthy collection of student press outlets.

Avery Clifton, a junior majoring in journalism with a minor in political science, said even as a student reporter, she’s afraid an honest mistake could cause her to be deplatformed before her career truly begins. But it’s inspired her to continue chasing her dream of one day covering politics.

“There are definitely times I’m afraid, but there are other times where I feel empowered—that the work I’m doing really matters, and is deeply meaningful to society,” said Clifton, editor-in-chief of the student-run �鶹��Ѱ��Independent and an editorial intern with Denver Life Magazine.

‘Things may not always be what they seem’

Avery Clifton

In the Independent’s editorial offices, Clifton said she challenges her fellow journalists to be critical thinkers and truth seekers, even as press freedoms remain under attack.

“My journalism experiences have helped me grow as a person,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and the world by putting myself in different places, seeing how things really are and challenging my own assumptions—and understanding that things may not always be what they seem.”

That attitude is what Sama hopes to cultivate in all her students.

“How can we prepare students for journalism careers at a time like this? This is the preparation—going through what’s happening in our world and what we’re seeing in the White House,” she said.

“I want my students to hone their critical thinking skills in my classes—to be able to recognize the difference between propaganda, opinion, fact, truth and lies—so they can ask the hard questions, verify information and hold the power to account. A free press may be our most important freedom—and we may find if it’s gone, we didn’t really know what we had.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Faculty call out ‘unconstitutional’ White House ban on television reporters, while a student journalist refuses to be intimidated.

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‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers

Ellie Chase — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:21:55 +0000

‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers Ellie Chase Thu, 09/24/2026 - 07:21

Ellie Chase

When it came time for Nolan Vuldy to choose a university, he thought back to the lights, lasers and sounds that captivated his childhood.

The chance to dive deeper into production effects, and build a network and career path that will allow him to further explore his interests, led him directly to �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“I hope to start a production company someday,” Vuldy said. “CMDI stood out the most to me—I think this is a place that can help me with my career goals.”

Originally from France, Vuldy’s family moved to Colorado when he was a child to pursue opportunity. Now, he joins CMDI’s Class of 2030, one of 516 new first-year students eager to make their mark on �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

Though new-student enrollment is slightly down from last year—following years of growth after the pandemic—students in CMDI’s Class of 2030 are among the high-achieving undergraduates in the college’s history. Here are some highlights:

54% of students enrolled were in the top 25% of their high school class.
The average SAT score among enrolled students rose to 1243, from 1230 last year.
CMDI also welcomes 62 new transfer students and 50 new graduate students.

“Each opportunity I’ve had to speak with our new first-year students—whether during their orientation or seeing them around campus over the last few weeks—has left me impressed with both their intellectual curiosity and their passion for creativity,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “I’m really excited about the potential this group has to shape CMDI and, with what they’ll learn here, the world.”

Chris Bell (PhDMediaSt'09), speaks with new CMDI students after his speech for CMDI Go. (Kimberly Coffin)

Vuldy, a media production major, is a self proclaimed DJ and producer who hopes his peers can influence his future projects.

“I’m a very creative person, so being around other creative people is something that really excites me,” he said.

Dawson Justus, a Texas native who is studying architecture at CMDI, is also pursuing his degree based on an early fascination. In his case, it’s design.

Justus has family in the architecture industry who introduced him to the discipline. His dream is to design an aquarium or a zoo—both of which were among his favorite places as a child.

“I’ve always been drawn here, mostly by the architecture and environmental design department,” Justus said. “I really appreciate how we get to diversify our studies, learning about product design, urban planning and landscape architecture in our first year.”

The family trade is no stranger to Charlotte Callahan, who draws inspiration from her mom, formerly a traveling journalist for Inside Edition. Callahan grew up admiring her career and adventures abroad.

With a passion for speaking with people and sharing their stories, Callahan will be pursuing a journalism degree from CMDI. Her interest in the environment is what drew her to Boulder, and she’s considering environmental science as a second major.

Her dream job? Working for National Geographic.

“Journalism is so important, especially now,” she said. “We really need good journalism and better access to information.”

Callahan’s recognition of Boulder’s remarkable environment is not lost on other new students. The campus’ beauty and vibrant student life brought Elizabeth Lockhart from California to CMDI.

“I toured campus and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love it here.’ When I got accepted, I almost cried,” she said.

Lockhart is majoring in strategic communication, with an emphasis in public relations.

Her goals in public relations offer a perfect intersection of youthful passions with career—she wants to work for Disney. She also has interest in PR for Formula One drivers, seeing an opportunity to bridge the gap in gender representation in motorsports.

“There’s not many women in F1—and it’s detrimental because a lot of their fan base is women, but you don’t see representation,” Lockhart said.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly. It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Violet Valentin

Violet Valentin shares Lockhart’s enthusiasm for public relations. Valentin is a strategic communication major, as well, and spent part of her summer with the Pathways to Excellence program. The summer bridge program introduces incoming students to CMDI’s majors and builds community before school starts.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly,” Valentin said. “It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Information science is the smallest major in the incoming class, but its unique blend of computing, social science and the humanities interested Heidi Welsh, who is curious about hospital technology, which involves studying data to create preventative technology.

“I want to be hands on,” she said. “I want to go out in the world and apply what I know to help people. I’m so excited for all of my classes—I think it’s going to be so different from anything I’ve ever done.”

Ellie Chase is studying journalism at CMDI, with a minor in business. She covers students and student news at the college.

CMDI welcomes its Class of 2030, an academically accomplished group with big dreams for the future.

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‘Think you know sports?’ Expert says Sydney Sweeney doesn’t

Joe Arney — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:07:14 +0000

‘Think you know sports?’ Expert says Sydney Sweeney doesn’t Joe Arney Sun, 09/20/2026 - 08:07

A CMDI researcher says it's empowering that Sydney Sweeney can choose to use her body to advance her interest in Novig, but by doing it in a sports setting, she undermines the work women have done to be seen as respected athletes, as opposed to sex symbols. Photo courtesy Norvig.

