Max Pollak (Advert’10)
Creative Director, Deutsch LA

After years away from 91������, Pollak returned to CU for a collaboration between NerdWallet and Travis Hunter. Pollak and his team shot a video where Hunter talked about the “Smartest NIL” campaign and a giveaway where fans could win a collectible cutout piece of Hunter’s contract with the brand. The highlight for Pollak? A selfie with “Heisman” Hunter.

  How did you land Travis Hunter? In his Heisman season, no less?
I’m a huge CU fan with season tickets, and it just so happens that NerdWallet already has a partnership with CU. I knew Travis Hunter would be a great brand ambassador, and we even sneaked into the Coach Prime documentary.

As to the Heisman, I thought he should win it and I thought there was a big chance. I’m happy it happened, but I can’t say I predicted it.

  What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Focus on what you love. Success comes out of that.

I’m actually stoked for what I get paid to do. I like advertising because it’s a puzzle to figure out—it’s both strategic and creative, and I like intertwining all that.

  You used to be a firefighter. What’s something memorable about that job?
You never want something bad to happen—but there’s [an adrenaline rush] when you hear the bells and sirens.

My best friend—also a volunteer, now with FDNY—and I were driving to a car show when we got the page that his house went up in flames. We had to put out a fire that was going through his house, which we had played in as kids. It makes you sympathize with people.

  Best compliment you’ve ever received?
I was at Barchetta recently and my wife was sitting there with our kid, and this guy walked up to me and said, “You have a great spot”—meaning the table in the restaurant. I thought it was weird, but I said, “Yeah, I know.” He was like, “Wow, how confident!” and walked away. I saw my wife was dying laughing, and she told me what he actually said was, “You have a great smile!”

  Rory Fitzgerald Bledsoe
PhD Candidate, Media Studies

Rory Fitzgerald Bledsoe is a PhD candidate in media studies who runs a multimodal art gallery, , in East 91������. Her first exhibition, “Phones are Heavy,” ran from November through January; “Archive Fever Dream” opens in March.

  Why did you want to open a gallery?
This space is public scholarship. I’m interested in creating discourse on cultural issues that transcend the limits of the law. I also ran a gallery in Boston where I gave solo shows to artists who hadn’t had one before, and it’s gratifying to elevate emerging artists and underrepresented ideas.

  Was there a gallery you had in mind as you envisioned what Space__Space could look like? 
I did an artist/curatorial residency in New York, at Flux Factory, and that has been a big influence on my drive for cultivating experimentation and community.

  Something you hope visitors notice as they walk through the gallery?
The work, of course. And maybe the sunset-pink trim. Pink has connotations of being frivolous, but I see it as subversive—a power color. So I put it in the bottom trim around the gallery, where it’s a secret signature that doesn’t get in the way of the work. 

  Tell me about those sunsets.
I’m used to underground, windowless art spaces in New York and Boston. From the back of Space__Space, you can see mountains, and from the front, you get the sunset. Someday, I want to do a site-specific installation that harnesses sunsets, because they are so spectacular. 

  Biggest surprise? 
Being able to do it. Every time you take the risk of creating something—like in Boston, running Space 121 out of my apartment, I wasn’t sure what would happen. But I’ve started to believe if you build it, when there is a thirst, they will come.

  Wait, the gallery in Boston was out of your apartment? What did your landlord say about that?
They never found out. (Laughs) We had openings; we just called them parties. 

  Last one. A favorite work from your first exhibit?
The brilliant Flora Wilds flew in to install her sculptures, which was a magical collaboration. But I will say everyone who came in had a different favorite, and that is a mark of a resonant and successful show. 

A selection of works from Space__Space’s inaugural exhibit, which closed in January. From left, works by Maya Buffett-Davis, a 91������ graduate student; Ana González Barragán; Devon Narine-Singh; and Flora Wilds. Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18).

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By Hannah Stewart (Comm’19)

As a kid, Joel Thurman decided that while he didn’t have the wit or wealth of Batman, he could still train and shoot a bow like the Green Arrow. 

Now, as a comic book scholar, Thurman is more interested in the character’s role as a foster father.

As a long-time Arrow fan—and a high school history teacher of 10 years—Thurman thought he’d research history through comics for his PhD program in media studies. But that focus shifted when he and his wife became foster parents.

“I was walking with my wife when I had an epiphany: study foster care and superheroes, find those connections and do a history of both,” he said. “I absolutely adore the Green Arrow, which since the early 2000s really depicts him as a foster father. I have a completely different appreciation for Green Arrow now than I did, say, five years ago.”

Through his research, Thurman found that the success of superheroes—especially orphaned ones—reflect the myth that no matter how bad one’s situation is, it’s possible to overcome it. In reality, the myth is just that: Orphans are the least likely to graduate high school and maintain full-time jobs. 

“I want to raise awareness of kids in foster care, and superheroes are a way to break the ice and have those difficult conversations with people who largely don’t know what the system is like,” he said.

