Summer 2023 Murphy Reporter

REPORTER

LEADERS

MEDIA & IN JOURNALISM

PHOTOS BY BILL KELLEY

DIRECTOR

Elisia Cohen

EDITOR

Amanda Fretheim Gates

DESIGN

Jeanne Schacht

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Noor Adwan, Regan Carter, Caleb Hensin, Andrew Kicmol, Marena Reich, Aarushi Sen and Allison Steinke

PROOFREADERS

Katie Dohman and Afton Northrup

ALUMNI RECORDS

Alex Stern

2023-2024 HSJMC ALUMNI SOCIETY BOARD MEMBERS

Kelli Brady

Alexa Cushman

McKenna Ewen

Riham Feshir

Maggie Habashy

Suzy Langdell

Shreya Mukherjee

Jenni Pinkley

Michael Schommer

Karen Schultz

Emee Strauss

The Murphy Reporter is published semiannually by the University of Minnesota Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication for alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the school.

Send questions or comments to murphrep@ umn.edu or Murphy Reporter, 111 Murphy Hall, 206 SE Church St., Minneapolis, MN 55455

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This publication is available in alternative formats upon request. Direct requests to murphrep@umn.edu

MEDIA & IN JOURNALISM

AS I BEGIN MY THIRD TERM AS DIRECTOR, I look forward to leading the School through its re-accreditation visit in the next two years, and supporting a financial model transition within the College of Liberal Arts to support the School’s growth and strategic goals as the only comprehensive professional school of journalism and mass communication in the state of Minnesota. When I look back at the last six years and what we’ve accomplished—a Centennial celebration, a major building renovation, expansion of our faculty and programs, not to mention surviving (and thriving) through a worldwide pandemic—I feel proud of our team.

The years ahead will bring even more growth and change— as we engage in strategic planning, extend the reach of our digital reporting and storytelling programs, expand global exchanges and opportunities for education abroad, and identify online professional degree-program opportunities to serve the state of Minnesota and beyond. I am honored to do this work alongside our interim dean, Ann Waltner.

This Murphy Reporter issue shines a light on our journalism and media program, which has been a cornerstone of the School for 100 years (see page 4). Our faculty members are doing important work in journalism research, leading the conversation around topics like trust in the industry and the mental health of journalists. We continue to develop and offer students training opportunities and internships, so they not only feel prepared to leave the University with the skills they need, but also with the clips, reels and project work that will impress future employers (you’ll find an example of this work starting on page 12).

We couldn’t do this important work without our partners in the community who provide internships, without our alums who come back to Murphy Hall to mentor and speak, and without our donors, who so generously support our students and our work. If you’d like to start a conversation or help out at the School, please don’t hesitate to reach out: sjmc-dir@umn.edu.

All my best,

I AM PLEASED TO BE THE NEW (AND INTERIM) DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS. I have been at the University of Minnesota since 1987. I am a historian who works on China, with much of my work at the margins of history and literature. For example, my latest big project is an e-book on the 18th-century Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber and the 2016 San Francisco Opera production based on the novel. I am also interested in comparative history; I have taught and written about gender and the family in Europe and China, in collaboration with my colleague Mary Jo Maynes. Currently, I am finishing a book on Tanyangzi, a young woman religious teacher who lived in south China in the late 16th century.

In 2010, my scholarship took an unexpected turn. I became involved with the early music group Sacabuche and began writing scripts for multi-media performances. The first show we did traced the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci’s travels from Italy to China using the Ricci map that is held by the James Ford Bell Library. We have performed that show 17 times and have since designed four other shows. A subsequent show, done again with Sacabuche and this time incorporating my colleague John Watkins, took as its starting point a map of Venice by Jacopo di Barbari, held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. We stopped performing during the pandemic, but are currently planning a fifth show.

I am a committed educator and believe that teaching is a future-oriented profession. We are teaching our students how to thrive in a world of the future that neither we nor they can fully imagine. All disciplines do not do that in the same way, but the liberal arts are well-suited for this moment—to teach students to understand and appreciate differences, to evaluate sources, to read and think critically. Please know you can always reach me at cladean@umn.edu.

Ann Waltner Interim Dean College of Liberal Arts

Elisia L. Cohen, Ph.D. Director and Professor

We are teaching our students how to thrive in a world of the future that neither we nor they can fully imagine.

DIRECTOR PHOTO BY PATRICK O'LEARY

SCHOOL WELCOMES SEVERAL NEW FACES

MATT CIKOVIC

Matt Cikovic joins the School as a Teaching Assistant Professor, Visual and Multimedia Journalism and Charnley Projects. He focuses on the instruction of media production techniques and helping new creatives find their voice. His dissertation examined the complex relationship between fan filmmakers and media intellectual property owners in the digital age, an outgrowth of the silly fan films he and friends made as kids on a busted VHS camera, which led him to a career in media. He earned his Ph.D. from Penn State University where he was published twice for work examining the collective memory around an integral moment of public broadcasting history and for work which examined the early marketing of “The Apprentice.” In addition to his academic career, he has been a videographer since 2004 shooting content for businesses, colleges, musicians, actors, manufacturers, weddings, funerals, and everything in between.

ERIC KRAMER

After 33 years at the University of Oklahoma, Eric Kramer retired as Presidential Professor of Communication (now Emeritus) to follow his partner, Professor Elaine Hsieh, Ph.D., to the University of Minnesota. He takes on a joint-appointment contract position as a Teaching Professor in International Communication and Media. His areas of research are

communication theory, intercultural communication, international communication, communication and technology, mass communication, and environmental communication.

STACIE MARIETTE

Stacie Mariette joins the School as a Teaching Specialist in Strategic Communication. She brings more than 20 years of work experience across multiple industries into her classrooms. An alum of the Hubbard School’s M.A. in Strategic Communication program, she previously taught at several Minnesota State colleges. Mariette’s expertise is in employee communications: leadership, strategy, creation, delivery and measurement. She has led work on campaigns for large organizations such as Best Buy, Target, UnitedHealth Group, Ameriprise, Abbott and the YMCA.

JILL SPIEKERMAN BONHAM

Jill Spiekerman Bonham, APR, MA, joins the School as a Teaching Assistant Professor in Public Relations. She comes to the University from her position as the national sales solutions manager for the Purina dairy feed division of Land O’Lakes. She’s worked for three advertising and public relations agencies, leading public relations and strategic planning for a mix of agricultural and consumer clients. She was the director of public relations for the Maytag, Hoover, Jenn-Air, Amana and Jade

appliance brands, which are now owned by Whirlpool Corporation. She’s taught at Iowa State University, Mankato State, and St. Mary’s University. She also served on the board for Minnesota PRSA.

CAROLINA VELLOSO

Carolina Velloso joins the School as a President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Race, Journalism, Media and Democracy. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. She researches at the intersection of gender, race and identity in journalism, with particular interests in the professional experiences of women and minority journalists and the representation of women and minorities in news media. Her scholarship has been published in several leading journals and has won numerous awards from AEJMC, including top paper awards from the History, Critical/Cultural Studies, and Minorities and Communication Divisions; the History Division’s Diversity in Journalism History Research Award; and the Media Ethics Division’s Professional Relevance Award.

THE SCHOOL ALSO WELCOMED FOUR new staff members, including COLLEEN BAKER as Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, CARLY EICHHORST as Chief of Staff, SIERRA HOUGH as Undergraduate Student Services Coordinator, and AFTON NORTHRUP as Executive Office and Administrative Specialist.

The Hubbard School team is proud to add several new faces to the faculty and staff.

Matt Cikovic

Eric Kramer

Stacie Mariette Jill Spiekerman Bonham Carolina Velloso

MICHELE NORRIS VISITS HER ALMA MATER

ON APRIL 3, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR

MICHELE NORRIS (B.A. ’85) visited the University of Minnesota campus for two special events. Partnered with In Black Ink, a local, nonprofit arts initiative, the Hubbard School first hosted Norris at an afternoon conversation with community members and students. Norris talked about her family, her profession and her path in life. “My journey is to capture the voices of people who are not part of the history books,” she said. “I’m an accidental archivist.” She talked about her well-known project, The Race Card Project, and how she’s collected more than 500,000 stories in 12 years. (Watch for her new book in January.)

That evening, Norris spoke to a crowd at Coffman Theater about the history of the Black press, from newspapers like the Chicago Defender to BET on cable. “If you want to understand American history, you have to understand Black history,” she said. “I think the most valuable thing I do is create spaces for people to share stories.”

GOODBYE, JEAN!

JEAN KUCERA, LONG-TIME HUBBARD SCHOOL CHIEF OF STAFF, retired in August. Kucera worked at the University for more than 30 years, 18 years in the College of Liberal Arts, with more than 11 of those as an administrator for the School. (She’s also an alum!) Kucera encouraged and inspired many faculty and staff members, as well as students, during her time in her role. Everyone at the School congratulates her and wishes her the best on her next adventure!

CHRISTOPHER TERRY EARNS PROMOTION AND TENURE

FOLLOWING THE RECOMMENDATION OF THE FACULTY in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Liberal Arts, its Dean and the Provost, the University of Minnesota Regents voted to promote Christopher Terry to the position of associate professor with tenure.

Terry served for six years as a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before joining the Hubbard School in the Fall of 2016. His research agenda includes regulatory and legal analysis of media ownership, internet policy and political advertising. Terry’s research has earned top paper awards from the Communication and Law Division of the National Communication Association (NCA) and the Law and

Policy Division of the International Communication Association (ICA).

Terry has received financial support from both the Industry Research Forum of AEJMC, the Center for Information Policy Research, and as a Thrust Four Research Fellow for the Center for Quantum Networks. Terry’s research has been used by the FCC, cited in briefs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, and he has done more than 100 media interviews about media law, media policy and the First Amendment.

IN JOURNALISM

LEADERS MEDIA &

ONE HUNDRED YEARS STRONG, THE JOURNALISM program at the University of Minnesota has definitely seen growth and change. The last few years have been no different. The Hubbard School has invested a lot of time, money and energy into the journalism and media program post-pandemic, launching a new major (Media & Information), building a state-of-the-art lab and broadcast studio, and developing a number of new training and internship opportunities for students. Faculty research ranges from trust in news and gaming and apps to mental health and journalism in the civil rights era. Graduates go on to work at places such as CBS News, CNN, The New York Times, Star Tribune, and many more.

