Beth Randolph Taylor
- Ph.D. Student
Contact Info
Biography —
Beth Randolph Taylor is a doctoral student at the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She is forever a Jayhawk, earning a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications and a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, both from the University of Kansas.
Her professional career started in New York as a financial journalist covering mutual funds, institutional investing, 401(k)s, the stock and bond markets, individual stocks and market indicators at Dow Jones News Service, where her byline appeared in publications across the country from The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s to Los Angeles Times, Houston Chronicle and Chicago Sun-Times.
She took her Wall Street communications expertise to public relations agencies Shandwick International (St. Louis) and Fleishman-Hillard (St. Louis, Kansas City) where she managed investor relations, crisis management and corporate positioning counsel for regional, national and international clients.
Later she moved to American Century Investments in Kansas City where she managed media relations, designed and executed media campaigns on personal finance topics, served as a spokesperson, and managed media tours.
Research —
As a PhD student, Taylor’s scholarly research interests include financial literacy communications, gender representation in media, AI in communications, financial communications, media literacy, and first-generation students. Her research projects in progress include:
Taylor, B. Social Media Influencers and Financial Topics: Motivations of Gen-Z College Students for Following Finfluencers. This study examines why U.S. college-age social media users follow financial influencers and the relation to financial literacy levels.
Hendershot, A. & Taylor, B. First Generation Finfluencers. This study aims to expand research on social media financial influencers by examining responses to first-generation finfluencer content on individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
Liu, H., Taylor, B., Muzhingi, S., & Wang, Y. From Problem to Presence: A Comparative Analysis of ADHD Frames on TikTok. This study compares the prevalence of ability, disability, and neutral frames in random versus high-engagement ADHD videos to reveal the community’s self-perception and audience identification patterns.
Ethridge, C., Taylor, B., McClendon, L., & Lui, H. How communications professionals use AI in the workplace. This qualitative study aims to better understand how journalists, advertising, creatives, and public relations professionals use artificial intelligence and generative AI tools at work through in-depth interviews.
Bien-Aimé, S., Gaston, P, Taylor, B., Liu, H., Douglas, M. Adding visibility? How AP Stylebook reacts to growth of women’s sports. This study will conduct a content analysis of the 2024–26 AP Stylebook sports entries to assess whether and how the book’s examples, language, and coverage reflect the growing visibility and cultural shifts around women’s sports compared with earlier editions.
Research interests:
- Financial communications
- Media effects
- Media literacy
Teaching —
After earning her master’s degree, Taylor started teaching journalism at Johnson County Community College as instructor of record for JOUR 120 Mass Media and Society 2007 through 2009. During her PhD studies at KU, she’s been instructor of record for JMC 104 Words at Work: Writing Essentials 2024 through 2025, and JMC 304 Writing for Media Audiences 2025 through 2026.
Teaching interests:
- Professional writings
- News writing
- Media literacy