Faculty, students receive awards and present at AEJMC

The following J-School faculty members and students attended the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference, which was held virtually in early August. News from the conference:

Associate Professor Teri Finneman wrapped up her tenure as the chair of the AEJMC History Division, the only division that grew in membership in the past year. She also won first place in the Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century contest and an honorable mention from the AEJMC Standing Committee on Teaching for her Diversity Analysis of Student Media class project. She also discussed podcasting on two panels and suffrage on another panel. As past chair of the History Division, she will oversee the transition at the Journalism History journal and continue to executive produce the Journalism History podcast.

Associate Professor Genelle Belmas presented her paper entitled "Investigative vs. Mandatory Reporting: Weaponizing Title IX Against Student Journalists." Her research discusses how Title IX, intended to support women in sports and adapted to address sexual assault at all levels of education, was used to silence university-affiliated NPR reporters at the University of Illinois in their quest to investigate Title IX issues. She will work with doctoral student Harrison Rosenthal to polish the paper for submission to a high-profile law review.

Associate Professor Hyunjin Seo spoke at an AEJMC Communication Technology Division panel, “Tackling Misinformation: Academic-Community-Industry Collaborations Around the World,” which featured speakers from Google, Facebook and Poynter. 

Assistant Professor Melissa Greene-Blye represented the J-School as a 2020 Kopenhaver Center Fellow, attending the workshop entitled Women Faculty Moving Forward: 100 Years from Suffrage to Academic Leadership, as part of the AEJMC national conference on Wednesday, August 5. Sponsored by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University.

Associate Professors Hyunjin Seo, Joseph Erba and Yvonnes Chen presented their teaching innovation project, “Social Media Data Hub: Multi-Course Streamlined Instructions and Assessments for Evidence-Based Teaching,” at the Great Ideas for Teaching session. 

Associate Professor Peter Bobkowski spoke at the Scholastic Journalism Division Teaching Panel session, “Public and Private: A Look at the Latest Insights about Scholastic Journalism.”

Assistant Professor Hong Vu spoke at a panel, “A Toolkit for Researching Migration: Challenges and Opportunities in Studying Refugees/Asylum Seekers/Forced Migrants.”

Vu also was a discussant at the Mass Comm & Society, International Communication Division, and Graduate Student Interest Group - Scholar to Scholar Session with the topic “Matters of Partisanship: Perception, Online News, and the U.S.- China Trade War.”

Seo, doctoral students Darcey Altschwager, Matthew Blomberg and Olushola Aromona, and undergraduate Student Ellie Booton presented their research paper on digital experiences of marginalized women to the Commission on the Status of Women. Titled “Returning to the Digital World: Technology Use and Privacy Management of Women Transitioning from Incarceration,” the study is based on interviews with women recently released from jails and prisons with regard to their access to and use of digital communication technologies. 

Doctoral student Fatemeh Shayesteh and Seo received the First-Place Top Faculty Award from the International Communication Division for their research paper entitled “Competing Frames on Social media: Analysis of English and Farsi Tweets on Iran Plane Crash.” Based on content analysis and word co-occurrence network analysis of tweets about the Ukraine plane crash in Iran in 2020, the paper analyzed differences between English tweets and Farsi tweets in framing and discussing this major international event.

Shayesteh presented her research paper “Hashtag feminism and lifting the ban on Iranian female spectators. The case study of #BlueGirl” in the International Communication Division. She used the feminist theory and the literature of hashtag feminism to analyze the tweets about the death of Sahar, a soccer fan who self-immolated to protest the stadium ban.

Shayesteh presented her research paper “Forming a social help movement through the efforts of breast cancer survivors in the #WeEightWomen campaign” in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). She interviewed eight Iranian breast cancer survivors who use the hashtag #WeEightWomen to share their cancer-related messages on Instagram.

Shayesteh and doctoral student Olushola Aromona presented their research paper, “Feminism in unlikely places: Northern Nigeria and the #ArewaMeToo movement” in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Doctoral student Annalise Baines presented in the Communication Division around salient issues of the 21st century. Her presentation was entitled "The Power of Technology: How Do International Graduate Students at a U.S. University Use Social Networking Sites to Seek Social Support?" The paper was submitted with doctoral students Muhammad Ittefaq and Mauryne Abwao.