While there aren’t enough pages to highlight all the School’s strides in journalism and media, the following pages give a glimpse at many of the accomplishments in the past year.

Starting at the top row, left to right: Christopher Terry, Jane Kirtley, Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Colin Agur, Sid Bedingfield, Benjamin Toff, Gayle Golden, Seth Richardson, Scott Libin, Regina McCombs, Matt Carlson, Ruth DeFoster, Sara Quinn, Marissa Evans, Diane Cormany and Matt Cikovic.

PHOTOS BY BILL KELLEY

FINDING THE BALANCE:

But this leap in content creation came at a price. Even as she saw images from the Middle East that a full news crew may not have been able to capture, Bélair-Gagnon began noticing something else: exhausted journalists. Not only did reporters maintain their usual responsibilities of compiling and writing up-to-date stories, but they also now had to sift through social media posts and content for hours.

BY REGAN CARTER

FEW GROUPS CAN CLAIM A LEVEL OF BRAVERY AND RELIABILITY COMPARABLE TO THAT HELD BY JOURNALISTS.

The public trusts reporters to dig into stories and unearth the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that truth may be. Investigative journalists and crisis reporters have fearlessly confronted corruption and unethical practices in countless corporate circles and political groups.

But in a news landscape increasingly dominated by internet access and interaction, today’s journalists find themselves facing a whole new kind of enemy: online trolls. How is a reporter expected to protect their image, mental health and well-being, while simultaneously refusing to compromise on their hard-hitting work?

This question stands at the forefront of Associate Professor Valérie Bélair-Gagnon’s research. Through her work, Bélair-Gagnon hopes to reprioritize the well-being of journalists in an ever-demanding news industry.

AN EXTERNAL CRISIS BECOMES AN INTERNAL CRISIS

While conducting her Ph.D. dissertation research for the BBC News in the early 2010s, Bélair-Gagnon gained a unique perspective on the Arab Spring protests and uprisings. With the eyes of the world turned to the uprisings in Tunisia, a new tool was brought to full use by reporting teams: user-generated content.

Suddenly, it was easier than ever for an evening news report to gain on-the-ground photographic and video footage via the internet, generated by people already there. Such content was often a much safer and reliable alternative to spending the time and logistical energy necessary to send a camera crew across the world.

This social media presence did not go unnoticed. In reaching out for content for stories, internet users could now reach back, and sometimes in less-than-kind ways. Journalists faced such harsh harassment and targeting across the web that some would find ways to subtly censor their own work. Without altering the facts of a story, reporters would try to find ways to soften up their work and make it less likely to receive backlash.

To Bélair-Gagnon, this compromise is not acceptable.

HELPING JOURNALISTS HELP THEMSELVES

In their upcoming co-authored book with the University of Illinois Press, The Paradox of Connection: How Digital Media Transforms Journalistic Labor, Bélair-Gagnon, Diana Bossio, Avery E. Holton and Logan Molyneux dive into the ways in which journalists not only connect with other users, but also bring their entire unique selves online.

When offline stories and online content meet, Bélair-Gagnon said she believes that “we need to think about digital innovation and digital labor more critically.” In her experience, intersectionality plays a central role in labor. Everything from a reporter’s racial and gender identity to their street address can be a barrier to connection, as well as a potential target for would-be trolls.

Bélair-Gagnon is particularly interested in investigating the methods that journalists adapt to preserve their offline mental health and subjective well-being. Some common strategies of disconnection include setting strict working hours, blocking troublesome or malevolent accounts, or even deleting entire social media profiles in order to escape the barrage of digital attacks. However, these are often choices that individuals opt to integrate into their lives.

HOW JOURNALISTS ARE LEARNING TO LOG OFF, EVEN WHEN THEIR JOB IS ALWAYS ON

Associate Professor Valérie BélairGagnon’s work aims to help protect journalists in their least regulated space yet: social media.

With this book, Bélair-Gagnon and her colleagues are shooting for something bigger. When speaking to the industry as a whole, they pose The Paradox of Connection, her second book, as “a plea to say, ‘How about you make these disconnective practices as part of journalism itself?’” Instead of putting the responsibility on individual journalists to carve out time prioritizing their mental health and well-being, she hopes news outlets will implement more system-wide methodologies that protect their most crucial employees.

MOVING AHEAD STEP BY STEP

Bélair-Gagnon acknowledged that such a shift in prioritizing the well-being of journalists won’t be easy. She said “it is a series of microchanges” that will take the news industry from a rapid-fire content mill to a space in which reporters can always maintain their full humanity. In the end, it will take shifts in both large systems and small local operations to make lasting impacts.

And she’s not alone. In a forthcoming edited volume with Routledge, Happiness in Journalism, individuals who hold roles across the industry, including Bélair-Gagnon, provide possible concrete solutions to the mental health crisis taking hold among news professionals. Bélair-Gagnon said she hopes that work like this will spur further action toward providing infographics and other helpful materials for news agencies to begin using immediately.

Today, alongside her research and teaching work, Bélair-Gagnon takes pride in her role as a Mental Health Advocate for the University of Minnesota through Boynton Health. This collection of staff and faculty volunteers works to improve mental health for students and staff alike. In her assessment, “mental health is a public health problem.” It’s a problem that, she expects, will see real solutions in journalism in the years to come.

KIRTLEY ON DOMINION & FOX NEWS

As the Dominion v. Fox trial was set to begin in April, Jane Kirtley, professor of media ethics and law, was published or interviewed by nearly 40 outlets around the world. Kirtley was reluctant to pile on Fox News, instead offering caution about what going to trial might actually mean. As she wrote for The Conversation in her article “Why Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is good news for all media outlets,” actual malice as the legal standard established by the Supreme Court in 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan will continue to live on. Here’s an excerpt of her article:

“Many people would like to ban disinformation. But who decides what is disinformation? Under U.S. law, we don’t ask government tribunals to decide “the truth.” I have written about how experiences in other countries show that it is dangerous to ask courts, or any instrumentality of government, to do so.

“If that sounds improbable, recall that it wasn’t that long ago that Donald Trump, while still a candidate, was calling news media like CNN and The New York Times “fake news.” He wanted to “open up the libel laws” and threatened to shut these outlets down. If the government decides which media sources are “real” or “fake,” a free press—and freedom of expression as we have known it—will cease to exist. As the late Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette in 1943, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in matters of politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion.” That means that the law tolerates errors in journalism—which are inevitable—as part of the search for truth.

“I hold no brief for Fox. But had the Dominion case gone to the jury, the inevitable appeal by whomever lost would give the Supreme Court the chance to reconsider and possibly eliminate The New York Times v. Sullivan standard that protects all news media of all political stripes. At least two justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have indicated they are eager to do just that, even though it has been the constitutional standard for nearly 60 years. Given this court’s willingness to overturn precedent, as it did with abortion rights, there is no guarantee that another three justices might not join them.”

Find the full article on theconversation.com.

When offline stories and online content meet, “we need to think about digital innovation and digital labor more critically.”

CONNECTING ONLINE OR GOING OFF THE TRAIL –NOW, YOU CAN DO BOTH

BY REGAN CARTER

TIME AND AGAIN, WHEN SOCIETY HAS EXPERIENCED A PERIOD OF ISOLATION AND SECLUSION, PEOPLE HAVE YEARNED TO EXPLORE. The Black Plague of the 14th century gave rise to the expansion of art and science that defined the Renaissance. The end of the 1918 flu, better known as the Spanish flu, became the transition point into the upending of culture that defined the Roaring Twenties in America.

In much the same way, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed average citizens to explore a frontier they may have previously taken for granted: the great outdoors. Desperate to escape their own homes, people are venturing out into the wild with more determination than before.

Many new adventurers bring along their handy smartphones in order to help facilitate safe and meaningful passes through nature. While the many features found on most phones these days can offer helpful resources, is it also possible for an app to greatly distort our perception of reality?

This question is at the forefront of Associate Professor Colin Agur’s latest research. As an emerging media scholar focusing his work on mobile communication and its usage in everyday life, Agur interrogates both the pros and the cons of bringing technology into areas previously considered “off the grid.”

NAVIGATIONAL APPS: HANDY HELPERS FOR NEW EXPLORERS

Using an app on a smartphone to assist in an everyday activity is not a new idea to many Americans. We check the weather to decide what outfit we’ll wear, read the news to stay up to date on happenings in our community, manage our finances via banking apps, and more.

When heading out, whether that be to our workspace in an urban environment, or to the great outdoors, mobile apps provide many of the same functions. Agur believes

that novice explorers are “using phones as a way to understand nature.” Of course, the obvious safety features present in apps like Google Maps make bringing along a smartphone on your next hike an obvious choice. But Agur has seen much more creative smart technology usage than finding the nearest hiking trail.

Apps you might already have on your phone can take on new capabilities. Foursquare and other social media platforms that offer tagging functions can be used to indicate your exact location to others. Nextdoor can help you share exciting findings with your neighbors. Even the popular music identification app, Shazam, can assist in distinguishing animal calls you may not recognize.

On top of this, the recent rise in augmented reality (AR) has given smartphone users an entirely new way to experience their natural environment. Millions of people discovered how exciting AR can be when the game Pokémon Go launched a few years ago. For the first time in history, it is possible to use real surroundings to assist in a game or virtual reality. However, in Agur’s interrogation of smartphone usage, the fun and games of a cool new app don’t always have entirely positive effects.

A NEW SENSE OF REALITY

When you view a real scene through your phone screen, you may simply be doing so in order to have a navigation app point you in the right direction with a bright arrow. Or, you might be using artificial intelligence to help identify buildings, statues, and other notable structures near you. In either case, Agur posits that you are warping your view of your surroundings. In essence, apps can alter our perception of what we see and hear. And this can have consequences.

