SCHOLARSHIP & ENGAGEMENT
FACULTY NEWS Colin Agur
COLIN AGUR published “Mobile
netware, social graphs, and the reconfiguration of space,” along with Salvatore Babones of the University of Sydney, in New Media & Society in April 2021.
VALÉRIE BÉLAIR-GAGNON published
the book Journalism Research That Matters with Nikki Usher (University of Illinois) under Oxford University Press. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the most pressing and exciting areas for journalism research, from news and data literacy to changing news audiences to shifting business models for news. It includes contributions from academics and journalists to understand the most pressing problems facing the news industry today, and it provides a blueprint for overcoming the research-practice gap.
DANIELLE BROWN’s research on
media bias and protest coverage was featured in Nature. The article covers findings from several of her research projects, including analyses of the 2020 civil rights protests in Minneapolis.
MATT CARLSON published the journal article “Conjecturing fearful futures: Journalistic discourses on deepfakes,” co-authored with Karin Wahl-Jorgensen, in Journalism Practice. RUTH DEFOSTER was quoted in a
Minnesota Reformer story “Data show racial bias in reporting from popular Twin Cities crime media network,” and by Nieman Lab in “How mainstream media failed the Atlanta shooting victims.”
GAYLE GOLDEN was appointed to the Women’s Faculty Cabinet, which is a 20
MURPHY REPORTER ❙ Summer 2021
small group reporting to the Provost that foregrounds issues related to women and gender equity through recommending policies, sponsoring events and working with faculty and deans to improve equity, diversity, and campus life for everyone at the University of Minnesota.
JISU HUH was named as new Senior
Associate Editor for the Journal of Advertising. As the flagship journal of the American Academy of Advertising, the Journal of Advertising is ranked No. 1 in Communication and No. 12 in Business. Huh’s collaborative work with her former Ph.D. advisee, Dr. Alex Pfeuffer, has recently been published in the International Journal of Advertising. The paper, titled “Effects of different sponsorship disclosure message types on consumers’ trust and attitudes,” examined the effects of different types of online sponsorship disclosure messages on consumers’ trust in the sponsored product reviewer and attitudes toward the reviewer and the sponsoring brand. The findings of this study address the problem of increasing sponsored electronic word-of-mouth and diverse and confusing disclosure practices around the world.
MARK JENSON led two sections of Jour 4263: Strategic Communication Campaigns. Each section worked on a project for a real-world client, Target and Fox Sports North, and made final presentations in April 2021 (see page 25). JANE KIRTLEY conducted two
webinars/lectures for the U.S. State Department through the U.S. Speakers program, including a 30-minute lecture through the U.S. Embassy Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 10, 2021, helping to promote a free
press and engage with stakeholders who educate young Cambodians on media literacy, including the few active independent media outlets and NGOs. She also delivered the keynote address for the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, for journalists in Minsk, Belarus. The one-hour lecture was an overview of journalism in U.S. society.
SCOTT LIBIN completed the Freedom Forum Power Shift Project’s Online Workplace Integrity Workshop. This update on the program’s virtual version was for those already certified to lead Workplace Integrity training in person. In February, Libin was interviewed and quoted at length in the Star Tribune’s “Rash Report” on the role of video in the U.S. Senate’s impeachment trial of former President Trump. SCOTT MEMMEL was the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) 2021 Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award recipient for his dissertation titled “Pressing the police and policing the press: The history and law of the relationship between the news media and law enforcement in the United States.” The award is the highest honor bestowed on student scholarship, recognizing the best dissertation in the field of mass communication research.
Valerie Belair-Gagnon
Danielle Brown
Matt Carlson
Gayle Golden
REBEKAH NAGLER is a co-investigator
on a four-year R01 grant recently funded by the NIH’s National Institute on Aging. The research team, which includes School of Public Health associate professor Sarah Gollust and faculty members at Johns Hopkins University’s schools of medicine and public health, will be testing messaging strategies to reduce breast cancer over-screening in older women.
Jisu Huh
