UNC at the virtual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 2021 conference

Nine graduate students, nine faculty members and various alumni will represent the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media Aug. 4-7, 2021, at the 104th Annual for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, held in a virtual format. These scholars will participate in panel sessions and present authored or co-authored papers.

UNC Hussman faculty and student activities at AEJMC include: 
Awards and honors

• Ph.D. alumna Karen McIntyre ’15 (Virginia Commonwealth) earned the Hillier Krieghbaum Under-40 Award.


• Ph.D. student Autumn Linford won a top student paper award and the Diversity in Journalism History Research Award for her paper “Perceptions of Progressive Era Newsgirls: Framing of Girl Newsies by Reformers, Newspapers, and the Public.”


• Ph.D. student Pablo Miño won the Susanne A. Roschwalb Grant for International Study and Research.


• Ph.D. student Madhavi Reddi won the Barrow Minority Scholarship.


• Ph.D. alumna Alexis Romero Walker ’21 won a top student paper award for her paper “Converging Theory with Practice in the Media Skills Classroom.”


• Ph.D. alumna Brooke Weberling McKeever ’11 (South Carolina) was selected for the AEJMC Collaborative Scholar Research Program.


• Ph.D. alumna Lisa Farman ’14 (Ithaca) won the Mass Communications & Society division’s Teaching Ideas award.

Tuesday, Aug. 3 – Afternoon

• Deen Freelon will serve on the panel “Securing Grant-Funding for Collaborative Research in JMC.”

Wednesday, Aug. 4 – Morning

• Ph.D. student Andrea Lorenz will present “Post-Ghosting: The Depletion of Local Government Coverage After a County’s Newspapers Became ‘Ghosts’.”

Wednesday, Aug. 4 – Afternoon

• Deb Aikat and colleagues will host the workshop “SPJ-Google News Initiative Workshop on Effective Storytelling.”


• Ph.D. student Madhavi Reddi will present “Shared Identity Endorsement Narratives in Political Campaigns: A Framework for Studying Celebrity Endorsements of Minority Politicians.”


• Ph.D. student Shanetta Pendleton and Rhonda Gibson will present “The long-term value of networking and diverse professional experience in online communication master’s program cohorts.”


• Ph.D. candidate Deborah L. Dwyer will serve on the panel “Unpublishing the News Beyond Text: Facing Unique Challenges of Visual and Multimedia Content.”


• Ph.D. students Heesoo Jang and Madhavi Reddi will present “Intimacy and Connections: Celebrity Culture in Indian and South Korean Television Shows.”

Thursday, Aug. 5 – Morning

• Ph.D. student Teresa Tackett and Lucinda Austin will present “Examining Employee Reception of Corporate Social Advocacy Communicated by Leadership: Effects on Employee-Organization Relationships and Work Engagement.”


• Shannon McGregor will serve on the panel “Mixed Methods Public Scholarship in Political Communication.”


• Rhonda Gibson and Joe Bob Hester will present “The social identities of Pete Buttigieg: How Twitter addressed counter-stereotypical attributes of a presidential candidate.”


• Heidi Hennink-Kaminski will serve on the panel “Experiential Online Learning: Creatively and Interactively Working with Curriculum and Technology.”

Thursday, Aug. 5 – Afternoon

• Deb Aikat will moderate the panel “Turning the Page: Media Research on South Asia and Its Diaspora Worldwide I.”


• Ph.D. student Autumn Linford will present “Perceptions of Progressive Era Newsgirls: Framing of Girl Newsies by Reformers, Newspapers, and the Public.”


• Suman Lee and colleagues will present “When Do People Wear a Mask in Pandemic? An Integration of TPB and EPT.”


• Ph.D. student Meredith Collins, Allison Lazard, Ph.D. alumna Ashley Hedrick ’21 and B.A. student Tushar Varma will present “It’s Nothing Like Cancer: Young Adults with Cancer Reflect on Memorable Entertainment Media.”

Friday, Aug. 6 – Morning

• Deb Aikat and colleagues will present “The Influence of Personality on Motivations: Comparing Uses and Gratifications of Social Media Users in the US and Kuwait.”


• Ph.D. alumna Alexis Romero Walker ’21 will present “Converging Theory with Practice in the Media Skills Classroom.”

Friday, Aug. 6 – Afternoon

• Ph.D. alumna Ashley Hedrick ’21 will present “‘When Thousands and Thousands Are Asking for It, It’s Hard to Put It Off’: Wattpad.com’s Technological Affordances and Teens’ Experiences Writing Erotic One Direction Fanfiction.” 


• Suman Lee and colleagues will present “How Does Ethical Ideology Affect Behavioral Intention to Wear a Mask in Pandemic?”


• Deb Aikat will moderate the panel “Turning the Page: Media Research on South Asia and Its Diaspora Worldwide II.”


• Ph.D. student Hailey Grace Steele and colleagues will present “Swapping Insults, Neglecting Policy: How U.S. Presidential Candidates Communicate About Mental Health.”

Saturday, Aug. 7 – Morning

• Ph.D. candidate Deborah Dwyer will moderate the panel “Moral and Ethical Orientations in Murky Media Contexts.”

Numerous other school alumni will also participate in the conference. A full schedule and more details about this conference can be found on AEJMC’s website.