Joe Arney

Ashley Carter had just wrapped up a unit on gender and sport in her Sports, Media and Society class when a sports betting outfit called Novig released the now-notorious ad starring Sydney Sweeney.

“When you talk about gender representation and media with students, some of them will push back and say, ‘Is this still an issue? I thought we progressed past this, and women’s sports are doing great,’” said Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26), an assistant teaching professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“It’s not exciting that this is still happening—but it’s exciting when you can show them, this is what I’m talking about, this is why it’s important for you to study and think about this.”

Carter was listening when someone told her to do what you love. A triathlete, former sports journalist and occasional freelancer, and women’s basketball fan, she is an expert in gender and identity in sports media—especially how those topics play out in an evolving media landscape, where athletes and fans share their stories on channels that bypass traditional gatekeepers.

“These athletes have massive platforms where they’re able to talk about things like mental health or body image,” she said. “For female athletes, it’s been groundbreaking, and a chance to prove women’s sports do matter.”

The Sweeney ad, she said, puts lamentable emphasis on athletes’ body image. If you somehow haven’t seen the spot, picture the actress wearing only a smile, strategically posed behind sports equipment, saying the word “sports” a bunch of times.

Carter noted Sweeney is a strategic partner for the brand, not just an actress playing a role, “so she’s profiting off this, right? To some extent, this is her deciding that this is how she wants to use her body—and that’s empowering. But she’s doing it in a space where women have had to work extremely hard to be seen as athletes, instead of being sexualized.”

A different game

“When I discuss these topics with my students, my hope is that they’re thinking about what they can do, as aspiring media professionals, to change that media representation of women in sport, and do better.”

Ashley Carter, assistant teaching professor, journalism

In her classes, Carter talks about concepts like how female athletes need to portray a certain degree of femininity to get sponsorships and appear in media stories. Rather than solely focus on excellence on the field, “women have to think, do I appear athletic enough, or too athletic?” she said. “If the message is that women in sport should look like Sydney Sweeney, then we’re just objectifying bodies, not celebrating authentic sports bodies.”

And it’s not just women. The ad’s viral nature means plenty of girls—who aren’t old enough to bet on sports using Novig’s platform—have either seen or heard of it; Carter brought it up to her middle school-aged sister, Aniko Carter, who knew exactly what she was talking about.

“When you see this on YouTube, on TikTok, then it’s being seen by younger women who are trying to figure out where they fit in in sport,” she said. “And if they’re comparing themselves to certain body types, and that leads to an insecurity, they’ll drop out—which many do, as teenagers.”

Ashley Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26)

The one positive Carter has seen is something hard to imagine in the old sports media landscape, when images from the Sweeney ad would have looked at home in Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit edition. Athletes immediately took to Instagram and other channels to showcase the diversity of bodies that are welcome in sport.

“Athletes having that online platform, that ability to create social change, is entirely different from when I started my PhD work,” Carter said. “They have really made mental health a huge part of the conversation, which really resonates with Gen Z and my students in particular.”

It’s one thing she really enjoys about teaching younger students, who bring different perspectives and question the way things have been done in the past—important in a landscape that’s shifting so rapidly.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A researcher says her students often assume there’s equality in sport. The notorious Novig ad challenges them to think otherwise.

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Networking goals

Jayden Fortner — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 16:12:04 +0000

Networking goals Jayden Fortner Fri, 09/18/2026 - 10:12

Hannah Stewart

Tivoli Freedman’s biggest piece of advice to her fellow students is to take a chance on yourself and connect with people.

The summer before her senior year Tivoli Freedman, right, interned in Los Angeles for the World Cup, where she was part of the operations team and helped lead the youth program. Photo courtesy of Tivoli Freedman.

While waiting for a flight home to California, she chatted with a woman who was a manager at Fox sports and later connected Freedman with other executives. And cold-messaging contacts on LinkedIn led to her landing an internship with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup.

“I ask to pick people’s brains and for advice for somebody like me who’s up and coming,” she said. “I’ve probably had 200 informational interviews over the past couple of years.”

Freedman is more than just a fan—the San Diego native grew up around sports; her parents and an aunt had careers working major sports events. But working in media wasn’t her first collegiate passion—she enrolled at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as a psychology major before getting caught up with the Buffaloes.

“My whole weekend was consumed by college football, the NFL and MLB, going to games any chance I could get,” she said. “I took a sports media class and changed my major to communication.”

Around the same time she took that first CMDI course, Freedman landed two jobs that laid the groundwork for a career in sports—a freelance production assistant for Fox Sports and an intern for �鶹��Ѱ��Athletics’ recruiting and scouting team.

Though she enjoys the forward-facing aspect of working with student-athletes and designing on-screen graphics for NFL games, she also learned those roles weren’t her calling. Instead, she’s more interested in the planning and operational side of events, especially the big ones like the World Cup.

Ashley Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26), an assistant teaching professor of journalism, called Freedman “a really ambitious student. And you can tell she cares not just about class assignments, but about doing what it takes to be successful beyond CU.”

Freedman took those lessons to heart. Even while she was studying abroad in Barcelona, she was still networking on LinkedIn to make connections in the international sports world. Eventually, she met a manager at FIFA, which led to her working as a partner rights delivery coordinator in Los Angeles. On off days, she helped prepare SoFi stadium for upcoming matches, doing everything from coordinating schedules and partner activations to supporting stadium tours and hospitality services.. On match days, she was in charge of the youth program.

“If you watched any of the prematch ceremonies with the kids holding flags and escorting players, that was me,” she said, smiling. “I always had two headsets on, so I could listen to both the broadcasts and my team, and kind of be the one to start the show.”