Take, for example, morel mushroom hunters. These social groups, made up of anyone from recreational hikers to professional naturalists, are interested in locating clusters of these mushrooms, which are particularly difficult to find. In Agur’s perception, there is a game-like sense in scouting out the elusive fungi. It follows, then, that those who actively seek morels may not appreciate an app or website giving away the exact location of a recently discovered

Associate Professor Colin Agur’s work seeks to shed light on the ways adventurers and average pedestrians use smartphone apps while out in the world.

cluster. From Agur’s view, “people need to earn their morels” in order to fully experience the joy of the hunt.

The consequences of phone use extend far beyond some mushrooms. It is true that many apps can teach users about the devastating reality and looming threat of climate change. At the same time, many more pose nature as a fun, peaceful environment removed from the stresses of everyday life.

Smartphone apps can help identify nearby creatures, and may even place a few adorable creatures in our phones’ frame of view for us to collect and share virtually.

Agur is concerned that using amusing apps to observe nature “may give us the impression that we’re not destroying the world.” After all, a new adventurer might wonder how climate change could be all that prevalent when the natural world that they seek is readily accessible to them through their phone screens.

These competing notions of smartphone app assistance and hindrance comprise the basis of Agur’s upcoming book, On the Wire: Mobile Communication and the Natural World For his first independently authored book, Agur intends to investigate the larger implications of this widespread phone app usage in everyday exploration, as well as their potential impacts on other social networks and hybrid spaces. While smartphones aren’t going anywhere, he said he hopes this research will remind others of how mobile communication remains woven into the relationships and lives of its users, even as they seek an escape from their regular routines.

REPORT FOR MINNESOTA COMPLETING SECOND YEAR

What started as a summer internship pilot program for two students in 2022 doubled in size for 2023, thanks to generous donor support. This summer, program leader Gayle (G.G.) Golden placed four students at out-state newspapers, including the Brainerd Dispatch, Duluth News Tribune, Mankato Free Press, and Willmar’s West Central Tribune. Like last summer, the students receive a stipend and travel expenses to spend 10 weeks learning in a real newsroom. Students were first trained on topics like working in small communities, covering local government, and legal and ethical issues before heading to the outstate communities to complete the program.

TRUST IN NEWS PROJECT WRAPS UP

This summer, Assistant Professor Benjamin Toff finished his time as a Senior Research Fellow with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. During his three-year appointment at the Reuters Institute, Toff led the Trust in News Project, looking in-depth at the phenomenon across Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States to understand the factors driving declines in trust in news around the world, including what trust means to people, what sources they turn to and why, and what publishers and platforms can do to help people make more informed decisions about what news they can trust. After gathering extensive qualitative and quantitative data from the four countries, Toff’s team is pointing to a mix of different contributing factors undermining the public’s trust in news, including the changing ways people are consuming news, especially on digital platforms, as well as the impact of political and other influences that shape people’s understanding of what it is that journalists do and do not do. The team believes there is no single trust in news problem, which means there’s no single solution, and in many cases building trust comes with trade-offs the news organizations must assess. The team studied different aspects, including how news organizations behave, how audiences use digital platforms, and how underrepresented groups feel about the coverage of their communities. Once the final report publishes this September, the team plans to put together a book drawing all the different parts of the project together. Toff rejoins the School full-time this fall to lead the Minnesota Journalism Center.

Agur posits that you are warping your view of your surroundings. In essence, apps can alter our perception of what we see and hear.

JOURNALISM LEADERS IN

RESEARCH PROFILE: SID BEDINGFIELD

JOURNALISM’S ROOTS ARE CLOSELY ENTWINED WITH THE RISE OF DEMOCRACY. But does journalism have the power to shape political outcomes? That question is at the heart of Sid Bedingfield’s research. An associate professor and Cowles Research Fellow in Journalism, Democracy, and Race, Bedingfield studies journalism and its impact on racial politics in the United States.

Bedingfield defines journalism as an interpretive act of communication that seeks to inform and influence deliberation of public issues. “Put simply, journalism is an intervention in a community’s public sphere,” he said. “At its best, that intervention can be an independent, goodfaith effort to enhance rational deliberation and build a consensus notion of truth. But at its worst, journalism can be a propagandistic, bad-faith effort to undermine rational debate and aid one group or faction over another.”

Bedingfield’s first book, Newspaper Wars: Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965 (University of Illinois Press, 2017), argued that both Black- and white-owned newspapers were political actors that shaped state and national politics during the mid-20th century. A Black newspaper played a central role in catalyzing civil rights activism in the 1940s, and in response, editors of the state’s largest white, mainstream newspapers assumed prominent roles in organizing a countermovement—the so-called “massive resistance” campaign against civil rights. White journalists did this while loudly declaring their deep commitment to objectivity and strict political neutrality in journalism. “In fact, they sought to delegitimize Black journalists by claiming they were the ones who failed to report objectively,” Bedingfield said. “That research opened my eyes to a new way of looking at political journalism in the nation’s past.”

The book won the 2018 George C. Rogers Book Award from the South Carolina Historical Society, and it led directly to Bedingfield’s next major project: a collaborative book called Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America

(University of Illinois Press, 2021). Bedingfield and fellow journalism historian Kathy Roberts Forde co-edited and contributed chapters to a collection of research essays that documented the role of the white press in building and protecting white supremacist political economies across the Southern states from the 1870s to the 1920s. The book shows how newspapers collaborated with political parties, corporations, law enforcement, and other institutions of power in their communities to build and sustain the Jim Crow system. In addition to strong reviews, Journalism and Jim Crow has won three awards from the American Historical Association, the American Journalism Historians Association, the AEJMC History Division, and was a finalist for two others (AEJMC James Tankard Book Award and Frank Luther Mott /Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award).

Traditionally, political historians had discounted the press as an agent of change, Bedingfield said. In this view, media simply convey information about public events; it is those underlying events, not the press accounts, that alter political and cultural life. In the United States, the rise of professional journalism across the 20th century encouraged this perception of the press. Proclaiming their commitment to the new professional ideology of objectivity, journalists presented themselves as disinterested sources of information who operated above politics. But as an interpretive act, journalism goes beyond mere description and seeks to make sense of public events, Bedingfield said.

Journalists make dozens of choices that shape political perspectives. “They decide which story to tell, what angle to emphasize, whom to interview—and whom to ignore,” he said. By making these choices, journalists present a particular view of the world. They shape the cultural context in which citizens make political decisions.

“Unfortunately, white, mainstream journalists have often intervened on behalf of white supremacy,” Bedingfield said. “Black journalists and activists have always fought back, but their efforts have been limited by lack of access to the nation’s mainstream. Their voices were too

Associate Professor Sid Bedingfield’s research focuses on journalism’s role in democratic societies during times of political and cultural change.

easily marginalized or silenced altogether.”

Bedingfield is working on new research into journalism’s role in building a Jim Crow system of discrimination in the northern and western United States during the 20th century. Journalism and Jim Crow distinguished the Jim Crow South from its northern counterpart not by the codification of the discriminatory system—de jure vs defacto—but by the near-totalitarian nature of the southern regimes, Bedingfield said. “Yet we also acknowledged the insidious power of Jim Crow North—a racist system so deeply entrenched in public and private institutions that it was hiding in plain sight, overshadowed by the horrors of Jim Crow South and receiving precious little journalistic scrutiny,” Bedingfield said.

The role played by the press in creating, supporting, and obscuring the existence of a Jim Crow North deserves greater attention, he said. Increasingly, other historians are also rethinking the political role media outlets play in their communities.

HUBBARD REPORTING EXPERIENCE LAUNCHES

In August, 22 journalism students were given the opportunity to participate in an immersive, full-time, hands-on, brand-new opportunity to cover the news as it’s done in professional newsrooms. Coached by Hubbard School instructors Marissa Evans, Gayle Golden, Scott Libin, Regina McCombs, Sara Quinn, and Seth Richardson, students learned everything from newswriting and broadcast to photojournalism and graphic design. At the end of the 10-day program, which took place in Murphy Hall, students received a stipend.

AI TOOLS & JOURNALISM EDUCATION

BY RUTH DEFOSTER

The rise of ChatGPT, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), is reshaping journalism education, revolutionizing the way aspiring journalists learn and practice their craft.

How’s that for a punchy introductory sentence? It may surprise you to learn that I didn’t write it—ChatGPT did, after a few simple prompts. It’s true that the use of generative AI tools is radically reshaping the landscape of work and education, and it’s also true that the use of these tools is already pervasive, leaving institutions of higher education scrambling to keep up.

Just as the advent of the word processor and the internet radically reshaped education, so will AI tools like ChatGPT, Bing, Bard, Quillbot, and Word Tune, which not only edit or correct original student work, but also generate original content on their own. To be sure, these tools can be useful in many ways: I have used ChatGPT to brainstorm possible angles to explore in a story, or to summarize esoteric or confusing ideas. AI tools can also sometimes point to more reliable sources—trawling the web for scholarship on a subject.

But on the other hand, ChatGPT and tools like it also represent a potential existential threat to writing education, especially when used as a shortcut to avoid completing original work. If we are to use these tools in education, guardrails are needed.

The simple truth is that while AI tools like ChatGPT are potentially useful—I like to think of it as a particularly sophisticated autocomplete—ChatGPT cannot follow the journalistic method. Likewise, AI programs cannot follow the scientific method. They cannot vet potential sources and they cannot make ethical judgments. Even more troublingly, programs like ChatGPT often generate “citations” that are invented out of whole cloth: they link to studies that do not exist.

For these reasons, journalism educators may embrace the use of these tools in the classroom, but they must also teach students to flex their media literacy and writing muscles. The work of writing and sourcing are skills only learned by repetition, like lifting weights. I hope that by embracing the opportunities presented by AI tools and carefully educating students about their limitations, journalism education will continue to adapt and thrive.

Bedingfield defines journalism as an interpretive act of communication that seeks to inform and influence deliberation of public issues.

but All Around Here NOT HERE,

Queer UMN students express anxiety over antiLGBTQ+ laws

UNDER ORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES, THIRD-YEAR COMPUTER engineering student Marceline Sorensen’s decision to transfer to another university would be a simple move based on finances.

But for Sorensen, who is transfeminine—and for other trans students today—the U.S. political landscape has altered the circumstances.

