Patricia Aufderheide spoke on a panel at the D.C. Environmental Film Festival about ethics and accountability in documentary filmmaking, on March 26.
With Aram Sinnreich and PhD student Thomas Struett, Patricia co-presented their recent research, "Fool Me Twice: How Do We Keep the Fediverse from Sucking?" on April 3 at the PlatGovNet conference, hosted online.
The Center for Media & Social Impact received a $100,000 gift from the Argosy Foundation to support a new project under CMSI's GoodLaugh initiative, the GoodLaugh Grassroots Comedy Tour, which is building a new method of place-based civic participation and community engagement with comedy as the centerpiece. The program will launch as a pilot in October 2023 as part of the Appalachian Big Ideas Festival in Hazard, Kentucky.
Pallavi Kumar’s PR Case Studies students from last semester won second place in the prestigious national Arthur Page Case Study Competition. SOC PR/Strategic Communication majors Yasmeen Jabara, Nicolas Blanco Ballesteros, Meagan Keefe, and Gabriela Perez were recognized for their paper: The Starbucks Union Boom: How a Pro-Worker Employer Became a Union Target. Their team will receive a cash prize of $3,000. Professor Kumar served as their faculty advisor. Here is a news release from Arthur Page announcing this year’s winners.
Aram Sinnreich was quoted in Forbes, about how the meme-ification of George Michael’s 1980s hit “Careless Whisper” contributed to its reaching 1 billion views on YouTube.
Aram Sinnreich was also quoted in Marketplace, about the copyright implications of the lawsuit between the Authors Guild and the Internet Archive.
John C. Watson delivered the keynote briefing Monday for two dozen international journalists and focused on the freedoms protected by the First Amendment as well as the limits to press freedom in the United States imposed by 21st century challenges. The session was part of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists established as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. The journalists were from 23 countries.
Margot Susca was quoted in Steve Waldman's piece for Washington Monthly headlined "How to Stop Vulture Funds From Killing Local News." Waldman also cites Margot's forthcoming book Hedged: How Private Investment Funds Helped Destroy American Newspapers and Undermine Democracy.
Caty Borum's new book, The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy For Social Change and Civic Power (NYU Press), was listed as #2 on Vulture's "Best Comedy Books of 2023." https://www.vulture.com/article/best-funny-books-comedy-2023.html
Caty Borum also gave an invited book talk at the NYC headquarters of the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
Since 2011, Amy Eisman has served nearly every year as a judge for the White House Correspondents' Association awards, celebrating the best in presidential and deep journalism. This year she and three others judged the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability, naming the POLITICO Roe V. Wade leak story to the top honor. All award winners here.
Kurt Braddock was interviewed by USA Today with regard to Donald Trump's fundraising activities and the communicative implications of the campaigns e-mails. Using anti-Semitic tropes and a fake mugshot, Trump has sought to solicit funds from followers.
Kurt was also interviewed by Voice of America regarding Trump's celebration of January 6 at a recent rally.