Now a senior, Freedman is continuing to gain event operations experience with the Colorado Rockies. She hopes to start a career in the industry after she graduates from CMDI in May—and she feels prepared to do so thanks to experiences she’s had while still a student.

“Working in sports is very competitive, which I didn’t fully realize until I took those classes and got into the industry,” she said. “I would love to work at the Olympics, and then I would love to go to a team or an agency, and get into event operations.”

Communication major Tivoli Freedman, back row right, spent her summer in Los Angeles interning with FIFA for the World Cup. Photo courtesy of Tivoli Freedman.

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.

Strategic communication senior Tivoli Freedman had the summer internship to remember as a partnerships coordinator for the 2026 World Cup.

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Who's telling the truth? What media literacy, authenticity and gatekeeping mean now

Amanda J. McManus — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:27:45 +0000

Who's telling the truth? What media literacy, authenticity and gatekeeping mean now Amanda J. McManus Tue, 09/01/2026 - 15:27

On Monday, Sept.14, Colorado Mesa University’s Languages, Literature and Mass Communication program and �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information are presenting Who's Telling the Truth? What Media Literacy, Authenticity and Gatekeeping Mean Now in Grand Junction on the CMU campus.

If you go:

When: 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 14
Where: Meyer Ballroom, Colorado Mesa University Center
1100 North Avenue
Grand Junction, Colorado

Reserve your free spot

This interactive community conversation, which is free and open to the public, will include a moderated panel with reporters and researchers followed by audience participation at table conversations to address: What is needed to ensure our communities receive news they trust on the issues important to them.

Chuck Plunkett, a longtime professional journalist who is the director of �鶹��Ѱ��News Corps, a capstone program for �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder journalism students, will moderate the panel.

“Strong, independent local newsrooms are vital to protecting and preserving our democracy,” said Plunkett, who served as the editorial page editor for The Denver Post and is widely known in the industry for his stance on the importance of local journalism for preserving democracy. “So is gathering to engage with one another to discuss the quality of the offerings that inform the public square.”

Panelists include Stina Sieg, Colorado Public Radio Western Slope Reporter; Julia Wildman, editor-in-chief of the CMU Criterion; Holly Oberle, CMU associate professor of political science; and Pat Ferrucci, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s journalism department chair.

As part of the program, Laurena Davis, CMU assistant professor of mass communication, will lead the table conversations with participants.

Supporting partners for “Who's Telling the Truth?” include Restore the Balance, The Daily Sentinel, Colorado Public Radio and the Western Colorado Journalism Foundation.

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Open house

Joe Arney — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 16:17:44 +0000

Open house Joe Arney Tue, 08/25/2026 - 10:17

Matthew Koschmann at a book launch event at the United States International University–Africa, in Kenya. His book examines the role participation can play in solving complex problems such as housing access, a major challenge in Manila.

Joe Arney

The title of Matthew Koschmann’s new book is The Philippines Road Home.

That road wound up being a journey he almost gave up on.

The book—which makes the case for a participatory approach to housing access—traces its origins back nearly a decade, when Koschmann was a Fulbright scholar at Ateneo de Manila University. An expert in nonprofit organizational communication, the opportunity to study a major, complex problem like housing in another culture was enticing.

But when he worked on the project back in the states, “it just felt impossible to do without living there,” he said. “It’s really difficult for some middle-aged white guy from Colorado to conduct ongoing ethnographic research on the other side of the world.”

Koschmann, chair of the communication department and an associate professor, had one final visit to the Philippines on his calendar when he pulled out of the book project, but elected to make the trip. The connections he made there convinced him there might be room for his insights, after all.

“The book raises bigger issues of what it means to engage in participatory work, whatever the issue is, and how we help marginalized people become engaged in the decisions that directly affect their lives.”

Matthew Koschmann, chair, communication

“There were big contrasts between government housing programs, which were largely non-participatory, and the nonprofit sector, which defined itself as having a more participatory approach to housing,” he said. “From a communication standpoint, how those nonprofits were approaching the challenge was fascinating to study.”

In the Philippines, and especially Manila, housing is a major challenge. Koschmann’s book, which published in April, looks at the idea of participatory housing—which involves the meaningful involvement of relevant stakeholders in key stages of development and decision-making.

“It sounds simple, but every word in that sentence is contested,” he said. “To me, the work of participatory housing is about what it means to the people involved and how we accomplish participation together—as opposed to a government saying, ‘Well, we posted a flyer, so we’ve participated.’”

Making the case

One of the cases in Matthew Koschmann’s book focuses on the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, which he visited after The Philippines Road Home published.

In understanding how organizations are using participation in their housing work, Koschmann wrote cases for three of them—Habitat for Humanity, Gawad Kalinga and Community Organizers Multiversity—that showcased different ways to think about participation and communication as addressing a complex issue like housing. He brings that together around larger themes like language, symbolism, meaning and social construction to show how organizations can think about participation in framing and solving major problems.

“There’s no math equation that defines what it is to be participatory,” he said. “Taking a communication approach to this isn’t about trying to land on a definition, but rather, giving a fuller, richer sense of what participation means, how it’s practiced and how it’s experienced.”

You don’t, of course, have to travel to Manila to see what a housing crisis looks like: Access to housing remains a challenge in Colorado and throughout the United States. While the specific issues surrounding housing in the two countries are two different to compare, “where I see parallels are the conversations in our society around whose voice matters, who’s included, who gets to define what is meaningful and valuable, how we reach levels of shared understanding,” Koschmann said.

“That applies not just to housing, but immigration, higher education, policing, healthcare and so on. The book raises bigger issues of what it means to engage in participatory work, whatever the issue is, and how we help marginalized people become engaged in the decisions that directly affect their lives.”

That impact and perspective kept him going through countless research trips to the Philippines, where his affection for the local fruit has earned him the moniker “Mango Mateo.”

“I’m forever an outsider, but I’m also not a tourist anymore,” he said. “A big part of the work was earning that trust—so that when I got something wrong, people wanted to correct me, instead of joking about it behind my back, because they know this work matters.