Associate Professor Carol Holstead was one of two recipients of the Dorothy Bowles Award for Outstanding Public Service. This award recognizes an AEJMC member who has a sustained and significant public-service record that has helped build bridges between academics and professionals in mass communications, either nationally or locally, and been actively engaged within the association. Holstead received the award for developing and managing the AEJMC's Student Magazine Contest, AEJMC's only student publication contest, for 25 years.  

Professor Emeritus Dr. Max Utsler was awarded AEJMC’s Electronic News Division’s Bliss Award for his significant and lasting contributions to electronic journalism education. The award is named for Edward L. Bliss, a longtime writer, producer and editor for CBS News.

Full schedule:

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 5

6:50 – 8:20 p.m. (PDT) – PC014

Panel: A Toolkit for Researching Migration: Challenges and Opportunities in Studying Refugees/Asylum Seekers/Forced Migrants

** Hong Vu, Panelist

"Expecting the Unexpected: Lessons Learned from Researching Refugees in the U.S."

THURSDAY, AUG. 6

8:15 - 9:45 a.m. (PDT) – T012

Commission on the Status of Women, The Impact of Gender in Health Communication

** Fatemeh Shayesteh

“Forming a Social-help Movement through the Efforts of Breast Cancer Survivors in the #WeEightWomen Campaign”

10 – 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – T016

Teaching the 19th Amendment: 100 Years of Votes for Women

** Teri Finneman, Panelist (Teri is double-booked with T022; not yet resolved)

10 – 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – T018

International Communication Division, High Density Refereed Paper Session

Topic II — Protest, Polarization, and Social Media

** Fatemeh Shayesteh

“Hashtag Feminism and Lifting the Ban on Iranian Female Spectators: The Case Study of #BlueGirl”

10 – 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – T018

International Communication Division, High Density Refereed Paper Session

Topic III — Technology’s Impact on Journalistic Practices

** Muhammad Ittefaq, Kansas; Ammar Malik Sheikh, Mashable Pakistan; Waqas Ejaz, National University of Sciences and Technology; Muhammad Yousaf, University of Gujrat; and Shahira S. Fahmy, American University in Cairo

“The Marriage of Inconvenience: An Exploratory Analysis of Media Convergence in Pakistan”

10 – 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – T022

Scholar-to-Scholar Refereed Paper Session: Great Ideas for Teaching (G.I.F.T)

** Hyunjin Seo, Joseph Erba and Yvonnes Chen

“Social Media Data Hub: Multi-Course Streamlined Instructions and Assessments for Evidence-Based Teaching”

10 – 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – T022

Scholar-to-Scholar Refereed Paper Session: Great Ideas for Teaching (G.I.F.T)

** Teri Finneman (Teri is double-booked with T016; not yet resolved)

11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. (PDT)  – T028

Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century: Innovative Teaching Ideas for the Journalism Classroom

** Teri Finneman, Panelist (Teri is double-booked with T036; not yet resolved)

11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. (PDT)  – T036

Teaching Best Practices: Teaching Difficult Topics in a Polarized Society

** Teri Finneman

“A Diversity Analysis of Student Media” (Teri is double-booked with T028; not yet resolved)

1:30 - 3 p.m.  (PDT) – T040

Scholar-to-Scholar (Poster) Refereed Paper Session: Topic VIII – Social Media

** Muhammad Ittefaq, Hyunjin Seo, Mauryne Abwao and Annalise Baines

“Social Media Use for Health, Cultural Values, and Demographics: A Survey of Pakistani Millennials”

1:30 - 3 p.m. (PDT)  – T041

Reaching New Audiences Via Virtual Conferences & Podcasting

** Teri Finneman, Panelist

5 - 6:30 p.m. (PDT) – T070

Student News Literacy and Free Speech Matters

** Genelle Belmas

“Investigative vs. Mandatory Reporting: Weaponizing Title IX Against College Journalists”