When Sorensen leaves Minnesota next year, she will leave a legislative environment that has taken strides in recent months to legally protect transgender people who receive gender-affirming care. Wisconsin has no such protections, and has seen recent attempts at curbing youth access to gender-affirming care.

For that reason, Sorensen is considering keeping her health care in Minnesota and traveling between Madison and the Twin Cities—more than a four-hour drive with light traffic—to access that care. Even then, she said, she has no confidence this option will endure.

Lawmakers across the country have introduced a record number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2023—the ACLU is currently tracking more than 450 of them. As of early April, CNN reported the number of introduced bills targeting LGBTQ+ rights was more than double last year’s figure.

“I am honestly concerned that, if that stuff manages to cement itself, that it will slowly eat away at places like Minnesota,” she said.

Many queer University students echo such worries. According to a recent AccessU: Queer on Campus survey of more than 300 undergraduate students, most queer respondents said they were highly concerned about efforts across the country to ban gender-affirming

BY NOOR ADWAN, CALEB HENSIN, ANDREW KICMOL, MARENA REICH AND AARUSHI SEN

care, drag shows, transgender athletes’ participation in sports, books with queer themes and discussions of gender and sexuality in schools.

Although the legislation is occurring elsewhere, the impacts resonate with their lives. For some, like Sorensen, those impacts are felt firsthand. For others, their concern is primarily for their loved ones.

“I have a couple friends who are transgender who are really scared about what’s going on in our country, because, obviously, these are targeted attacks,” said Garrik Martin, a second-year plant science student who is gay.

Kat Rohn, executive director of OutFront Minnesota, a queer advocacy group, said this legislation could have devastating impacts on young queer people’s sense of the future.

“It’s extraordinarily damaging for folks to not be able to be their full and authentic selves,” Rohn said. “We know that LGBTQ youth, in particular trans youth, who have supportive families have markedly improved mental health outcomes. It’s something like 73 percent reduction in anxiety, depression and suicidality.”

Mycall Riley, director of the Gender and Sexuality Center for Queer and Trans Life at the University, said this legislation has created “heightened anxiety” in young queer people at the University—to the point where some are factoring legislative friendliness to queer people into their post-graduation moving plans.

“It’s terrifying,” Sorensen said. “There are large swaths of the country that I would just not be comfortable going to.”

Rohn said OutFront receives dozens of calls and emails every week from Minnesotans concerned about anti-LGBTQ+ efforts, with young people expressing particular worry about bans on gender-affirming care.

According to the ACLU, 32 states have introduced more than 120 anti-LGBTQ+ bills related to health care this year. Of those, 14 have been passed into law, and 82 are advancing through their states’ legislatures.

“Banning access to gender-affirming care really worries me,” said Emily Nelson, a third-year food science student who is bisexual. “I have a lot of friends who have received gender-affirming care and are

For the past seven years, the Brovald-Sim Community Journalism class, AccessU, has covered a different campus community, including the addiction community, the rural and out-state student population, the disabled community, and Black communities on campus. The goal is to create a news site devoted to a ‘hidden’ campus community and report deeply on it through news stories, profiles and a large survey. This past spring, the class decided to focus on the LGBTQ+ community on campus—a community that finds itself under the political microscope in recent months.

All of the students quoted in this article agreed to share their gender and sexual identities for publication and spoke openly about their experience watching legislatures across the country curtail LGBTQ+ rights.

As the co-editors wrote on the project's website:

“There is no monolithic queer community, but rather a diverse collection of communities. Further contributing to this diversity are the intersecting identities that create overlapping systems of disadvantage within these communities. Our goal with this semester-long project was to amplify the voices and center the experiences of queer communities at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.”

Led by instructor Gayle Golden, the AccessU model, which is supported by the Brovald-Sim Community Journalism Fund, builds on the principle that community journalism begins where the people live and with what they care about.

For more, visit accessu.hubbardschool.org/ queeroncampus

so much happier for it.”

Anthony Phelps, a fourth-year biology student who is queer, described the sweeping legislation as “textbook fascism” on the part of Republicans.

“You single out a group of people who are a minority group in society, and you instill these new rules and restrictions and claim they are inherently, in some way, inferior or dangerous,” Phelps said. “I think this is just the beginning.”

Many students said they wanted to see the University speak out about these legislative efforts. “I think [the University] absolutely should speak out more. I think it’s a responsibility of every University, person, company, anything with a position of power and influence should be speaking out right now,” said Lily Gordon, a third-year nursing student, who is queer. “It’s difficult as a queer person to take full responsibility for spreading awareness on these issues … it cannot be just up to us.”

“I do think the University of Minnesota needs to take a more proactive stance,” said Lucy Gunelson, a second-year environmental geoscience student, who is queer. “The only thing that is keeping the University of Minnesota accountable right now is the students.”

But students weren’t particularly optimistic the University would take any action. “They take a neutral standpoint to not upset anyone. I understand it, because the University is a business,” said Meg Chyna, a first-year student in the College of Science and Engineering, who is bisexual and nonbinary. “It’s just how they always respond to conflict.”

When asked if the University had plans to speak out against the rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, University Public Relations Director Jake Ricker offered the following response via email:

“While we recognize concerns in our community about what’s happening in other parts of the country or the world, we are focused on what the University can lead on our campuses, and where we can have meaningful influence here in the state of Minnesota.”

A PRODUCT OF POLARIZATION, LEGISLATIVE SHORTCUTS AND LOOMING PRIMARIES

Andrew Karch, chair of the political science department at the University, said this rise of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is a relatively recent phenomenon. The first introduction of a “bathroom bill,” for example, was in North Carolina in 2015.

It’s also a byproduct of increasing political polarization, he said.

“The states themselves are becoming more polarized, and so you get more states that are under a unified control, or what some people would call a trifecta,” Karch said.

Minnesota is just one of these states under unified control. Last November, the DFL flipped the Senate,

giving DFL lawmakers control of Minnesota’s House, Senate and governorship—in other words, a trifecta.

Of the 14 states that have passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that the ACLU has tracked, all but two have Republican trifectas. Kansas and Kentucky have Republican-held legislatures but Democratic governors.

Karch said another reason for the recent influx in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is the role of interest groups, which can create model bills to disseminate to legislatures around the country. “Now, because of technology, it’s extremely easy for these groups to get these models under review in a bunch of different states,” Karch said.

Interest groups use social media campaigns to reinforce their goals. In 2020, the American Principles Project, which organized legislation opposed to trans participation on sports teams, ran thousands of ads on social media sites like Facebook that depicted boys defeating girls in various sports, all with the same message: “Is this fair?”

Other groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Council and the Liberty Counsel, function as a sort of repository for pre-made legislative ideas—“copy-and-paste legislation”—that elected officials can tailor to their state, Karch said.

“These groups have made the model bill available,” Karch said. “Republican officials who prioritize these topics are moving into office and so they’re looking for these types of templates that they can use in their own work.”

Anthony Niedwiecki, president and dean of Mitchell Hamline School of Law, said the recent increase in antiLGBTQ+ legislation has also been fueled by next year’s presidential campaign.

“[Republican lawmakers] are trying to pick these issues that they think motivate voters, but aren’t really addressing real problems,” Niedwiecki said. Policy positions like anti-LGBTQ+ legislation “are really designed to get people to the polls.”

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson last June, Niedwiecki said Republican lawmakers needed a new issue to galvanize their base.

“It’s not as easy for them to talk about abortion at this point,” Niedwiecki said. “So they’re looking for other issues they think will motivate people.”

“STAY HOPEFUL”

Other students worry, as Sorensen does, that even Minnesota could fall prey to this wave.

“I don’t know how long I can be protected by the current legislation that we have in Minnesota,” said Vix Lewis, a third-year education student who is transfeminine and queer. “While it is great legislation, there’s no telling how long it’s going to last.”

“Politicians are temporary,” Gunelson said. “While we

have an amazing situation right now, is that going to change in four years?”

“I’m thankful I live in Minnesota, and I do like what is going on in this state in reaction to anti-trans legislation and anti-LGBTQ legislation across the country. But even then, I’m always worried,” Phelps said. “What could happen next?”

But Niedwiecki said he doesn’t anticipate a political pendulum swing in Minnesota anytime soon.

“I don’t see a huge change, where, all of a sudden, all [of the] State—the House, the Senate and the governor’s office—would go to Republican control,” Niedwiecki said. “It would be hard to reverse any of the gains that are made right now, at least in the near future.”

He said he hopes the classes he’s taught in his career related to law surrounding transgender people will help arm future generations of lawyers with the tools they need to protect transgender people.

“Those [courses] are important because you’re training people to go into the field and fight against these laws, or for laws that really protect transgender individuals and transgender youth out there,” he said.

Tony Winer, a retired law professor from Mitchell Hamline and the first tenure-track professor in Minnesota to teach a law and sexuality class, said he hopes the increased visibility of queer issues in today’s legislative environment will ultimately garner more acceptance for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.

“The more you try to silence this kind of discourse, the more it becomes the center of the public eye,” Winer said. “The fact that right-wing politicians are trying to suppress the freedom of trans people brings them more into the public view. And the more they’re in the public view, the more people see it and are less threatened by it.”

Winer said that much of this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is reactionary pushback against the various strides the queer community has made in the last few years. In response, states such as Minnesota are also reacting by bolstering protections for queer people within their borders. In 2023, Minnesota has moved to ban conversion therapy and protect transgender people seeking gender-affirming care.

Furthermore, most Americans don’t support the recent surge in anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. A 2022 Pew Research study demonstrated that more than 60 percent of Americans favor protecting trans people from discrimination, and a 2022 Gallup poll found more than 70% of Americans favor the legal validity of same-sex marriage.

OutFront Minnesota’s Rohn said she wants queer people with anxieties about this legislation to know they aren’t alone in their fight.

“I just remind folks: stay hopeful, know that there are people fighting for you, and it will get better,” Rohn said. “But it is really hard right now in this moment to see that.”

STORYTELLING ACROSS INDUSTRIES

How three alums took their storytelling skills and made the switch from journalism to strategic communication.