“Connection, more than data collection, has been one of the most meaningful parts of the project. What really pleases me about the book is that the rich, full experience from the research work really shines through.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A new book from a communication expert considers how stakeholder participation can address thorny problems, like housing access.

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Heads of the class

Joe Arney — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:39:27 +0000

Heads of the class Joe Arney Tue, 08/18/2026 - 12:39

Joe Arney

Meghan Sobel Cohen

One of Meghan Sobel Cohen’s most lasting memories of studying journalism at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder was Cokes with Voakes—office hours that then-Dean Paul S. Voakes would host to get to know students outside of class over sodas.

It’s a tradition she carried forward in her time as chair of the communication department at Regis University, in Denver, and is excited to bring back to the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information as an associate professor of journalism.

“Coming back to �鶹��Ѱ��feels like such a full-circle moment for me,” she said. “So, maybe we’ll start coffee with Cohen, or cookies with Cohen, in the fall.”

Cohen (Jour’09), an expert on media systems in authoritarian contexts and journalism’s role in peacekeeping, is among 13 new faculty—three of them alumni—joining CMDI this fall, with another set to begin in the spring.

“I am so excited by the wealth of experience that our new faculty will bring to CMDI,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “The perspectives, knowledge and curiosity they will bring to our teaching, research and creative work will continue to enrich our students and community.”

Cohen said she’s especially excited to return to what she called “a truly inspiring campus.”

“I feel really excited and grateful to be back in Boulder,” she said. “I was here when it was a school of journalism—and it’s inspiring to see the evolution of �鶹��Ѱ��alongside the changes in journalism and communication. I’m excited to become a part of that, to encourage that evolution and help change the way our students think about communication, media and journalism more broadly.”

In addition to Cohen, the following faculty will join CMDI this academic year.

Advertising, Public Relations and Design

Hyun Seung Jin, associate professor. Jin joins the college from the business school of Queensland University of Technology, in Australia. His work explores psychology, creativity and technology.

Richard Khleif (PhDMediaSt’07), assistant teaching professor. Khleif brings decades of global technology industry experience to the college. He also is an emeritus founding member of CMDI’s advisory board, and completed the integrated marketing communication program from the former School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999.

Communication

Lamiyah Bahrainwala, assistant professor. Bahrainwala was previously chair of the communication studies department at Southwestern University. She studies anti-Muslim sentiment through surveillance, race, the environment and more.

Alicen Rushevics, assistant professor. Key themes in Rushevics’ research include discourses of reparation and apology, indigenous human rights and U.S. imperialism in the Pacific. She completed her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2026.

Environmental Design

Sophie Weston Chien, assistant professor. After completing two master’s degrees in landscape architecture and planning from Harvard University, Chien joined CMDI as a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow. Her research involves organizing in design, participatory textile research and fabrication, and theorizing contemporary design practice.

Pol Fité Matamoros, assistant professor. Fité Matamoros completed his PhD at the University of California–Berkeley, where he has been a designer in residence since 2025. He examines connections between visual culture, the spatial production of social and racial difference, and regime building.

Priyanka Sen, assistant professor. Sen will join CMDI in the spring after completing her PhD from Cornell University. She studies the intertwined histories of the built environment and agricultural practices tied to South Asian migration.

Nettie Skievaski (EnvDes’22), assistant teaching professor. In addition to her career in graphic design, Skievaski has been an instructor at CMDI since 2022.

Information Science

Jason Lucas, assistant professor. Lucas earned his PhD from Pennsylvania State University. He develops multilingual A.I. systems across underserved languages to advance safe, equitable technology.

Aspen K.B. Omapang, assistant professor. Another Cornell scholar, Omapang researches political relations between Indigenous peoples and settlers in managing natural resources.

Katlyn Turner, assistant professor. Turner has been a research affiliate and instructor with CMDI since 2023. Her work focuses on environmental and climate justice, technology, policy, systems, and self-determination.

Media Studies

Susan Abbott, assistant teaching professor. Abbott brings more than two decades of experience in media development, digital democracy and civil society to her teaching. She was previously a lecturer at CMDI.

Journalism

Meagan Doll, assistant professor. Doll has held postdoctoral roles at the universities of Minnesota and Washington. She studies news consumption and production, with particular interest in perceptions of news in nondemocratic contexts.

Jason Lucas

Interdisciplinary importance

New faculty called the interdisciplinary nature of the college and its work a key factor in their decisions to come here. Cohen, whose work experience includes the U.S. State Department—where she observed the disconnect between the needs of human rights organizations and the limitations of journalists who cover them, leading her to her research niche—said the changing nature of the news business is a call for educators to combine related disciplines, to better prepare students for the challenges that await them after graduation.

Jason Lucas, of information science, said the department’s values and culture of collaboration were major draws to him—though also important is that his wife, Umniya Najaer, has been a postdoctoral fellow at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder since July 2025. His work studies artificial intelligence from the lens of language.

“There are 7,000 languages spoken in the world. And only about 20 of them have sufficient digital footprints to train robust models that can be useful for end users,” Lucas said.

It’s a safety concern, not just a usability issue, he said, as models can be attacked based on the data used to train them, leaving certain communities more vulnerable to the spread of disinformation or cybercrime. “And even with reinforcement learning, we cannot solve that basic security issue,” he said. “So we have to concern ourselves with both equity and safety.”

Lucas hopes to engage with these problems through SEAL, the Secure and Ethical A.I. Research Lab, which he’ll direct at CMDI.

Pol Fité Matamoros

Pol Fité Matamoros’ education spanned design disciplines like architecture, urban design and landscape architecture, which drew him to an environmental design department that brings all these areas under one roof. His research interest—which considers the advancement of fascist movements as expressed through visual and spatial culture—draws on these disciplines, plus humanities and social sciences.