FRIDAY, AUG. 7

8:15 - 9:45 a.m. (PDT) – F015

Mass Comm & Society, International Communication Division, and Graduate Student Interest Group - Scholar to Scholar Session

Topic: Matters of Partisanship: Perception, Online News,

and the U.S.- China Trade War

** Hong Vu, Discussant

8:15 - 9:45 a.m. (PDT) – F021

Refereed Paper Session: Hashtag Activism in the Digital World

** Hyunjin Seo, Hannah Britton, Megha Ramaswamy, Darcey Altschwager, Matthew Blomberg, Olushola Aromona, Bernard Schuster, Ellie Booton, Marilyn Ault, and Joi Wickliffe

“Returning to the Digital World: Technology Use and Privacy Management of Women Transitioning from Incarceration”

8:15 - 9:45 a.m. (PDT) – F021

Refereed Paper Session: Hashtag Activism in the Digital World

** Olushola Aromona and Fatemeh Shayesteh

“Feminism in Unlikely Places: Northern Nigeria and the #ArewaMeToo Movement”

10 - 11:30 a.m. (PDT) – F026

Tackling Misinformation: Academic-Community-Industry Collaborations Around the World

** Hyunjin Seo

“Community-Based Research Approach to Misinformation”

11:45 a.m. - 1:15 p.m. (PDT) – F047

Scholastic Journalism Division Teaching Panel Session Public and Private: A Look at the Latest Insights about Scholastic Journalism

** Peter Bobkowski, Panelist

3:15 - 4:45 p.m. (PDT) – F076

Women in Podcasting: Making Our Space

** Teri Finneman, Panelist, Journalism History podcast

5 - 6:30 p.m. (PDT)  – F081

Advertising and Political Communication Divisions Scholar-to-Scholar (Poster) Refereed Paper Session

** Joao Vicente Seno Ozawa, Texas at Austin; Hong Tien Vu, Kansas; Dhiraj Murthy and Maxwell McCombs, Texas at Austin

"Agenda-Setting Effects of Fake News on the Public’s Issue Agenda"

5 - 6:30 p.m. (PDT)  – F085

International Communication Division, Award-Winning Papers in International Communication

** Fatemeh Shayesteh and Hyunjin Seo

“Competing Frames on Social Media: Analysis of English and Farsi Tweets on Iran Plane Crash”

5 - 6:30 p.m. (PDT)  – F090

Newspaper and Online News Division Refereed Paper Session- The News: Real, Fake and Its Telling

** Magdalena Saldana, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, and Hong Tien Vu, Kansas

"You Are Fake News! Factors Impacting Journalists’ Debunking Behaviors on Social Media

SATURDAY, AUG. 8

8:15 - 9:45 a.m. (PDT) – S011

Scandal, Stigma, and Sexualization: How Sharing Sensational and Sensitive Information Relates to Calls for Privacy Protection

** Genelle Belmas, Panelist

1:15 - 2:45 p.m. (PDT) – S037

High Density Refereed Research Session: Topic II - Presidents and Politics

** Olushola Aromona

“Twitter Engagement and Interactions with Public Agencies and Citizens’ Overall Trust in the Nigerian Government”

4:45 - 6:15 p.m. (PDT) – S069

Community Journalism Interest Group Top Papers

** Chris Etheridge

“Community Public Safety Information Seeking and the News”

4:45 - 6:15 p.m. (PDT) – S070

Graduate Student Interest Group High Density Refereed Paper Session

** Annalise Baines, Muhammad Ittefaq and Mauryne Abwao

"The Power of Technology: How Do International Graduate Students at a U.S. University Use Social Networking Sites to Seek Social Support?"

SUNDAY, AUG. 9

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (PDT) – R027

Instructional Practice in Journalism: Research Frontiers

** Genelle Belmas, Discussant

11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. (PDT) – R028

Of Images and Information: New Explorations

** Muize Lemboye and Chris Etheridge

“Effects of Facial Recognition Technology on Perceptions of Privacy”