Faculty News

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.” 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.

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.

Colin Agur

Valerie Belair-Gagnon

Danielle Brown

Matt Carlson

Gayle Golden

Jisu Huh

Mark Jenson

Jane Kirtley

Scott Libin

Rebekah Nagler

Amy O’Connor

Hyejoon Rim AMY O’CONNOR, along with graduate students Renee Mitson and Cory Gilbert, had a paper published in Corporate Communications: An International Journal, titled “Hometown advantage? Exploring the relationship between location, CSR/CSI behaviors, and stakeholders behavioral intentions.” The paper was based on data collected at the Driven to Discover Research Facility at the Minnesota State Fair.

HYEJOON RIM, along with collaborators Moonhee Cho (University of Tennessee) and Katie Haejung Kim (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities), received a 2021 Page/ Johnson Legacy Scholar Grants from the Arthur W. Page Center for the project “Understanding CSA from the perspectives of public relations professionals and employees: An application of a co-orientation model.” Rim, along with co-authors, also published “Theoretical insights of CSR research in communication from 1980 to 2018: A bibliometric network analysis” in the Journal of Business Ethics.

ADAM SAFFER, along with co-authors, published “Interlocking among American newspaper organizations revisited: ‘Pressure from the top’ and its influence on newsroom and content” in Mass Communication & Society. This piece was a multi-year, AEJMCfunded research project. Saffer, in collaboration with a former graduate student, also published “Networks of international public relations efforts: The case of Latin American organizations’ connections to U.S. agents” in the latest issue of Public Relations Review.

CLAIRE SEGIJN was awarded the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Emerging Scholar research grant and the UMN Seed Grant to study chilling effects due to corporate surveillance, together with Joanna Strycharz from the University of Amsterdam. In the first project, they examine the differences between the United States and Europe in light of the difference in privacy regulations. In the second project, they study how people experience chilling effects due to corporate surveillance in everyday life. The projects offer great opportunities for students as well. In Spring 2021, they worked together with three undergraduate students through the Dean’s First-Year Research & Creative Scholars Program and with HSJMC Ph.D. candidate Eunah Kim on a related project.

CHRISTOPHER TERRY published a piece on the FTC and the regulation of social media influencers in The Journal of Law and Policy. He also made conference presentations to the Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy on social media regulation and the Federal Communications Bar Association on minority ownership policy.

BENJAMIN TOFF’s article “All the News that’s Fit to Ignore,” published in Public Opinion Quarterly (with Antonis Kalogeropoulos), received the 2020 Kaid-Sanders Best Political Communication Article of the Year Award at this year’s International Communication Association’s annual meeting.

MARCO YZER was accepted to the President’s Initiative for Student Mental Health (PRISMH) program task force. He was selected for his expertise and passion for improving the mental health of our students. His service on the PRISMH task force will be key in establishing and improving services, programs, policies and academic practices that position the University of Minnesota as a national leader in understanding the ecosystem of mental health, using a public health approach grounded in data, practice, and research. The task force is charged with understanding available resources and creating a platform to highlight those resources. This very tangible outcome highlights that while PRISMH itself is not a mental health service, the initiative exists to illuminate and improve access to the landscape of mental health resources across the University system. In addition to this platform, the PRISMH task force is also charged with making recommendations at the structural level across the UMN system to address gaps and improve resources.

Christopher Terry

Benjamin Toff Marco Yzer