“It’s easy to fall into this trap of saying the global rise of nationalist movements we see today is the same as it was in the 1920s. And it’s not,” Fité Matamoros said. “But there are similarities, and I think understanding how fascist movements in the ’20s and ’30s operated gives us a clue as to how they operate today.”

He studies the phenomenon through the lens of his native Spain, which watched its American colonial empire fall apart following war with the United States. The country’s attention turned to Africa, seen as a bountiful land of riches that could offset Spain’s decline—a concept Franco exploited in his rise to power.

He sees some of that today in the United States, where the Trump administration has pushed to rename the Gulf of Mexico and speak of colonizing Greenland and Canada.

Renaming, he said, is not just changing a label, “it repositions a space within a broader narrative of national rebirth. These spatial moves are not only moments of rhetorical excess, they create an appealing spatial argument for a violent nationalist narrative.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI is welcoming 14 new faculty with expertise in journalism, business, surveillance, technology and more.

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Eight is enough: CMDI piles up top paper awards at influential conference

Jayden Fortner — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 20:12:06 +0000

Eight is enough: CMDI piles up top paper awards at influential conference Jayden Fortner Wed, 08/12/2026 - 14:12

Iris Serrano (Jour , StComm’26)

After working as a journalist in Bangladesh for 17 years, Ershad Khan noticed a common theme that continued to drive his work as he entered academia.

Journalism’s most influential theories have been developed through a Western lens. And while these frameworks have shaped decades of research, Khan doesn’t believe they fully capture the reality of journalism in countries with different political systems, languages and cultural settings.

Now, the journalism PhD student in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information is working to broaden perspectives.

Journalism PhD student Ershad Khan, left, won a best student paper award for his work on how A.I. is reshaping the news outside of Western contexts, as well as a research award. Here, he poses with the award alongside Beverly Horvit, of the University of Missouri.

“There’s a tendency to interpret press systems outside of the West as authoritarian, but there are nuances and other factors researchers miss,” Khan said. “I want to make things more inclusive from my own experiences and from my own cultural proximity.”

His paper, Artificial Intelligence and the Journalistic Field: Reconfiguring Capital, Legitimacy and Professional Authority in Bangladesh, examined how artificial intelligence is reshaping journalism in Bangladesh and affecting the workflow of newsrooms and journalists’ perception of their work.

One of the study’s biggest findings was that A.I.’s effectiveness relies heavily on language. English-language news organizations in Bangladesh can more easily integrate A.I. tools because large language models have been trained extensively in English. A lack of training data in Bengali means native-language newsrooms struggle to integrate these tools.

“The language these tools generate in a local language is something similar to seventh graders’ standard when they want to give output for their readers,” Khan said. “So they need to heavily edit those outputs. That’s not efficient for their newsrooms.”

This work earned Khan a first-place student paper award from the international communication division at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place earlier this month in New Orleans.

He was among dozens of CMDI students and faculty to be recognized, bringing home a total of eight top paper awards and contributing 47 peer-reviewed papers. Khan also won a student research grant award for his proposal, Overt and Covert Control: How Competitive Authoritarian Regimes Restrict Journalistic Autonomy. The study aims to understand state mechanisms for controlling the press in the Global South based on data collected from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Uganda.

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.

“It is such an honor for the work of our faculty and students to earn recognition from a prestigious organization like AEJMC,” said Patrick Ferrucci, professor and chair of the journalism department at CMDI. “To see the incredible work coming out of all the schools who attend the conference, and to then watch so much of CMDI’s work be recognized, is incredibly humbling. It’s a testament to all the great work from faculty and grad students in journalism and APRD.”

Angie Chuang, an associate professor of journalism, also received recognition at the conference for her book, American Otherness in Journalism. She was presented with the Frank Luther/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, given to the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research. She was also a finalist for the Tankard Book Award.

Angie Chuang, left, with the Frank Luther/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award she won for her book, American Otherness in Journalism. She is pictured with Raluca Cozma, outgoing Kappa Tau Alpha president and a professor of media and communication at Kansas State University.

Her book examines how the news has historically represented different communities and how political rhetoric has influenced who gets designated, as she said, “American with an asterisk.”

While writing the book, Chuang was surprised by just how quickly political landscapes and conversations about identity can change.

“How did we go from the summer of Black Lives Matter and really examining structural racism to banning DEI and questioning birthright citizenship in just a few years?” Chuang said. “When information is so fast-paced, and you have all of these new ways of communicating, things can change fast.”

Chuang said allowing people to limit what it means to be American will create a less-inclusive society. As the news industry evolves through social media, Substack, podcasts and other outlets, she said journalists have a greater responsibility to ensure voices are represented fairly.

“Whoever the news media is going to be, whether it’s traditional journalists or new media journalists, let’s remember what our values are,” Chuang said. “It’s not biased to say we would like to include all Americans’ voices in the news.”

Chuang’s work is defined by her experience working in the newsroom as a reporter, including coverage of issues related to race and ethnicity at The Oregonian. She called the award especially meaningful because it comes from peers who have also worked in the industry.

“To have journalists-turned-academics say this is a book that feels real, and has potential use in a newsroom today—that is a really nice compliment,” Chuang said.

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 the journalism, media studies, and advertising, public relations and design departments moderated or served on panels, or led workshops, in addition to serving as heads of different divisions.

Advertising Division

Designing LLM Chatbots to Drive Webtoon Engagement: From Attention to Retention. Won-Ki Moon (University of Florida) and Sangwook Lee (assistant professor, APRD).

Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division

Gatekeeping in Mobile Journalism: A Comparative Framework for Autonomous and Constrained Media Environments. Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).

Journalistic Authority as Epistemic Power: Framing and Ideology in Partisan News Talk. Manwar Hossain (PhD student, journalism).

Commission on Graduate Education

Making Asynchronous as Synchronous as Possible: Designing an Isolated Website for Summer Semester Online Journalism Course Engagement. Carl Knauf (PhD student, journalism).

