UNC Hussman at the 2025 International Communication Association Conference

The UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media will be represented by 13 graduate students, 16 faculty members and various alumni at the 75th Annual International Communication Association Conference June 12-16 in Denver, Colorado, and in virtual/hybrid sessions.

These students and faculty will participate in panel sessions and present authored or co-authored papers:

WEDNESDAY, June 11

• Ph.D. student Parker Bach will present “Bet on It: Shifting Trust in Representing Public Opinion, from Political Polling to Prediction Markets” during the Media, Trust & Technology Preconference.

THURSDAY, June 12

• Parker Bach will co-present “The Opt-In Scientific Community: xkcd and the porous boundaries model of science communication” at the Science Communication Preconference.

FRIDAY, June 13

• Richard Cole Eminent Professor Kristen Harrison will co-present “’Actually, an ED and Not Just a Quirky Aspect of Autism’: TikTok as Forum and Mediator of Autistic Food Issues and Eating Disorders.”
• Ph.D. student Zhihuai Lin will co-present “Exploring the Role of Political Agenda: Triadic Network Agenda-Setting on Asylum Seekers and Refugees Issues in Hong Kong.”
• Zhihuai Lin will present “When AI Opens Up: Understanding the Dynamics of Reciprocal Self-Disclosure in Human-AI Relationships.”
• Assistant Professor Eva Zhao will co-present “Situating GenAI Persuasive Agents in Intergroup Communication: Mitigating Reactance Through Issue-Identity Alignment.”
• Professor Nori Comello, Assistant Professor Eva Zhao, Ph.D alumni Shelby Lake ’25 and Jessica Shaw ’25 will present “GIFTS: Encouraging critical engagement with generative AI in a research methods class.”
• Ph.D. student Clay Williams will present “Effects of body-size representation in and commentary about LGBTQ+ music videos.”
• Clay Williams will present “Sexy side of queerness: Provocative LGBTQ+ artists’ music videos and commentary about sexual content.”
• Ph.D. alum Emily Galper ’25 will present “An Exploratory Study of Condom Promotion Messages Designed for Pornographic Content.”
• Parker Distinguished Professor Seth Noar and Jessica Shaw will co-present “Effects of text-only e-cigarette warnings: A meta-analysis.”
• Edgar Thomas Cato Distinguished Professor Daniel Kreiss will moderate the ICA-sponsored special session “U.S. Academy Under Attack: Challenges, Implications and Ways Forward.”
• Associate Professor of Race and Political Communication Meredith Clark will host the Blue Sky Big Ideas session “Dismantling the Master’s House: New Directions for Peer Review of Intersectional Scholarship.”
• Meredith Clark will sit on the “Council of Communication Associations (CCA) Strategies for Sustaining Equity in Media and Communication Education” panel.

SATURDAY, June 14

• Eva Zhao will co-present “Exploring the contingent effect of cultural tailoring of GenAI on multiethnic members’ disaster information seeking and attitude: A cross-group comparison.”
• Eva Zhao will co-present “Examining the Roles of Modality and Cultural Tailoring in GenAI-Human Disaster Communication for Hispanic and Latino Communities.”
• Eva Zhao will co-present “Automating Content Analysis with Multi-LLM Agents: Impacts of Agent Attributes and Human-AI Collaboration.”
• Associate Professor Amanda Reid and Ph.D. alum Evan Ringel ’24 will co-present “The Future of Justice: A Computational Mixed-method Approach to News Coverage of AI in the United States Legal System.”
• Seth Noar will co-present “Why the Effects of Media Effects Gradually Decline.”
• Kristen Harrison is hosting the first annual ICA Neurodivergent Scholars Gathering.

SUNDAY, June 15

• Meredith Clark will co-present “From Strategy to Sentiment: Examining the Role of Partisan News in Fostering White Racial Consciousness and Shaping Attitudes Toward Critical Race Theory”
• Ph.D. student Lorcan Neill will present “Far-Right Transnational Media Coverage: Adapting and disseminating mediated narratives of history, power, and identity.”
• Ph.D student Bonjoo Gu will co-present “Beyond Childhood: The Impact of Family Literacy Practices and Subjective Norms on Lifelong Reading Habits.”

MONDAY, June 16

• Zhihuai Lin will co-present “Persuade Wisely, Keep Fit Effectively: A Computational Analysis of Opinion Leadership and Persuasion Tactics Using Elaboration Likelihood Model.”
• Eva Zhao and Zhihuai Lin will co-present “Organizational Sociopolitical Engagement in Network Ecology: Roles of Organizational Size, Industry Type, and Political Ideology.”
• Daniel Kreiss and Associate Professor Shannon McGregor will co-present “S. Toward a Group Theory of Communication.”

Search the program here.