BY ALLISON J. STEINKE, PH.D. ’22

Hubbard School majors across generations have likely all asked themselves the same question: Should I focus on journalism or ad/ PR? The two paths can feel very different, and over the years, these industries have definitely evolved to include new media, themes, and technologies. But one thing has stayed the same: a commitment to excellent storytelling.

Three alumni across three decades—Tim Gihring (B.A. ’95), Nicole Garrison (B.A. ’02), and Loryn Caldie (B.A. ’11)—have successfully worked on both “sides” of the industry. All three of these alumni (and countless more) have walked the line between journalism and strategic communication with prowess, equipped by their versatile Hubbard School degrees.

TIM GIHRING

AD CLUB, ART, AND ENGAGING AUDIENCES

TIM GIHRING CURRENTLY WORKS as the brand narrator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. His resume exemplifies innovation and adaptability with experiences ranging from breaking news to podcasting at organizations as varied as the Associated Press (AP) to the Tapestry Folk Dance Center in South Minneapolis.

Gihring’s journey at the Hubbard School began as a journalism major who “used too many adjectives and adverbs” in his journalism skills courses. When he saw a poster for Ad Club, he jumped in headfirst and spent the rest of his time at the School developing his creative skills and passions in the advertising realm.

“Most of my career has been that journey: How do I balance nonfiction writing with the more creative side of it?” Gihring said.

Gihring started his career by plunging into the journalism world as a news clerk at the Associated Press (AP). “At the AP, the managing editor had a board outside of her office where she honored the best lede written by someone in the bureau that day,” Gihring said. “I made it my goal to get on the board as often as I could. That was always the fun part for me—how creative and engaging can I be? That thread has carried me through.”

After spending two years breaking news at the AP, Gihring backpacked through Europe and realized his interests were growing in longer-form journalism and storytelling. “Breaking news was fine, but my interests were in engaging ledes, telling bigger stories and connecting the dots,” Gihring said.

He decided to see if magazines would be the place to do that, so he joined Minnesota Monthly magazine where he spent 10 years writing feature stories and articles that “kept getting bigger”—as long as 5,000 words!—as his abilities and interests grew. “Early on at Minnesota Monthly, my editor said, ‘you’re not a journalist or writer, you’re a storyteller,’” Gihring said. “That has informed the bigger view of what I do. It’s allowed me to go from one part of this world to another.”

Gihring moved from Minnesota Monthly to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) 10 years ago. He works as Mia’s brand narrator, which is closely related to content journalism, brand storytelling and brand marketing, with the same foundation Gihring built on during his time at newspapers and magazines: Storytelling.

“Storytelling is a buzzword in our industry,” Gihring

STORIES ARE HOW WE RELATE TO EACH OTHER, HOW WE LEARN, AND HOW WE ENGAGE EACH OTHER

said, “but done well it has real value. Stories are how we relate to each other, how we learn, and how we engage each other. That form of communication, storytelling, is what I’ve taken from one part of the industry to another.”

Gihring spends his days looking at the museum’s collections and working with curators on exhibitions to find engaging stories to tell across media, including blogs and podcasts. “I’m not an art historian or an expert, but what I can do is tell stories and I can write,” Gihring said. “Behind every work of art there’s someone who made this, often for the same reasons that motivate people in so much of life: Love, power, money, greed. Everything in a museum is out of context in some way, and I try to supply that context as best I can.”

When asked about the relationship between journalism and strategic communication, Gihring notes the symbiosis between them: The “big picture” of thinking about engaging audiences.

“The idea of storytelling has been adopted by agencies and organizations, and for some that might feel like co-opting the journalism world, but for me that’s exciting, and a natural way to engage audiences,” Gihring said. “Storytelling is a very human way of relating to people, and an authentic way to share true stories behind the organization or brand.

“There used to be this strict line between journalism and PR/advertising, but people like me are beginning to find seams where skills translate into engaging audiences wherever they are. Those lines are blurring. I think they’ll continue to blur.”

NICOLE GARRISON

BLURRED LINES, BANKING, AND BRAND MARKETING

NICOLE GARRISON IS THE SENIOR DIRECTOR of employer brand and workplace marketing at the Royal Bank of Canada.

Beginning during her time in Murphy Hall, Garrison has worked across journalism, public relations, marketing and advertising. She credits her versatile Hubbard degree, and a healthy amount of persistence and resilience, as key reasons she’s been able to seamlessly move between industries.

Garrison knew she wanted to be a writer of some sort in fourth grade. She came to the Hubbard School to pursue a journalism degree, and took courses ranging from Arts Reporting and Reviewing at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis to Media Law with Jane Kirtley–a course that prepared her to understand reputational risk and to thrive in her roles in the PR sector.

Persistence paid off in landing her first internship at her hometown newspaper, and perseverance carried her through. After completing an internship at the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Garrison launched her career at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal where she initially

covered marketing, advertising and PR. When Garrison’s editor asked her to take on banking and finance, she was certain she would fail because she was “bad at math.” Ironically, this beat is the one that ended up setting the trajectory for a majority of her career to date.

Garrison continued building her resume back at the Pioneer Press in 2006, where she helped cover the housing market crash and recession. There were approximately 175 journalists in the Pioneer Press newsroom—with 21 at the business desk—when she first walked into the newsroom back in 2001. By the time she left in 2009, there were only seven reporters left at the business desk.

Garrison pivoted to a communications director role at the Minnesota Department of Commerce in 2009 before moving on to a senior leadership position with U.S. Bank. Garrison noted that “trouble seemed to follow her” as her time in corporate public relations at U.S. Bank overlapped with the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement. She used connections and partnerships with senior leaders and lessons learned about reputational management at the School to help U.S. Bank stand out as a good player in the banking industry during a tumultuous time.

Garrison looks back on the various challenges she’s faced throughout her career as opportunities to build her confidence and expand her skillset.

Garrison accepted a role at Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in 2014, where she currently serves as the senior director of employer brand and workplace marketing. In her role with RBC, Garrison brings her journalistic skills with her to work every day to write, edit and produce content for internal and external audiences.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was to give up my career as a journalist,” Garrison said. “I remember talking to some of my newsroom friends, crying, and saying: ‘I’ll never love a career as much as I love this one.’ But that wasn’t true. My role now is a perfect combination of journalism, strategic communication, advertising and marketing. It’s an exciting field, and I’m having as much fun, if not more, than that now.”

In her current role at RBC, Garrison led the team that built RBC’s very first employer brand from scratch. She spends a majority of her time telling RBC’s story through long form content, sponsored content, strategic communication, advertising and creative imagery.

“This whole notion that you need a separate brand to attract and retain talent is fairly new. But the discipline is about more than pretty ads, it’s rooted in storytelling, just like my journalism degree is,” Garrison said. “In employer branding, we seek to make an emotional connection with current and prospective talent, to tell the company’s story. It’s advertising, but it’s storytelling, too—even ads need to tell a story with a motive.”

LORYN CALDIE

DATA, ANALYTICS, AND CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT

OVER THE PAST DECADE, Loryn Caldie has used skills gained in her Hubbard School courses to take on roles, including Key Account Coordinator at iHeartMedia, Digital Campaign Manager at Minnesota Public Radio (MPR), and currently, Associate Manager of Reporting and Insights at Best Buy Ads. In her current role, Caldie “uses journalism skills to tell stories about numbers and marketing campaigns” on a daily basis.

Throughout her Hubbard School journey, Caldie found herself following her interests through five internships between 2007 and 2011: American Jewish World, a newspaper that focused on the Twin Cities’ Jewish community; City Pages; iHeartMedia/ KDWB-FM; the South Washington County Bulletin; and Thomson Reuters.

“All of my internships jump-started my career experience. I wanted to do as much as possible,” Caldie said.

Caldie reflects on her Hubbard School experience as one characterized by hands-on professional

journalism courses that built her confidence and skills, most notably in courses with Gayle Golden (G.G.) and Shayla Thiel-Stern. Not only did she land a freelance article with Plymouth Magazine in G.G.’s magazine writing class, she learned how to design the layout of a newspaper with Thiel-Stern.

Data, analytics, and metrics also played a central role in Caldie’s experience. Caldie counts Database Reporting as one of her favorite classes. Before taking Database Reporting, Caldie didn’t know how to use Excel. In class, though, she learned formulas and pivot tables and lookups; now she uses Excel every single day. At MPR, she used data to quantify her decisions about selling and optimizing ads for streaming and digital display. At Best Buy, she reports on the effectiveness of various ad campaigns.

“My whole job is based on how campaigns did, if they did poorly or if they did great,” Caldie said. “Learning how to read the data in general is important, but especially paying attention to ad attributed revenue. My job is retention, so learning how to read and use data to prove a story or prove a point is important as it helps provide revenue for the company. My whole job hinges on it.”

When asked about the transition from professional journalism to marketing, Caldie said it was natural as she “followed her interests” and “wasn’t afraid to try other things.” Caldie looks forward to continuing to learn more and lean into skills in operations, specifically around perfecting processes.

Caldie, Garrison and Gihring have been surprised at the twists and turns their careers have taken, as they couldn’t predict when they graduated they’d be where they are today, and all of them insist that writing, storytelling and working well with others are foundational skills and principles they learned at the Hubbard School that still pay dividends for them on the job today.

“At the end of the day, you need to know how to tell a good story that connects with your audience,” Garrison said. “This is true in journalism, PR, advertising, and marketing. That is why my time at the Hubbard School was so great. That’s one of the things I learned early on that has enabled me to bounce within all of these disciplines.”

ALL OF MY INTERNSHIPS

JUMP-STARTED MY CAREER EXPERIENCE. I WANTED TO DO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

SCHOLARSHIP & ENGAGEMENT FACULTY NEWS

VALÉRIE BÉLAIR-GAGNON has been working on a special issue with Digital Journalism on well-being and mental health in journalism. She was also awarded the Scholar of the College Award, named after Melvin and Gertrude Waldfogel. The award is presented annually by the College of Liberal Arts to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievement by faculty in the college. Scholars of the College are chosen on the basis of past accomplishments and contributions in the areas of scholarly research or other creative work, teaching, and service, and the promise of further achievement.

