23 Faculty and Graduate Students to Present at 2025 AEJMC Conference

Twenty-three faculty and students from the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications are presenting their research studies, teaching best practices, and creative projects at the 108th annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). The AEJMC conference will be held at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis on Aug. 7-10, 2025. Their projects cover topics including virtual reality, AI, health communication, queer and transgender identity, social media use among adolescents, and journalism practices. The School’s faculty and students also won three research paper awards. 

2025 AEJMC Award Winners

• Sarah Cavanah: Top Faculty Paper Award, “Balancing the Budget: Educator Perceptions of the Business Side of High School Journalism”
• Hyunjin Seo, K. Macy Burkett, Olga Morales, Nazra Izhar, Rim Hayat Chaif, Michaella Coelho, Huong Ha, Blessing Jona, Azhar Iqbal and Taylor Doyle: First-Place Faculty Paper Award, “Teenage Girls and Digital Health: Navigating Health Misinformation on Social Media”
• Hanbo Liu and Steve Bien-Aimé: First-Place Student Faculty Paper Award, “A Comparative Study of the News Media Representation of Chinese Female Astronauts in past decade”

Below is the list of the presentations and awards at the 2025 AEJMC conference. 

August 6

Alex Treaster: Workshop; Visual Reality Under Emerging Technologies: AI, VR and Beyond.

August 7

Rim Hayat Chaif: Full Paper; “My nightly routine looks more like a drug cartel than a baby plan”: Reclaiming reproductive narratives through infertility GIFs on r/TrollingForABaby

Corrine Yoder-Mulkey: Extended Abstract; Queer and transgender identity in Kansas zines

Chris Etheridge: Discussant; Scholastic Journalism Division

Marina Hendricks, Leslie Klein, Peter Bobkowski, and Sarah Cavanah: Extended Abstract; Educator Perspectives on the Practice of Objectivity in Scholiastic Journalism

Alyssa Appelman: Panelist; Media Ethics and Public Relations Divisions

August 8

 Hyunjin Seo: Extended Abstract; A Photovoice Study of Online Privacy Perceptions Among Justice-Impacted Women

Hyunjin Seo: Discussant; Gender, Media, and Political Representation

 Christopher Etheridge: Extended Abstract; What News Consumers Want in a Community with a Ghost Paper

Alyssa Appelman, Huong Ha, and Neelofar Ahmad: Full Paper; Doctoral Education Trends: Content Analyses of Dissertations and Job Postings

Natalie Pursche and Melissa Greene-Blye: Extended Abstract; Taste, Refinement, and Progress: How Cherokee Seminary Students Navigated Complex Colonial Impacts via the School Newspaper

Genelle Belmas: Moderating/Presiding; Celebrating the 2025 Equity and Diversity Award Winner

Vaibhav Diwanji, Huong Ha, Nazra Izhar, Blessing Jona, Nhung Thi Tuyet Nguyen, and Samuel Muzhingi: Full Paper; Gamifying sustainability communication: Leveraging digital games for sustainable behavior adoption

[Research Paper Award] Sarah Cavanah, Peter Bobkowski, Leslie Klein, Monica Hill, and Marina Hendricks: Full Paper; Balancing the Budget: Educator Perceptions of the Business Side of High School Journalism *Top Faculty Paper Award

August 9

Genelle Belmas: Extended Abstract; A Wilde Idea: Copyright Protection for AI-Generated Content

Alyssa Appelman: Discussant; Communication Technology division

Steve Bien-Aimé: Moderating/Presiding; Media Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship and Magazine Media Divisions

[Research Paper Award] Hyunjin Seo, K. Macy Burkett, Olga Morales, Nazra Izhar, Rim Hayat Chaif, Michaella Coelho, Huong Ha, Blessing Jona, Azhar Iqbal and Taylor Doyle: Full Paper; Teenage Girls and Digital Health: Navigating Health Misinformation on Social Media *First-Place Faculty Paper Award

[Research Paper Award] Hanbo Liu and Steve Bien-Aimé: Full Paper; A Comparative Study of the News Media Representation of Chinese Female Astronauts in past decade *First-Place Student Faculty Paper Award

August 10

Hanbo Liu: Moderating/Presiding; Scholastic Journalism Division

Sarah Cavanah: Discussant; Scholastic Journalism Division

Seventh World Journalism Education Congress

August 10

Steve Bien-Aime, Alyssa Appelman, Marisa Porto, and Patricia Gaston: Full Paper; Preparing students for freelance work: An analysis of journalism curricula

Kirstie Hettinga, Elizabeth Smith, and Alyssa Appelman: Full Paper; Learning from the best: Lessons from corrections of Pulitzer-winning journalism