Realities, Challenges, and Hopes in Career Building Toward Academia, Communication, and Journalism: Insights from Faculty and Graduate Student Perspectives. Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).

Commission on LGBTQIA+ Communities

The Professional Backstaging of LGBTQ+ Identity in Sports Journalism. Ashley Carter (assistant teaching professor, journalism). Top faculty paper, third place.

Commission on the Status of Minorities

Journalistic Objectivity, Epistemic Contests, and American (U.S.) Journalism: Audience Metajournalistic Discourse in Post-George Floyd Racial Reckoning. Dennis Okeke (PhD student, journalism). Top student paper, first place.

Commission on the Status of Women

I'm Worried About Sexual Assault. I'm Worried About Dying’: An Intersectional Analysis of How US Women Photojournalists Experience Occupational Safety Threats. Dinfin Mulupi (assistant professor, journalism).

Intersectional Analysis of Global Menstrual Leave News for Informal Labor. Shreyoshi Ghosh (PhD student, journalism).

Communicating Science, Health, Environment, Risk Division

Message Format and Influencer Roles in Sustainability Persuasion: Evidence for Format-Source Alignment in Climate Communication on Social Media. Vaibhav Diwanji (University of Kansas), Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism), Nhung Nguyen (University of South Alabama) and Nazra Izhar (University of Kansas).

We’re Leading the Transition: How Oil Companies Use Climate-Delay Discourses to Frame Their Responsibility on Social Media. Dien Luong (University of Michigan), (Frank) Hechen Ding (University of Kansas) and Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism).

Communication Technology Division

Assessing Relationships between Higher Education Institutions and the Public on Social Media: A Quantitative Content Analysis. Bachchu Shekh (PhD student, APRD).

Exploring How A.I. Technology Impacts Students’ Learning Outcomes and Self-Efficacy. Md Sazzad Hossain (University of Iowa), Shah Jahan Shuvo (University of Alabama), Bachchu Shekh (PhD student, APRD) and Jamil Marques (University of Iowa).

Community Journalism Interest Group

Vanishing Voices: Policy Failure and the Decline of Diaspora Journalism. Manwar Hossain (PhD student, journalism). Top student paper, first place.

Cultural and Critical Studies Division

At Least It Will Be 24 Hours Without Fake News’: A Thematic Analysis of Online Comments on Newsroom Strikes. Qiongye Chen (PhD student, journalism) and Ever Figueroa (assistant professor, journalism).

Journalism at the Crossroads of Culture and Climate: Journalists and Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Reporting. Shitemi Khamadi (University of Indiana) and Dinfin Mulufi (assistant professor, journalism).

Navigating Hierarchies in Communication Journal Publishing: African Scholars’ Experiences and Strategies. Success Osayi (PhD student, journalism).

The Public Investment Fund and Saudi Sports Investment: Western Media and the Struggle for Legitimacy. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism) and Huda Asiri (PhD student, journalism).

Racialized Stigma as Preoccupation or Site of Resistance: Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of Mainstream and Chinese-Language News Media Coverage of the Atlanta Spa Shootings. Wen Lei (PhD student, journalism), Angie Chuang (associate professor, journalism) and Shreyoshi Ghosh (PhD student, journalism).

Risk Without Recognition: Power, Labor and Safety in Global Conflict Reporting. Mushfique Wadud (PhD student, journalism).

International Communication Division

Artificial Intelligence and the Journalistic Field: Reconfiguring Capital, Legitimacy and Professional Authority in Bangladesh. Ershad Khan (PhD student, journalism). Top student paper, first place.

Beyond the Threat-Efficacy Gap: A Longitudinal EPPM Analysis of Climate Journalism in Bangladesh Across Crisis Events (2020–2024). Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).

Climate Change Frame-setting on Audience Emotions and Engagement: A Comparative Study of Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore’s News Media. Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism), Le Thanh Trieu (Vietnam National University), Thin Van Dang (Vietnam National University) and Tham Thi Nguyen (RMIT Vietnam).

Competing Threats, Competing Enemies: Gulf and Egyptian Elite Discourse, Blame Attribution, and the Politics of Meaning in the 2026 Gulf Escalation. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).

Media Sources and Public Perceptions: Survey from High-Risk Areas in Peshawar. Hina Ali (PhD student, journalism).

Outward-Facing Legitimacy in Saudi English-Language News: Narrating Sport Diplomacy and Managing Sportswashing Critique After the FIFA 2034 Decision. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).

Power, Profit and the Press: A Comparative Political Economy of Media Ownership and Advertising Influence in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Muhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism) and Ershad Khan (PhD student, journalism).

Role Conceptions of Journalists and NGO Practitioners: Perspectives on Covering Humanitarian News in Crisis and Disaster Zones. Rania Al Namara (postdoctoral researcher, media studies).

Mass Communication and Society Division

Framing Dissent in South Asia: A Thematic and Discourse Analysis of Al Jazeera’s Coverage of Youth-Led Movements in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism) and Md. Sajedul Islam (Southern Mississippi).

Media Ethics Division

Seeing and Not Seeing: Gen A.I., Professional Identity and Moral Perception Among Advertising Creatives. Jianhua Lu (PhD student, APRD). Top student paper, second place.

Paradigm Destruction: How Journalism Casually Contributes to Its Own Credibility Debacle: Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism).

Minorities and Communication Division

Beyond the Headlines: Arab Students’ Perceived Social and Personal Effects of U.S. Press Coverage of Gaza. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).

Introducing Racialized Metajournalistic Discourse: American Journalism and Racialized Violence in Digitized Metajournalistic Discursive Sites: Dennis Okeke (PhD student, journalism).

Newspaper and Online News Division

Disseminator or Advocate? Role-Toggling in Professional Practices Among Environmental Journalists. Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism) and Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism).