MATT CARLSON presented the Neil Shine Ethics Lecture titled “How Does Journalism Know? Journalistic Objectivity Debates as Epistemic Contests” at Michigan State University in March.

DIANE CORMANY is leading the unit’s ongoing Writing Enriched Curriculum work. The School earned a Writing Enriched Curriculum Legacy Plan grant of $10,000, which it has used to create an internal site with learning resources for the ongoing development of undergraduate writing. Initial resources focus on integrating research into writing and focusing on audiences.

RUTH DEFOSTER earned the 2022 Hubbard School Teaching Excellence Award for her strides in teaching and her work as the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

GAYLE (G.G.) GOLDEN, who co-chairs the Women’s Faculty Cabinet, talked with the Minnesota Daily about the group’s efforts to launch a gender equity report card in collaboration with the Provost’s Office.

In May 2023, JISU HUH visited Beijing, China. She gave a keynote speech at The Development of Future-Oriented Global Advertising Forum hosted by the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University (PKU), celebrating the PKU advertising program’s 30th anniversary. She also gave public lectures at Peking University and Tsinghua University during her visit. In June, in her capacity as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Advertising, Huh, along with the editors-in-chief of the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of Advertising, held the first Writer’s Workshop on Crafting Industry Relevant Research at the European Advertising Academy’s International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA).

MARK JENSON earned the 2022 Marshall Tanick Teaching Excellence Award for his dedication to his students.

SHERRI JEAN KATZ, along with co-authors, had “Tobacco free nicotine vaping products: A study of health halo effects among middle school youth” accepted for publication in the Journal of Health Communication.

JANE KIRTLEY’s article “Why Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is good news for all media outlets,” was published in The Conversation and republished by nearly 10 other outlets. She also published “Dominion v. Fox News: A Referendum on the Future of

Journalism,” on Smerconish.com. Kirtley was interviewed by nearly 40 outlets about the Dominion v. Fox case and settlement.

SCOTT LIBIN spoke about American television news and journalism education to a group of international journalists visiting Murphy Hall under the auspices of the World Press Institute. He also conducted a day of training at the West Virginia Broadcasters Association Spring Meeting, hosting one-on-one coaching sessions and leading group sessions titled “Recruiting, Retaining and Motivating Across Generations” and “Is Objectivity Obsolete?”

REGINA MCCOMBS was a judge for the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles annual contest in February. In March, she presented virtually for The Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) Seeds for the Future Program, a small grants competition to support innovative initiatives in Southeast Asia, to talk about using storytelling as the young grantees develop their projects.

REBEKAH NAGLER presented her team’s research titled “Communicating about the process of scientific discovery in the face of conflicting health information: An experimental test of potential message strategies” at the International Communication Association (ICA) annual conference held in Toronto in May; her doctoral advisees, Chloe Gansen and Le Wang, also presented some of the team’s research. Additionally, Nagler was invited to participate in an ICA panel celebrating the contributions of Joe Cappella and Bob Hornik to the field of health communication.

Mark Jenson

Sherri Jean Katz

Amy O’Connor

Rebekah Nagler

Jisu Huh

Hyejoon Rim

AMY O’CONNOR received the 202223 Hubbard School Graduate Student Organization’s Dedication to Graduate Students Award. The annual award recognizes Hubbard School faculty/staff for supporting graduate students. She also received the 2022 Hubbard School Outstanding Service Award.

capital approach.” A chapter Saffer co-authored with Aimei Yang at USC-Annenberg titled “Network approaches to public relations theory & practice” was published in Public Relations Theory III

SCHOLARSHIP & ENGAGEMENT

CHRISTOPHER TERRY’s article

“Regulatory paralysis: The answer to the unanswerable question of FCC minority ownership policy” was published in Michigan Technology Law Review. In May he gave a talk at Whitworth University titled “A Little Less than Strict and Compelling: The Future of Free Speech in Social Media.”

Haseon Park

HASEON PARK, along with co-authors, had “A multi-modal emotion perspective on social media influencer marketing: The effectiveness of influencer emotions, network size, and branding on consumer-brand engagement using facial expression and linguistic analysis” accepted for publication in the Journal of Interactive Marketing. They examine how emotional expressions in social media content posted by social media influencers lead to consumer engagement with brands.

HYEJOON RIM was elected to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) publications committee.

ADAM SAFFER, along with co-authors Katie Kim (Ph.D. Student) and Yan Qu (postdoc), was awarded the University of Georgia Advertising/ Public Relations Top Paper Award for Public Relations Theory & Practice at the 26th annual International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) for their paper title “The role of employees’ workplace communication networks on employee outcomes: Exploring from egocentric network and social

CLAIRE M. SEGIJN was awarded an American Academy of Advertising Research Fellowship for the project “Mapping the surveillance effect: How perceptions of phones ‘listening to offline conversations’ relates to advertising responses” with collaborators Joanna Strycharz and Sanne Opree.

ERICH SOMMERFELDT is vice-chair of the public relations division of the International Communication Association (ICA). He will be program planner for the 2024 conference in Gold Coast, Australia, and the 2025 conference in Denver, Colo. He will take on the role of chair of the division for 2026 & 2027.

ALLISON

STEINKE received the International Communication Association (ICA) Journalism Studies Division’s 2023 Outstanding Dissertation Award at ICA 2023 in Toronto, Canada. Nominated by Ph.D. adviser Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Steinke received the award for her work on her 2022 dissertation: “The Institutionalization of Solutions Journalism.” This prize recognizes and rewards doctoral dissertation research that explains, enlightens, inspires, and improves the practice and study of journalism and communication worldwide.

BEN TOFF presented research on news avoidance on a panel at the International Symposium on Online Journalism in Austin, Texas, in April. He gave a talk on the same subject at the University of Bergen in Norway in May. Toff’s Trust in News Project published its seventh report this spring on perspectives from marginalized and historically underserved communities. And in May he gave a virtual presentation to senior leadership at Australian Broadcasting Corporation about his research on trust.

EMILY VRAGA’s book chapter

“To Debunk or Not to Debunk?

Correcting (Mis)information”

published in Managing Infodemics in the 21st Century, which was organized and edited by several leaders in the World Health Organization. She also gave a talk and participated on a panel at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in April on intervention to address science misinformation.

Allison Steinke

Emily Vraga

Erich Sommerfeldt

Adam Saffer

Claire Segijn

SCHOLARSHIP & ENGAGEMENT

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT: MARCO YZER

❙ BY REGAN CARTER

OVER THE LAST DECADE, THE NARRATIVES SURROUNDING

Many of the leading minds in related fields never work together to connect their findings and discover new solutions, often because there simply are not easy opportunities to meet researchers from other disciplines.

mental health have changed dramatically. More and more people feel comfortable discussing mental health issues and challenges out in the open. Most importantly, a growing number of Americans feel comfortable seeking professional help for their mental health.

Despite these positive trends, Dr. Marco Yzer believes that there is still work to be done. His research tackles the challenge of reaching those affected by mental health issues in a language and messaging mode that resonates with them.

MESSAGES LOST IN TRANSLATION

As Yzer began his study of messaging intended for those struggling with depression, he noticed an odd pattern. Some of the messages that aimed to persuade people to seek help for their depression simply didn’t land. Even worse, some messages made people with depression feel even less motivated to seek help.

To understand how this can happen, consider this: if you’re trying to make a point to people in Germany who only speak the German language fluently, it would make sense to write your message in German. That way, your intended audience can comprehend what you are trying to say and connect more readily with your content. If you were to say the exact same thing in English, you would have a significantly lower chance of reaching your German audience. You may even run the risk of offending a few audience members if your message in English happens to sound like a rude one in German. In the end, one language would prove more effective than the other, even though the main point in your messaging remained the same.

In a similar pattern, Yzer noted that some of the messages aimed at those in need of professional mental health assistance, while well intended, had no real shot of sticking with their targets. He was “increasingly concerned that most researchers did not consider the cognitive characteristics of mental illness when they developed and tested messages” intended to guide people to seek help. The language that was being used, while well-intended, could trigger the very thoughts that someone with mental health issues might battle.

As in the case of the German-speaking audience, much of the messaging intended to convince someone to seek treatment for mental health issues can be rendered moot due to their phrasing alone. No matter how strong the

presented evidence may be, the reasoning of an argument can become ineffective because the wording and structure of the message doesn’t resonate with people who are afflicted by mental health issues.

This language barrier is one that Yzer is determined to overcome.

FINDING THE ARGUMENTS THAT LAST

From Yzer’s perspective, finding messages that resonate with audiences suffering from depression, anxiety, and other common mental health issues is a very complex but not an impossible task. It does, however, require a new approach.

That’s why Yzer, along with his co-editor Jason Siegel, a professor at Claremont Graduate University, is putting together a one-of-a-kind anthology headed for publication in the latter half of 2024.

Yzer is particularly excited about this project, and not only because he is personally interested in mental health communication. This new book will bridge a number of gaps in mental health research. He believes that “if you want to communicate health, you must understand health science.” However, he said, a number of powerful voices in today’s scientific spaces “never talk to each other.” Many of the leading minds in related fields never work together to connect their findings and discover new solutions, often because there simply are not easy opportunities to meet researchers from other disciplines.

As an active step towards combating this scientific isolation, the upcoming book brings together communication scholars, medical doctors, anthropology experts, psychologists and more. All of the findings and ideas contributed to this volume surround the topic of mental health messaging. With more than 35 articles and research discussions slated to make it into the final publication, Yzer hopes that people will pull from the volume what they need from the experts that they understand the best.

The practice of advocating for those struggling with mental health is something that Yzer is proud to bring into his daily work life. As a Mental Health Advocate through Boynton Health at the University of Minnesota, he has the unique opportunity to work with students on a personal level. This team of staff and faculty members is charged with finding ways to help support students as they navigate the highs and lows of college. Being a member of such a forward-thinking group is just one more part of Yzer’s goal to make mental health resources understandable and accessible to all.

In his upcoming work, Professor Marco Yzer aims to overcome the linguistic obstacles of reaching those who may need mental health support.

