Dotty Lynch (photo: American University)

Aram Sinnreich and his co-author Jesse Gilbert were featured on the podcast Music Tectonics where they discussed how the data age has transformed music and their latest book The Secret Life of Data, which was released last week by MIT Press. and I did a while ago was finally published today. 

On May 9th, AWOL released a Professor Profile on Kylos Brannon concentrating on his work in video projection design.

Kylos also designed the video projection that played between bands at the 15th M3 Music Festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion on May 4 & 5, including classic 80s acts Queensryche, Quiet Riot, Dee Snyder, and Bret Michaels. 

Jane Hall was interviewed about Michelle Obama’s popularity among young voters by Newsweek.com.

SOC alum and Wall Street Journal reporter Dana Mattioli talked at Politics and Prose about her new book, an expose on corporate giant Amazon entitled “The Everything War: Amazon’s Ruthless Quest to Own the World and Remake Corporate Power.” Jane Hall, Dana’s former professor, attended with two current SOC journalism students, Maryjane Williams and Ryan O’Connor.

Profs. Dashiell, Stokes and Phelps hosted a 50-person Saturday convening on the intersection of Race and Gaming – thanks to the SOC dean’s funding via the Race Matters grants. The keynote featured Lindsay Grace on his recent book around Black Game Studies. Scholars came from the DMV to Canada, Utah and Florida. Perhaps most impressive was the way our alumni turned out (e.g., from Amazon Game Studios), and our current students loved the networking in an applied setting. A report from the event will be published later this summer.

Special: Journalism and Public Communication Awards

Journalism and Communication Studies students were honored at the annual Journalism Awards Ceremony. This year's ceremony included five recognitions: the induction into the Kappa Tau Alpha honor society; the Rodger Streitmatter Journalism prizes; the Rodger Streitmatter Journalism Award for Excellence; the AU SOC White House Correspondents’ Association Investigative Journalism Scholarship; and the inaugural Wendy Rieger Memorial Scholarship.

The Kappa Tau Alpha inductees included: Spaulding Bingaman, Benjamin Chan Bennett, Sarah Jacobs Clayton, Natalie Flynn, Weslan Zona Hansen and Katherine Mass from Journalism; and Sirra Belinda Faal, Henry Jeanneret and Ava Sheffler from Communication Studies. Lynne Perri, who serves as AU's KTA faculty representative, administered the oath and presented each student with a certificate and an honor cord to be worn at graduation.

The Streitmatter Prize winners ($300 for first place, $150 for second place) were:

Professor Emeritus Rodger Streitmatter presented the top journalism award to Weslan Hansen. Weslan’s name will be engraved on a trophy and she will receive $2,500, thanks to the generous donation from Rodger’s husband, Thomas Grooms, in honor of Rodger. Tom and Rodger also fund the Streitmatter Prizes.

Gabe Castro-Root was recognized for being the AU SOC White House Correspondents’ Association Investigative Journalism Scholarship winner. Gabe received a $5,000 award.

Nicole Wiley was recognized for being the inaugural Wendy Rieger Memorial Scholarship winner. Nicole received a $1,250 award.

Terry Bryant, Lynne Perri, Whitney Harris Christopher and Chris Halsne served as the hosts of the ceremony.

Rodger Streitmatter and Thomas Grooms pose with the Journalism award winners.

The PC division is pleased to announce the winners of our annual PC Capstone Awards! Winners include this year’s best strategic communications capstone, political capstone, and public relations portfolio projects from our graduating class of 2024.

Our PC faculty selected one exceptional project from each of the undergraduate portfolio classes, strategic communication graduate capstone classes, and political capstone classes. Nominated projects were then judged by professionals in the field of strategic communications and esteemed faculty to select one outstanding winner from each category.

This year’s judges for our undergraduate portfolio course include communication professionals from AARP, Weber Shandwick, and the American Gaming Association. 

Professors Molly O’Rourke, Kurt Braddock, and Rosalind Donald judged the graduate political and strategic communication capstones.

PC graduate capstone and political capstone students conducted research to develop a long-form paper or project in an area of strategic communication of their choosing. While undergraduate students in the public relations portfolio classes work in teams to help a real-world client address a specific communication challenge or plan for an upcoming campaign launch. As always, our strategic communication students impressed our faculty and judges with their outstanding work.

Congratulations to all of the 2024 winners! 

 

Public Relations Portfolio:

Created by: Alejandra Urbano, Daniella Spino, Mahika Tulsyan, Sofia Amador (Professor Rajul Bhaskar)

 

Strategic Plan Topic: Showtime’s New Season of Couples Therapy 

Client Quote: “The team presented a campaign full of thoughtful story angles, concise messaging and creative pitches, and sparked new ideas about how to effectively target new and different audiences to watch the new season of Couples Therapy.”

 

Graduate Strategic Communication Capstone:

Created by: Mikayla Bradley (Professor Caty Borum)

Paper Topic: "Persuading Religious America: How Religious Individuals Receive Faith-Based Communication for Social and Political Advocacy” 

 

Graduate Political Communication Capstone:

Created by: Natasha LeChac (Professor Brenda Foster)

Podcast Topic:  “The Parent’s Rights” Movement, Communication, and Fighting Back