Faculty experts earn recognition at influential media conference
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 University of Colorado Boulder. “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.
The Novelty Effect of AI-Chatbot: Examining Consumer Engagement and the Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy. Md Shahedur Rahman, APRD.
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.
Analysis of Alaskan Native and American Indian Women Health Issues from an Indigenous Standpoint Theory. Henry Ugwu, APRD; Shreyoshi Ghosh, journalism.
Menstruation in the News: A Feminist Analysis of Dominant Narratives in U.S. Newspapers.Dinfin Mulupi and Shreyoshi Ghosh, both journalism.
Environmental Justice and Flood Risk Communication: A Decade Reflections from the 2013 Colorado Flood. Wen Lei and Rania Al Namara, both journalism.
Defining Algorithmic Journalism: A Scholarly Explication of the Concept.Hina Ali, journalism.
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.
“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.
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.
Criminalizing Journalism: Rethinking Global Press Typologies Through the Lens of Defamation Laws. Ershad Khan, journalism.
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).
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.
Health News Analysis of Alaskan Native and American Indian (ANAI) Women. Shreyoshi Ghosh, journalism; Henry Ugwu, APRD.
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).
Journalists and Humanitarian Organizations Perceived a Participatory Role for Reporting on Crisis Zones and Disasters.Rania Al Namara, journalism.
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.
Navigating Journalistic Values in Student-Run Media’s Organizational Culture.Nihal Alaqabawy, journalism.
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).
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).