MEET A STUDENT: ALEX STEIL

The next Minnesota Daily editor-in-chief was made for his new role.

❙

INTERVIEW BY AMANDA FRETHEIM GATES

Junior Alex Steil grew up in Lake Elmo, Minn., and attended Stillwater High School, where his love for writing began. Now a double major in music and journalism, with a minor in political science, Steil is pleased with how all his interests overlap and how as a journalism major, he never stops learning.

Q Why did you decide to pursue your majors?

A When I was still in high school, I knew that I wanted to do something with writing. I was unsure whether straight journalism or more musical writing, like program notes or something similar, was what I wanted to do. After learning more about both careers in a professional sense, I knew that journalism was going to be the fit for me. I started off as a copy editor at the Daily my freshman year, then moved quickly over to the state legislature beat—and I loved it. After getting that real, hands-on experience (that I really don’t think I could have gotten anywhere else other than the Daily) I fell in love. I came back for the fall on a general assignment beat and applied for EIC that following spring. Even though I’m continuing the music major now more as a hobby, my love for journalism as a craft has really solidified over this past calendar year or so.

Q What has been your favorite part of your experience at the Hubbard School?

A My favorite part of the Hubbard School, hands down, has been the variety of classes (and students within them). My first semester at school I was with students who were studying psychology then the next I was studying administrative law with an emphasis on advertising. Everything is always so fascinating here—the faculty and students really have made the whole experience all worth it.

Q What is one aspect of your major that most surprised you?

A Although I’m not surprised by learning here, I am surprised by how much I’m learning. I’ve been acquainted with AP style and journalistic writing since my sophomore year in high school—yet just the other day I learned a new AP style rule. I’m always learning something new with a journalism degree, no matter how long I’ve been reading the news or writing clips. That said, within the broader College of Liberal Arts, I have been really pleased with how all of my majors are complementing each other.

Q What class or professor has had the biggest impact on you?

A It’s a tough call, but I would have to go with Jonathan Anderson or Seth Richardson. Not only are they respectable professors and kind people, but they have also had professional backgrounds in journalism. I have talked with both of them about ethical questions and more nitty-gritty aspects of being a journalist, more so than I have my other professors. I could go on about them both, but they are two really high-level thinkers and teachers.

Q What do you hope to bring to the Minnesota Daily as EIC?

A This year as EIC, I’m hoping to build our community— both internally as an organization and externally as a community newspaper. Internally, I’m hoping to bring people back into the office for various production functions. Externally, however, I want the organization to have even stronger bonds with the community. I want the Daily to be seen as a community newspaper that represents the community, not just because we know what’s going on but concurrently because our community knows they can come to us with ideas for articles or topics to cover.

Q What advice do you have for future journalism students and/or MN Daily reporters?

A Never be afraid to ask. While it may sound cliche or oft-repeated, asking for something (especially as a journalist) can get you some of the best stories, quotes or opportunities. The number of contacts I have that can pitch me stories because I have asked them what’s going on, professionals that I have in my network or events that I have gotten to cover simply because I asked is astonishing to me. Asking for advice, professionally or personally, has gotten me very far in this career and I can not undersell this quality in a journalist: never stop asking questions, either of professionals for your own career learning or of sources.

I’m always learning something new with a journalism degree, no matter how long I’ve been reading the news or writing clips.

GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

interpret Disney’s corporate history.” The thesis used focus group methodology.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT NEWS

BEAMLAK LULSEGED was one of 12 students from around the country to receive the 4A’s Foundation’s 365Blackprint scholarship. Lulseged received $10,000.

MARAL ABDOLLAHI received the AAA (American Academy of Advertising) Dissertation Fellowship award for her dissertation titled “Consumers’ Reactions to Virtual Social Media Influencers and Strategic and Ethical Implications for Advertising.” The dissertation project was selected for funding in the amount of $2,000.

KENDAL ALDRIDGE successfully defended her master’s thesis, “From the Victorian Internet to Section 230: Journalistic Discourse, Government Regulation, and New Communications Technology.”

ANDREW LOCKE presented a paper at the IAMCR 2023 conference in July in Lyon, France, in the category of local journalism/alternative media.

ADHAM MOHAMED attended the PRSSA Leadership Assembly in Scottsdale, Ariz., in April, representing the School as chapter president.

LILY NGUYEN is an art director intern with Colle McVoy.

EITAN SCHOENBERG placed in the top 20 in the Hearst Sports Writing Competition for his Minnesota Daily story “Gabbie Cesarone’s long journey shaped her into Gophers soccer leader.”

JACOB GUSTI successfully defended his excellent master’s thesis, “Does News Coverage of Partisan Polarization and Issue Polarization Specifically Further Divide an Already Divided Public?”

CHRISTINA HARISIADIS successfully defended her master’s thesis, “From what made the ‘Red Man Red’ to Moana: Exploring how BIPOC members of Generation Z

MCKENNA PREMUS attended the 2023 AEJMC Midwinter Conference at the University of Oklahoma in February 2023. She presented her paper on “Understanding Media Literacy Education in an Interdisciplinary Context,” a research proposal for a study analyzing how media literacy is taught in different disciplines in higher education. Her publication “Understanding the Teaching of Media Literacy in Higher Education Environments” was accepted for presentation at the AEJMC Conference in Washington, DC, in August and received the Second Place Top Paper Award for the Scholastic Journalism Division.

DANFORD ZIRUGO successfully defended his dissertation and starts as an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama this fall.

ALEX STEIL was named 2023-2024 editor-in-chief for the Minnesota Daily. MADDIE ROTH was named the 2023-2024 managing editor.

Four students participated in the Report for Minnesota program during summer 2023, joining outstate newspapers for a 10-week internship: HANNAH WARD at Brainerd Dispatch, DEVLIN EPDIG at Duluth News Tribune, JEROME WIRTZ at Mankato Free Press, and REYAN UGAS at Willmar’s West Central Tribune.

Two students were nominated for the Hearst Team Investigative Reporting category: MARY ELLEN RITTER for “America’s Burnt-out Teachers Fear for the Future of Education,” which was published in Los Angeles Magazine and BELLA CARPENTIER for “University student files complaint with Department of Human Rights over getting accommodations fulfilled,” which was published in the Daily.

Andrew Locke

Jacob Gusti Christina Harisiadis

Maral Abdollahi Kendal Aldridge

McKenna Premus

This summer, three graduating seniors participated in the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4As) Multicultural Advertising Internship Program (MAIP). MUNA MOHAMMED worked remotely at Tinuiti in New York City; ANITA NGO worked at Colle McVoy in Minneapolis; and LUCKETT VANGUARD worked remotely at Dentsu Creative in New York City.

Each year, The LAGRANT Foundation (TLF) provides scholarships to undergraduate and graduate ethnic minority students who are attending accredited institutions and are pursuing careers in the fields of advertising, marketing or public relations. Five Hubbard School students were recipients of the 2023 TLF scholarship:

CONSTANCE DUOPU, LYIA GEBREMARIAM, SAHRA HUSSEIN, JESSICA THOMAS and FAMETTA ZUBAH. They are four of 60 undergraduate students who received a scholarship in the amount of $2,500.

One of this Spring’s CAMPAIGNS CLASS clients was Best Buy. The challenge

was to develop a complete IMC plan to help Best Buy get Gen Z back in the stores. Four teams presented their final campaigns to Hannah Faiad, client and Hubbard School alum, in April.

In March, students in the AD STRATEGY AND CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT class presented their campaign ideas to the Minnesota State Fair (and alum Maria Hayden). In April, the students offered ideas to High End Confections on how to build awareness for its new product.

BACKPACK, the student led brand communications agency, had a banner year. The organization continued work for its largest client, Serve Minnesota. It added so many new clients that it had to start contracting work for fall 2023. The students gained valuable pre-professional experience in account management, ad strategy, media planning, production, content creation, and creative development. Backpack celebrates 10 years at the Campus Club on September 13, 2023. If you or someone

you know participated in CLAgency or Backpack, please contact Jennifer Johnson at joh02016@umn.edu to attend.

NSAC GOES TO NATIONALS!

After placing fourth at semifinals, the Hubbard School’s National Student Advertising Competition team went to the American Advertising Federation’s #ADMERICA event in St. Louis (June 1-4) to compete at Nationals. The University of Minnesota won the Best Presentation Group award among the eight finalists, and senior Luckett Vanguard won Best Presenter. This is the second year in a row that the Hubbard School NSAC team attended the National competition.

Hannah Jenson, Alexandrea Chrislu, Anne Marie Karnes, Nola Winje, Muna Mohamed, and Abigail Begin (pictured left to right) attended the Student Ad Summit event in February.

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: LOU RAGUSE

After reporting and anchoring around the country, Raguse came back home to KARE-11 and is now a published author.

❙ INTERVIEWED BY AMANDA FRETHEIM GATES

When Lou Raguse (B.A. ’04) was in high school in Wheaton, Minn., he was more likely to say he wanted to be an author or a comedy writer on a show like “Seinfeld” than a journalist. He was always creative, participating in the school play and on the speech team, developing a love for current events through his social studies class, and taking over the school newspaper with a buddy.

Because he also loved sports, Raguse came to the University of Minnesota thinking he might study to be a sports anchor, like those on ESPN. But one journalism course with the late, great Paul McEnroe hooked him, and broadcast courses with Ken Stone sealed the deal. He was meant to be a journalist.

“There were so many good print journalists teaching at the U,” he said. “My whole life I wanted to set myself apart from the crowd, and the creativity aspect of being a journalist really stood out to me.”

His notoriety started before even leaving the U; he earned student Emmys and other awards.

His senior year, Raguse was nominated for a William Hearst Journalism Award and was invited to San Francisco for the championship competition. He had just two days to traipse the city and gather the information to film, write and edit two different stories. He took home first place.

After graduation, Raguse worked as a reporter in Sioux Falls, S.D., reported and anchored in Tucson, Ariz., and reported and anchored in Buffalo, N.Y., before returning to Minnesota and joining KARE-11 in 2015. Over the years, he’s covered huge stories, including the Daphne Wright trial, the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, the kidnapping of Jayme Closs, and the trials of the officers

charged with killing George Floyd.