Evaluating Texting as a Strategy for Audience Engagement: A Chicago Sun-Times Case Study. Meagan Doll (assistant professor, journalism) and Benjamin Toff (University of Minnesota).

Revisiting the Protest Paradigm: Thematic Framing and Protest Legitimacy Across Liberal and Semi-Authoritarian Media Systems. Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).

Telling The Story of a Newsroom: Organizational Narrative and The Field of Journalism. Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism).

Participatory Journalism Interest Group

Examining Volunteer-Newsroom Collaboration in Community Radio: A Case Study on Community Radio in the Boulder and Denver Areas. Rania Al Namara (postdoctoral researcher, media studies) and Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism). Top faculty paper, first place.

Disrupting the Profession: Participatory Journalism and the Audience Turn: Fahad Humayun (Ball State University) and Muhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism).

Political Communication Division

Framing Democracy After Authoritarianism: How Bangladesh’s Media Covers Established vs. Uprising-Born Parties in the 2026 Election. Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).

Qatar’s Mediation Role Under Pressure: Comparative Framing and Strategic Narratives in U.S. and Qatari Coverage of the 2025 Doha Strike. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).

Religion as a Connective Communicative Social Technology: A Theoretical Framework. Lorcan Neill (University of North Carolina), Daniel Kreiss (University of North Carolina) and Jordan Morehouse (assistant professor, APRD).

Voices Unsilenced: A.I.-Generated Political Communication in Constrained Democracies. Muhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism) and Hina Ali (PhD student, journalism).

Public Relations Division

To DEI or Not To DEI: A Multi-Source Analysis of Corporate Social Advocacy. Teresa Tackett (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville), Andrea Lorenz (Kent State University) and Bridget Barrett (assistant professor, APRD). Top faculty paper, third place.

The Dialectical Tensions of Neoliberal Narratives and Field Logic in Public Relations AI Practices: Kyle Harris (PhD student, APRD).

Sports Communication Interest Group

Peripheral Mending at the Edges of Sports Journalism: Metajournalistic Discourse of the Terry Rozier Sports Gambling Scandal. Ever Figueroa (assistant professor, journalism) and Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism)

Visual Communication Division

Violence, Suffering and Courage: Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs, 2003 to 2025: Lisa Krantz (University of Missouri) and Ross Taylor (associate professor, journalism). Top faculty paper, third place.

Iris Serrano graduated from CMDI in 2026 with degrees in Journalism and Strategic Communication. She covers student news and events for the college.

Faculty and student research into topics like A.I. and community journalism were recognized at this year’s AEJMC conference in New Orleans.

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‘The gold standard of fellowships’: Scripps journalists eager to create impact

Ellie Chase — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 20:37:45 +0000

‘The gold standard of fellowships’: Scripps journalists eager to create impact Ellie Chase Mon, 08/10/2026 - 14:37

Ellie Chase

Journalist Ayurella Horn-Muller was freelancing for the Miami New Times when she first heard about the Ted Scripps Fellowship in Environmental Journalism at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder.

It was eight years ago, and she was just getting her start in journalism. Horn-Muller covered local politics, arts and culture, but found herself drawn to environmental stories. When a mentor told her about the fellowship, the program became an aspiration she carried with her for years.

Ayurella Horn-Muller moderating a panel on the current state of food rescue at the 2026 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by ReFED

This fall, she’s getting her wish: Horn-Muller, a staff writer at Grist, is among five journalists selected to this year’s fellowship.

“I cherish this opportunity. I’m not going to waste a single minute of it,” Horn-Muller said. “It’s always been, in my mind, the gold standard of fellowships in the journalism world.”

The Ted Scripps fellowships provide journalists education, professional development and support to produce exemplary reporting on environmental issues. The fellowship—which is housed in the Center for Environmental Journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information—offers journalists opportunities to hone their craft while spending a year auditing classes, attending seminars and pursuing an independent project.

Horn-Muller, whose reporting for the last four years has focused on climate change, food and agriculture, plans to look beyond the visible effects of environmental change to investigate how the climate crisis reveals deeper stories about ourselves.

“A fellowship like Ted Scripps offers something a newsroom can’t—time to sit with a project or subject instead of just reacting to the daily news cycle,” said Horn-Muller, whose work has appeared in national outlets such as CNN, National Geographic, The Guardian, El País and The Atlantic. She also is the author of Devoured: The Extraordinary Story of Kudzu, the Vine That Ate the South, a nonfiction environmental science book.

Her long-form investigative piece will examine what happens to a community's sense of identity when climate change disrupts the crop that defines a place. As inspiration, she mentioned the town of Yauco, in Puerto Rico—famous for its coffee farms, which were decimated during Hurricane Maria in 2017.

She will spend the academic year researching various communities whose history and economy revolve around agriculture, including Vidalia sweet onion farmers in Georgia and winter lettuce farmers in Arizona. Horn-Muller hopes to expose the cultural and psychological dimensions of the climate crisis, delving into concepts of place attachment and ecological grief.

“Journalism isn’t just about holding people in positions of power accountable,” she said. “It’s about creating a space for those without.”

This years Ted Scripps fellowship class. Jenae Barnes (upper left), Sam Brasch (upper middle), Amanda Eggert (upper right), Ayurella Horn-Muller (lower left) and Sam Price-Waldman (lower right).

This year’s group of journalists will comprise the 30th class of Scripps fellows at CMDI. Horn-Muller will be joined by Jenae Barnes, Sam Brasch, Amanda Eggert and Sam Price-Waldman.

Barnes is an award-winning journalist covering issues at the intersection of public health, environmental justice and the lived experiences of Black communities. As a fellow, she plans to research links between environmental justice issues and socioeconomic status in the U.S. and abroad.

Brasch is a public radio reporter and Colorado native who covers climate and environmental issues for Colorado Public Radio News. As a Scripps fellow, Brasch plans to study the history and science of air quality to produce podcasts and other long-form radio projects.

