Gemma Puglisi, the vice-chair of the broadcast/podcast committee of the National Press Club, received two awards recently. 

The first was a Vivian Award given to outstanding members for their service. Gemma is shown with Adam Konowe, SOC adjunct and chair of the committee along with Mike Hempen, from AP Broadcast. 

Gemma was also recognized for being a member of the club for 25 years — and now a “Silver Owl” member.  

Gemma Puglisi with SOC adjunct professor, Adam Konowe and Mike Hempen, co-chairs of the committee, at the Vivian Awards.

Gemma Puglisi recognized for her 25-year membership of the National Press Club

Rhonda Zaharna was among the international scholars invited to contribute to the 20-year Anniversary Special Issue of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. Her piece looked at the parallel shifts in public diplomacy over the past two decades and is titled "A generational tale of two public diplomacy paths: fierce competition, global collaboration."

Kylos Brannon, along with FMA alum Liz Shumpert, will be mixing live video projections at 930 Club on Dec 21st for the 90s dance party No Scrubs (Holiday Extravaganza). Need to indulge in some nostalgia before the holiday or blow off some post semester steam? Come for the TLC, Nirvana, and Backstreet Boys, stay for the bomb diggity video mash-ups. Email Kylos if you're interested in getting on the door list.

Maggie Stogner received two new grants from the National Park Service. The NPS Night Skies Indigenous Storytelling funding of $87,500 is for 2025 and will provide six student fellowships with stipends of $2500 per students plus all expenses. These short videos will be shown in NPS Visitor Centers and during national educational events. The NPS Ecosystems $300,000 funding will provide 24 fellowships over four years for “Inspiring Science Curiosity” web videos that include $2500 per student stipends and all expenses paid. This is an excellent recruitment/retention opportunity for our students. If you know of students who have advanced production skills and are interested, please send them my way. A big shout out to Kristi Plahn-Gjersvold, Meriem Tikue, Marissa Woods, and Khadine Thomas who put in a lot of extra effort to get these last-minute government grants processed!!

Scott Talan commented in Forbes about the phenomena of recurring images on social media sites, such as the actor, Tom Cruise posing a top the tallest building in the world in Dubai.

Maya Livio's short film, "Thermopower" (2024) was streamed by invitation on Labocine, the leading international streaming platform for art/science films. The film was published as part of their Mountain Panorama issue. 

Maya was also invited by students at WVAU, AU's student-run radio station, to contribute a faculty playlist to the station's public Spotify. The playlist, which looks forward to spring, can be found on Spotify @wvaumusic!

The Center for Media & Social Impact (CMSI) has received a gift of $10,000 from The McNulty Foundation to support our work in leveraging comedy for social change through our Goodlaugh project. 

"The Test" co-directed and produced by Claudia Myers and Laura Waters Hinson, won Best of the Festival at the St. Louis International Film Festival. SLIFF is one of only 59 Oscar-qualifying festivals in the U.S. By winning their top short film award, "The Test" qualified for the 2025 Academy Awards for consideration in the Best Short Documentary category.

In November and December, "The Test" also screened at the Pittsburgh Shorts film festival, at a special event hosted by the United Nations Association Film Festival in Palo Alto, as well as three special screenings for AMPAS voters in New York, Los Angeles and Washington DC.

"Abused by the Badge," a series of investigative stories in The Washington Post, found that at least 1,800 officers were arrested for crimes involving child sexual abuse from 2005-2022. The stories published over the last year were written by Jenn Abelson, Jessica Contrera, and John D. Harden, and included several with the co-byline of Hayden Godfrey, one of our former graduate journalism students who was also an intern and then post-graduate fellow at IRW. Many of our other now-former students contributed to the team as researchers over the two-year reporting period. 