When getting his start in South Dakota, Raguse said he had the choice between covering “cops and courts” or the education beat. “I knew if I did the cops and courts, I would have more lead stories,” he said. “I became an expert on court cases and crime and I brought that expertise to other markets.”

Many of the huge stories he’s covered in his nearly 20-year career have not been easy, and perhaps even traumatic, and covering those stories day in and day out can take a toll. Raguse gets inspiration from his long-time idol, Boyd Huppert, who is nationally recognized for his thoughtful, engaging storytelling, and he’s learned that being stoic or unfeeling while covering traumatic events is doing himself and his subjects a disservice.

“I’ve probably given more hugs than other reporters,” he said. “You’re an unbiased reporter but

"I’m able to carry the emotion I experience into the story and that makes my reporting better, by being more human.”

that doesn’t mean you can’t be a trusted shoulder. Something that is universally sad is sad and that’s not biased. I’m able to carry the emotion I experience into the story and that makes my reporting better, by being more human.”

It could be his empathy that has made Raguse become an authority of sorts on cold cases, producing several stories for a KARE-11 “Minnesota Unsolved” series and, most recently, writing his first book, Vanished in Vermillion: The Real Story of South Dakota’s Most Infamous Cold Case, which published in February. When he worked in South Dakota, he covered the cold case of two 17-year-old girls who disappeared in the spring of 1971 and was leaving many questions unanswered. The case was finally solved in 2013. Once there was a resolution, Raguse could see the potential for a book. He did research in his spare time, traveling back and forth to South Dakota (made easier since his in-laws live there).

His hometown of Wheaton has its very own cold case, about a man who was found dead in a river. And while Raguse has covered the story for KARE-11, and thinks it’s possible it could make a good book, it remains unsolved. “It’s hard to read about hard things without the mystery, or intrigue,” he said. “But to write a book about it, I strongly feel there does have to be an ending.”

For Raguse, the plan is to continue to cover the cops and courts beat, give a voice to the victims of cold cases as long as KARE will let him, and even write another book. “I hope to remain in Minnesota. I love reporting here.”

ALUMNI NEWS

DYLAN ANDERSON (B.A. ’20) left his job as a reporter at Steamboat Pilot & Today newspaper to start his own nonprofit news source for the communities of Routt County, Co., called The Yampa Valley Bugle.

DAVID BERKUS (B.A. ’64) got a master’s in marketing and spent many successful years with advertising agencies and major corporations in marketing and now is a grant writer for nonprofits.

CHRISTIAN BETANCOURT (B.A. ’06) is chief marketing officer for Franchise Playbook.

KELLI BRADY (M.A. ’14) is director, Client Solutions, at OptiMine Software, Inc.

JULIAN BOGDANOV (B.A. ’23) is a digital marketing & measurement analyst for Ovative Group.

DYMANH CHHOUN (B.A. ’11) is a visual journalist at Sahan Journal.

JOEL CHIODI (B.A. ’93) developed, sold and executive produced two documentaries, including “The Secrets of Hillsong” on FX.

SEND US YOUR NEWS!

Get a new job?

Earn a promotion? Receive an award? Or just want to update us on where you’re at? Email murphrep@umn. edu, include your name and graduation year, and we’ll consider it for the next issue of the Murphy Reporter.

JOHN CRONIN (B.A. ’21) released the feature film “Undergrads” on Prime Video and Apple TV. Cronin produced this film with college friends during his time at the Hubbard School.

ROBERT DARRAGH (B.A. ’20, M.A. ’22) is a digital marketing specialist for the Florida Panthers.

CHRISTY DESMITH (B.A. ’98) is a writer/editor for Social Science, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, at Harvard University.

FERNANDO SEVERINO DIAZ (Ph.D. ’20) and Associate Professor Christopher

Terry’s manuscript, “Spanish-Language Radio and Issue Advertising: Targeting Latinos during the 2018 Elections” was named as the top article published in the 2022 issues of the Journal of Radio and Audio Media.

EMILY DIODATI (B.A. ’22) is a social media marketing and communication assistant at the Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation.

RYAN DIRCKS (B.A. ’23) is an account management intern at Dentsu Creative.

MEREDITH DWYER (M.A. ’21) transitioned from event planning into a communications manager role with the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota.

CHRISTINE FRUECHTE (BIS ’89) is the chair of the board of directors for the Star Tribune.

AMY (LOHMANN) HAHN (M.A. ’19) is senior art director at Beehive Strategic Communication.

DEB HOPP (B.A. ’75) received the University of Minnesota Regents Award.

ANGELINA HUYNH (B.A. ’22) is an assistant account executive at Crystal Clear Communications Hawaii.

MAIA IRVIN (B.A. ’23) is a Dow Jones News Fund, Inc. intern in the Data Journalism Program for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

TAYLOR KAYE (B.A. ’23) is a brand strategy and social media intern at Cambria.

MATTHEW KENNEDY (B.A. ’23) is a sports intern at KSTP.

EMILY KAISER (B.A. ’07) is a senior digital communications officer for the International Rescue Committee and

ALUMS

received a silver Anthem Award in February 2023 for her work on the Settle In project for refugees in the United States.

LAURA KLINGELHUTZ (B.A. ’23) is a marketing generalist for Blue Rose Capital Advisors and HedgeStar.

BERNIE LAUR (B.A. ’87) is director of digital for Hubbard Radio and Hubbard Interactive in the Twin Cities. Most recently, he has added duties of overseeing the sales efforts of the Hubbard Radio-Twin Cities podcasts, specifically Garage Logic with Joe Soucheray, the SKOR North network of podcasts, and the Tom Barnard Morning Show.

MEREDITH LEE (B.A. ’05) is a producer/writer in the Creative Advertising Department at FOX Entertainment.

JOSEPH LINDBERG (B.A. ’10) is the senior digital editor at Land O’Lakes, Inc.

KIRSTI (MEYER) MAROHN (B.A. ’95) was promoted to correspondent at MPR News, where she has worked since 2017. She covers regional news, energy and the environment.

NICK MARSHALL (B.A. ’23) was awarded a 2023 International Radio and Television Society Summer Fellowship. He accepted an account management position at Anomaly in New York City for his summer fellowship.

MARISSA MAZZETTA (B.A. ’23) is a newscast producer at WCCO.

TIM NELSON (B.A. ’09, M.A. ’19) leads strategic communication for the enterprise team at TomTom.

ADVA PRISO (B.A. ’07) is chief strategy officer at Moore Digital, leading online fundraising, engagement and activation for nonprofit clients such

ADFED’S 32 UNDER 32

Seven Hubbard School alumni were named to the 2023 AdFed list of 32 under 32: CLAIRE DOTY (B.A. ’21), senior analyst, SEO at Ovative; ANNA GORDON (B.A. ’21), assistant account executive at Carmichael Lynch; ERIN MACKAMAN (B.A. ’20), copywriter and content strategist at Superhuman; JAMEY (BOERJAN) MOETREL

(B.A. ’16), media project manager at KC Truth; GRACE O’NEILL (B.A. ’20), junior account executive at Allied Global Marketing; BAILEY PHILLIPS (B.A. ’21), content marketing manager at Bold Orange; and ALIKI VROHIDIS (B.A. ’16), PR manager at Andersen Windows Corporation.

as Wounded Warrior Project, Alzheimer’s Association and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.

CARISSA RIEMERS (B.A. ’19) is a marketing manager at Title21 Health Solutions.

TAGE SINGH (B.A. ’23) is associate account executive for Skyya PR.

LETICIA (GONZALES) SNOW (B.A. ’01) authored her second children’s book The Untold Story of Sylvia Mendez: School Desegregation Pioneer (First But Forgotten), with Capstone Publishing in January 2023.

JAKE STEINBERG (B.A. ’19) is an intern on the graphics desk of the Wall Street Journal, where he focuses on cartography and interactive data visualization.

ANDY STEINKE (B.A. ’08) is a project specialist for Corewell Health. He works on communications for the Quality, Safety and Experience department.

NATALIE TRUPKE (B.A. ’22) is an account representative at Cargill.

BEN VILLNOW (B.A. ’23) joined The Social Lights as a social media manager.

JOHN WHELAN (M.A. ’72) retired after 23 years as a news writer and producer at WBBM-TV in Chicago.

EVA WIDDER (M.A. ’08) is senior giving officer at the Minnesota Historical Society.

MARIE (PRAMANN) ZHUIKOV (B.A. ’86, M.A. ’05) was promoted to senior science communicator with the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Program and also served as chair of the Great Lakes Sea Grant Communicators in 2022. Nodin Press published her fourth book, a blog-memoir, Meander North

IN MEMORIAM

MARY PATRICIA “PAT” (MCGAW) EDWARDS

Pat Edwards died on April 11, 2023. She graduated with a journalism degree in 1952, married fellow Gopher Reid Edwards in 1953, and went on to work first in advertising, and then in writing for her own one-woman shows. She was also a captain for the Women’s Golf Association at the Contra Costa Country Club.

JUDITH FAWCETT LARSON (B.A. ’58) died on Feb. 3, 2023. She began her journalism career in Bismarck, N.D., then on to Racine, Wisc., and back to Minneapolis. She is survived by her husband of 51 years, Norman Waler Larson (B.A. ’56, M.A. ’67), and son, Eric, and his family.

ANDY TROWBRIDGE (B.A. ’10) died January 29, 2023 after a brief illness. He started as an intern in the KARE-11 sports department nearly 15 years ago, going on to produce weekend and weeknight sportscasts and the “Vikings Extra” show; he also helped produce “Prep Sports Extra” during the high school football season.

REPORTER

Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication

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38th Annual Silha Lecture

The Defamation Machine

Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.

Cowles Auditorium, West Bank

Can ChatGPT commit libel? Defamation of a public figure requires a false statement of fact made with knowledge or reckless disregard of its falsity. But do these doctrines, created with humans in mind, even make sense when the “defendant” is a computer system? The 38th Annual Silha Lecture features James Grimmelmann, Tessler Family Professor of Digital and Information Law at Cornell Tech and Cornell Law School.

U of MN Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication Alumni