Top: SOC3 students with Clawed; Bottom: Ros Donald and Filippo Trevisan with AU President Jon Alger and Mary Ann Alger

Patricia Aufderheide participated in the launch of a report resulting from her Fulbright stay spring semester 2024 in South Korea, affiliated with the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. There, with two Korean scholar-filmmakers, she researched how Korean documentary filmmakers negotiate Korean copyright law when using copyrighted material in their work. (20 years ago, Patricia and WCL's Peter Jaszi did this work with U.S. filmmakers, and it ended up changing industry practices). Korea has the same fair use doctrine as in the U.S.

Co-authors of the report and representatives of Korean filmmakers organizations talk at DMZ Festival's forum on September 28

The Vice Provost for Research, in consultation with a review committee comprised of members of the American University Faculty Senate Committee on Scholarship, selected Kurt Braddock’s proposal to be advanced as AU’s nomination for the prestigious senior Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. This is a very competitive process, congratulations Kurt and good luck!

Kurt also appeared as a guest on the Joan Esposito Show on WCPT820 in Chicago. In the interview, Kurt discussed the proliferation of disinformation in the race for the White House, and how rhetoric coming from the right lends itself to violence on the part of some Trump supporters.

Furthermore, Kurt was interviewed for an article in Forbes concerning the Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel and the spread of disinformation related to it. In the article, Kurt discusses how claims of destroyed Israeli F-35s are meant to mislead audiences, overshadow the fact that the attack was largely ineffective, and sow confusion about Iranian military capability.

Filippo Trevisan spoke with the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle about the Vice Presidential debate on CBS and was quoted in its German language and English language coverage.

SOC’s online content manager (and alumna) Veronica Castro spotted Scott Talan’s social media posts from the Olympic Games in Paris. She pitched Talan on an article, which current SOC PRSC student Sarah Ailor wrote up and put together.

The graduate journalism students in Amy Eisman's class visited the stunning and newly renovated NBC4 Wednesday. They received a personal tour and talk with Mike Goldrick, Vice President of News at NBC4 (WRC-TV) and Telemundo44 (WZDC-TV). Earlier in the day, they enjoyed career guidance via Zoom from Ted Kim, Director of Newsroom Career Programs at The New York Times. Ted is also an alum of the journalism MA program.

Students stand behind the NBC4 News Desk at the renovated studios

Congrats to CNN and SOC alum Polson Kanneth, here holding CNN’s Emmy for Outstanding Live News Special for a Town Hall on the Ohio toxic train disaster. Kanneth is CNN Director of Special Events Booking.

Joe Campbell yesterday received the Sidney Kobre lifetime achievement award of the American Journalism Historians Association at its meeting in Pittsburgh. In accepting what is the organization's highest honor, Joe encouraged fellow journalism historians "to be sure your research doesn’t shy from addressing the vital if impertinent 'so what?' question," and go beyond the descriptive and make clear "how your work contributes broadly to the field."

Joe of late has been conducting media interviews and writing op-eds, often drawing on his seventh book, Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections. One of his op-eds was linked in Tuesday's lineup at the widely read site RealClearPolitics.com.

Joe receives the award from the chair of the AJHA awards committee, Willie Tubbs

The Journalism Division marked the 10th anniversary of the News Games TV quiz show on Tuesday and crowned the 2024 champions Mariana Trujillo Valdes and Gabe Castro-Root. The runners-up are Brandon Smith and Naomi Teodros. The game was hosted by Journalism Division Director Terry Bryant, grad student Temitayo Ojewunmi-Ojoand John C. Watson.  The overall success of the program was made possible by the hard work of SOC staffers Jacob Audouin, Mads Wooten, Grace Ibrahim, Katherine Vera and Tia Milledge. 

News Games is part of national News Engagement Day that is observed annually by college journalism programs across the United States. The observance was initiated after a research study by  Paula M. Poindexter at the University of Texas - Austin indicated that young people who were engaged with the news had significant positive outcomes in their professional, civic and personal lives. Poindexter introduced the observance in Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club in 2014, and the News Games immediately became an annual event at SOC. The game is based on the iconic TV game show Jeopardy! and uses an identical game board that allows contestants to choose from a variety of news categories that vary in difficulty and point values. This year’s categories included Political Corruption, LGBTQ+, It’s Just Business,  Pop Culture, International News, Women, and a special category devoted to the surprising bits of news about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The names of the News Games winners are engraved each year on a trophy that features a triumphant AU eagle carrying a pencil indicative of journalism. The award is displayed year-round in the illuminated trophy case on the second floor of the McKinley building.

Top: winners Marianna Trujillo-Valdes and Gabe Castro-Root, left to right; Bottom: the News Games in SOC's Media Innovation Lab