Hayden, who is now a reporter at The Toronto Star, wrote: "When I moved to D.C. to pursue a career in investigative journalism, I could only dream of having the chance to work on such impactful and daring journalism. As reporters, we strive to fearlessly hold the powerful to account and inform our audiences dutifully and soundly. I'm proud to say that, with "Abused by the Badge," I think we did just that, all while respecting the dignity of our subjects and acknowledging their bravery and trauma." 

Additional contributors from our Washington Post practicum — which was led John Sullivan, who also contributed to the project — were Alex Angle, Riley Ceder, Madeleine Sherer, Ben Baker, Nicholas Fogleman, Daniela Alejandra Lobo, Mirika Rayaprolu, Nami Hijikata, Solène Guarinos, Alexandra Rivera, Ron Simon III, Cameron Jennings Adams, Dima Amro and Siddhi Prabhanjan Mahatole.

You can find an overview and key findings here, and learn more about how the investigation was done through the methodology story. New Department of Justice guidelines for training and policies to protect students from predatory school cops was but one recently announced impact of the project.

This week Media in the Mix spotlights SOC's rising stars, Marley Joseph and Sarah Ailor! Tune in as they share their journeys in PR and Journalism, dive into the art of balancing academics and personal life, and discuss how they're seizing opportunities to grow and acquire new skills on campus. It's an inspiring episode that showcases the drive and creativity of our talented students—don’t miss it and listen here!

Congrats to the PRSSA teams from American University, Howard University, and the University of Maryland for receiving the PRSA National Capital Chapter’s Outstanding Student Awards for their work on the PRSSA 2025 Conference Bid.  

Special thanks for: Briana May (UMD), Reginald Burke, Jr. (Howard U), Alexander Spencer (UMD), and Jared Bowes (AU). Not pictured, Thea Duc (AU). 

Briana May (UMD), Reginald Burke, Jr. (Howard U), Alexander Spencer (UMD), and Jared Bowes (AU) with the PRSSA Award

Jane Hall is a featured interview in a multi-part podcast series about the history and rise of Fox News Channel, on Slate's "Slow Burn" podcast.  

Jane was also interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about ABC's decision to pay a $15 million settlement rather than challenge Donald Trump's defamation suit against ABC News

John C. Watson was interviewed this week by journalists covering lawsuits President-Elect Donald Trump filed against two news organizations. The Independent, a UK news publication reported that ABC News had been sued because it broadcast statements indicating Trump had been found responsible for a rape. ABC settled the suit by agreeing to pay Trump $15 million. The ABC report was substantially true, but Trump's lawyers argued it was false because the legal definition they relied on specified a different male body part. Watson criticized the settlement as a business decision based on a reluctance to spend the money required to defend press freedom. “Under U.S. Constitutional law precedents dating back to 1964, this case should have failed. Public figures and public officials should never be allowed to win such cases when there is substantial truth to the defamatory statements,” he said.

NBC News also spoke to Watson about a Trump Lawsuit against the Des Moines Register based on a poll that incorrectly indicated Kamala Harris led in Iowa shortly before the 2024 presidential election. Trump's lawyers claimed the inaccurate poll violated the state's consumer protection regulations and interfered with the election. Watson found the lawsuit specious and virtually certain to fail but added, "This lawsuit is so clever, that I can imagine a sadistic law professor using it to befuddle, confuse and torture 3Ls.  It looks like an attempt to sidestep the requirements of a libel lawsuit, or even the requirements for a lawsuit alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress. The publication of the poll appears to injure only the plaintiff's feelings and little else." 

The Community Engagement Committee facilitated the "Share the Warmth" event through the month of November, including a clothing drive in partnership with the student organization Eagle Communication that benefited Veteran's on the Rise, and ending in the Great Communication Bake Off on November 23rd. The Committee would like to thank all who donated to the clothing drive and participated in the Bake Off. Congratulations to Meriem Tikue, who won with her delicious Basque cheesecake and took home the prestigious SOC Wooden Spoon.

Meriem Tikue, winner of the 2024 SOC Bake Off