Eggert is an environmental journalist based in Bozeman, Montana, who focuses on housing affordability, land use and drought. Her time at CMDI will focus on the decline of Montana’s cold-water fisheries and policies that can combat that regression.

Price-Waldman, a documentary filmmaker, has produced character-driven reporting projects for HBO, Netflix, Showtime, The Atlantic, PBS and National Geographic. As a fellow, he will explore the emotional dimensions of environmental change and human relationships to the natural world.

“We are thrilled to welcome this cohort of fellows to the CEJ,” said Hong Tien Vu, associate professor of journalism and faculty director of CEJ. “Together, they reflect the full complexity of the environmental challenges our world is facing. I cannot wait to see what they produce during their time here.”

Ellie Chase is studying journalism at CMDI, with a minor in business. She covers students and student news at the college.

As it celebrates 30 years, CMDI’s environmental journalism center welcomes five fellows eager to tell stories about climate, environmental justice, water, food, recreation and more.

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Is beauty about looks—or views?

Joe Arney — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:06:15 +0000

Is beauty about looks—or views? Joe Arney Wed, 08/05/2026 - 09:06

The Asian baby girl trend—social media videos in which young Asian American women transform themselves with makeup, hair treatments, glasses, temporary tattoos and more—is all over social media. Researcher Seonah Kim says the trend tells us a lot about commodification and shifting dynamics of cultural representation online. Clockwise from top left, photos courtesy @maiphammy, @MishChoi, @stephaniewose, @RoxetteArisa, @ohnonina and @Lolwutjan via YouTube.

Joe Arney

Let’s get your first question out of the way: Seonah Kim is not interested in makeup.

“I’m like a film scholar who likes studying cinema more than watching movies,” Kim said. “I’m not into beauty, but I enjoy studying it—specifically, how Asian women’s bodies are racialized and gendered in media through beauty.”

Asian culture is enjoying a moment on screens and in streams across the United States, from Squid Game and Beef to K-pop. But most of Kim’s research looks at so-called “Asian baby girl” videos on YouTube, in which young Asian Americans dramatically transform their appearance with makeup, temporary tattoos, hair treatments and more.

Kim, an assistant teaching professor of media studies at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, began studying the Asian baby girl phenomenon as a part of a book project. But the real origin story of this research comes from interviews she did with South Korean women who darkened their skin as part of their beauty regime. Kim sought to understand why they did so when many of their contemporaries focused on making their skin lighter.

“They would tell me, ‘I know I cannot be Caucasian, but this is a way to experiment with a kind of American identity,’” Kim said.

Seonah Kim

She was especially interested in South Korean women who darkened their skin as part of their beauty regime.

In her extensive interviews with Korean women who darken their skin, Kim found a rebellious streak—people challenging the “model minority” stereotype and looking to stand out from the crowd. Many told Kim they chose to darken themselves to resist the narrative of people who want to be lighter.

That helped lead her to Asian Americans performing the Asian baby girl identity. In those videos, she saw influencers adopting a rebellious streak of Asian Americans from a generation ago, who challenged the “model minority” stereotype to stand out from the crowd.

Shifting dynamics on social

Now, with digital and social media, these transformations are a powerful source for attention. Just look at the virality of Asian baby girl videos, as Kim does.

“On social media, we see the commodification of an aesthetic that has a lot of historical context,” Kim said. “This idea of beauty was created by a few Asian American women who wanted to challenge deep-seated stereotypes in the United States. When the Asian baby girl becomes ahistorical, visually appealing and easily consumable, it tells us quite a bit about the shifting dynamics of cultural representation and the self-commodification of Asian American identity in digital media.”

The result of ABG videos—and heightened Asian visibility in current media—is a positive sign to Kim, though it’s not without its drawbacks.

“We’re seeing different types of Asian Americans—they’re outspoken, funny, angry, entertaining. But at the same time, we risk trading one set of tropes for another.”

Seonah Kim, assistant teaching professor

“We’re seeing different types of Asian Americans—they’re outspoken, funny, angry, entertaining,” she said. “But at the same time, we risk trading one set of tropes for another. I’m not saying whether it’s good or bad, just that we need to be more critical of the media we see and the story it’s telling.”

In a recent paper in Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, Kim explored how YouTube’s attention economy has commodified Asian femininity. Though Asian Americans of a generation ago used beauty as a way to express independence and establish a counterculture, creators on social media don’t have that same influence over Western media.

“TikTok and Instagram reward content that’s visually entertaining and sexualized,” she said, “and unfortunately, I don’t see the digital space encouraging those types of discourses.”

It’s a topic she gets to explore in some depth in her classes, as well. Kim teaches an introductory social media course, as well as classes in media literacy and digital culture, where students can observe the impact of the attention economy on culture. The questions she gets there, Kim said, tend to focus on the media panic being generated around digital platforms and artificial intelligence.

“They really want to understand how social media works, to better evaluate that panic narrative,” she said. “They want to be better consumers of media.”

Her focus on commodification in ABG videos can be read as negative, but Kim said she appreciates the Asian American creators trying to carve out their own cultural niche in the digital media landscape, and who are producing different narratives about representation.

It’s a consideration she’s keeping in mind as she continues to study themes around representational inequality in transnational contexts. She’s especially keen on the idea of how the performance of ABG can challenge what it means to be seen as American. In fact, Kim is now at work on a book project incorporating her work on skin darkening among Korean women and the ways these women embrace and perform “Americanness” through the Asian baby girl phenomenon—along with how those practices challenge racial constructs in Asian contexts.

“Until now, from an Asian standpoint, Americanness is closely tied to the representation of whiteness,” she said. “Could that be replaced with a more Asian American representation—and what are the risks in doing so?”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Asian Americans of a decade ago used beauty to establish a counterculture. A research expert says today's Asian baby girl trend doesn't possess the same influence.

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