News

Research Publication Roundup: April 2022

April 25, 2022, 3:31 PM
A vibrant and collaborative interdisciplinary research culture at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media creates new knowledge, advances scholarship and helps reinvent media.

A trip across the pond: learning about British media markets

April 24, 2022, 1:36 PM
While many college students hit sunny beaches and locations further south for Spring Break 2022, students in the “MEJO 447: Media in the UK” course hopped across the Atlantic during the break in classes for a week of media site visits in London.
The in-person global immersion— reinstated this year after a two-year pause during COVID-19 — is a fixture of the course, which introduces students to the British media market.

Reporting on the environment

April 22, 2022, 2:26 PM
UNC Hussman Professor Tom Linden thinks every month should be Earth Month, not just April — especially given the myriad challenges currently facing the world’s environment.
Linden teaches students how to report about those environmental challenges in  “MEJO 560: Environmental and Science Journalism” and “MEJO 562: Environmental & Science Documentary TV” courses. Both courses help students grow the necessary skills for environmental reporting.

Two UNC Hussman students heading to The New York Times as 2022 DJNF interns this summer

April 21, 2022, 10:22 AM
by Barbara Wiedemann
Two UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media undergraduate students are among a select group of college juniors, seniors and graduate students from around the nation who will work in paid 2022 Dow Jones News Fund (DJNF) internships across 77 U.S. newsrooms this summer. Interns are chosen and assigned to leading news outlets based on their résumés, experience, performance on DJNF tests, telephone interviews, 500-word essays and the needs of media outlets.

The 6'4", 245-lb. Disney storyteller

April 15, 2022, 12:57 PM
by Barbara Wiedemann
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media graduate Jake Lawler ’20, a former Carolina football linebacker, was a three-time ACC Academic Honor Roll member and a three-time UNC Scholar-Athlete recipient. Writing has long played a significant role in Lawler’s life. By his junior year at Carolina, he was ready to pursue his Hollywood dreams full-time. Last month, Lawler stepped into his dream job as a writer for an upcoming Disney+ show. We caught up with him yesterday by Zoom in his Los Angeles apartment.

Ruth Walden: 1948-2022

April 11, 2022, 1:02 PM
Professor Emerita Ruth Christina Walden, of Ashburn, Virginia, passed away on April 6, 2022, surrounded by her husband and children. Ruth is survived by her husband of 50 years, Dennis Walden, and their two children, Matthew Walden, of Kensington, Maryland, and Rebecca Murphy, of Ashburn, as well as her four grandchildren: Joshua Murphy, Monica Walden, Jack Murphy and Victor Walden. Ruth also leaves behind a sister, Barbara Toll, of Greendale, Wisconsin, as well as extended family and friends who were very dear to her.

Grad student retraces family’s immigration history in new documentary

April 8, 2022, 9:45 AM
The journey Alex M. Sanchez’s family has taken to get to the United States has been anything but a direct path. Her grandmother was first forced to leave Europe for Central America during World War II, fleeing persecution for being Jewish. The Nicaraguan Revolution forced the other side of her family to later immigrate farther north to Mexico, and they ultimately crossed into the United States for better opportunities. As a journalist and a graduate student at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Sanchez is using her developing video skills to share her family’s story in a documentary that she hopes will further the discussion of how the stories of immigrants and refugees are told. The project is one of three that received the Student Arts Innovation Grant, an annual Arts Everywhere award of $1,000 for select undergraduate and graduate students or $3,000 for a group. Other recipients of this year’s award are a group of students from the global studies department who are launching a digital publication and Daniel Dilliplane, who is creating an interactive and multisensory experience called “Sensing Bodies in Common.”

The Curtis Media Center becomes Carolina’s newest building

April 8, 2022, 9:24 AM
The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media and Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz officially dedicated Carolina’s newest building — the Curtis Media Center — on Thursday evening. Located adjacent to Carroll Hall at the campus gateway facing Cameron Avenue, the nearly 13,000-square-foot, three-story building features a high-tech broadcast studio, a podcast studio, a makerspace and four state-of-the-art classrooms. The Curtis Media Center will host classes this summer.

“Who took THAT?” UNC Hussman’s Ira Wilder ’24 on shooting Caleb Love in the Superdome late one Monday night

April 6, 2022, 5:43 PM
by Barbara Wiedemann
Q&A with photographer and Morehead-Cain scholar Ira Wilder ’24, who attended the Carolina men’s basketball team’s iconic NCAA Final Four win over Duke on Saturday, April 2, and heartbreaking “just miss” loss in the national championship game against the Kansas Jayhawks on Monday, April 4, both at the Superdome.

Don Shaw honored at 2022 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium

March 29, 2022, 7:14 PM
Bradley Hamm ’96 (Ph.D.) led a panel discussion at the 2022 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium about legendary UNC Hussman scholar Donald L. Shaw ’59, ’60 (M.A.) and his unique and extraordinary approach to mentoring for a lifetime. Shaw, who died last year, is well-known for his work on seminal agenda-setting research. Lesser known were his efforts mentoring graduate students and young professors. Joining Hamm were Shaw’s former students Erin Coyle ’10 (Ph.D.), Sherine El-Toukhy ’12 (Ph.D.), Milad Minooie ’18 (Ph.D.) and David Weaver ’74 (Ph.D.).