Students in the media studies department at CMCI learn that pop culture is a place where people both tell their own stories while considering and challenging the expectations for how society is supposed to work.

Given how current events and societal shifts—not to mention changing perspectives, as new writers shape the voices of iconic characters—influence comic book writing, the medium itself becomes a unique way to examine the attitudes and norms of a given era.

“We train our students to think about other people and to consider positions of power, networks and social structure. Any of our students should be able to tell the stories of others,” said Rick Stevens, associate professor of media studies and Thurman’s mentor. 

Stevens said that together, they focused Thurman’s interest in how foster children are represented in comics on how those stories can help people learn about their world.

“He has passion around some of the characters and stories in this space, but I’m really glad to see his interests expand beyond just what his desires and likes are,” said Stevens, who also is associate dean of undergraduate education. “And that’s the sign of a good media studies scholar.”

That growing interest now encompasses family dynamics and, even more broadly, industry trends such as readership changes, creator rights and consumer tastes.

“My research is so unique that, at the moment, I’m the only one who can write that particular narrative,” he said.

These other branches of research have taken him to conferences beyond 91������, which he said were incredible opportunities—not only to present his work at places like Venice and San Diego Comic-Con, but to meet writers and actors who’ve worked on series such as Batman, Spiderman, Daredevil and, yes, Green Arrow. 

His favorite interview, though, was with actor Jon Cryer, who played Lex Luthor in the CW television series Supergirl. Not only did Thurman discover that Cryer is a massive comic book fan himself—he has a collection of original Marvel comic art that he showed Thurman during their interview—the pair also bonded over being foster dads.

“I didn’t realize we would connect the way that we did, and it was just absolutely fantastic,” he said. “I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities the university has allowed.”

 I love teaching and fostering students’ ideas. The comic book writing is for me—it’s a story I wanted to tell. The academic work is to make a difference."
Joel Thurman
PhD candidate, Media Studies

One such opportunity was meeting CMCI advisory board member (and “legend,” in Thurman’s words) Steven T. Seagle, partner at Man of Action Entertainment. Over dinner, he learned Seagle (Advert’88) got his start from writing comic books while in college.

“I was like, ‘That’s a dream of mine.’ And he said, ‘If you really want to do it, do what I did: Hire an artist and get it done,’” Thurman said.

He now has independently published a horror comic, Disinter, and is working on a sci-fi comic set to come out in April.

“I’m having so much fun writing comics, but I’ll probably dabble in both academia and comic writing, because I love teaching and fostering students’ ideas,” he said. “The comic book writing is for me—it’s a story I wanted to tell. The academic work is to make a difference.”

Whether in the panels of a comic book or the classroom, Thurman hopes to challenge creators and the community to reconsider how they think about children portrayed in and beyond comic book stories.

“Foster care is completely not discussed in comics, and I think that should change,” he said.

If Thurman is able to change that conversation, it will be at least in part due to his CMCI experiences. Stevens said when it comes to being a voice for the vulnerable, he wants his students “to be allies where we can, and to research more than just who we are and what we directly know.”

“Joel is really good at thinking outside himself, asking good questions, and interacting with people who create pop culture and their thought processes,” he said. “But he’s also really good at stepping back and looking at the effects, the structure, the consequences.”

Off

By Joe Arney

Deepfakes. Distrust. Data manipulation. Is it any wonder American democracy feels like it has reached such a dangerous tipping point?  

As our public squares have emptied of reasoned discussion, and our social media feeds have filled with vitriol, viciousness and villainy, we’ve found ourselves increasingly isolated and unable to escape our echo chambers. And while it’s easy to blame social media, adtech platforms or the news, it’s the way these forces overlap and feed off each other that’s put us in this mess.

It’s an important problem to confront as we close in on a consequential election, but the issue is bigger than just what happens this November, or whether you identify with one party or another. Fortunately, the College of Media, Communication and Information was designed for just these kinds of challenges, where a multidisciplinary approach is needed to frame, address and solve increasingly complex problems. 

“Democracy is not just about what happens in this election,” said Nathan Schneider, an assistant professor of media studies and an expert in the design and governance of the internet. “It’s a much longer story, and through all the threats we’ve seen, I’ve taken hope from focusing my attention on advancing democracy, rather than just defending it.”

We spoke to Schneider and other CMCI experts in journalism, information science, media studies, advertising and communication to understand the scope of the challenges. And we asked one big question of each in order to help us make sense of this moment in history, understand how we got here and—maybe—find some faith in the future.  

*** 

Newsrooms have been decimated. The younger generation doesn’t closely follow the news. Attention spans have withered in the TikTok age. Can we count on journalism to serve its Fourth Estate function and deliver fair, accurate coverage of the election?

Mike McDevitt, a former editorial writer and reporter, isn’t convinced the press has learned its lessons from the 2016 cycle, when outlets chased ratings and the appearance of impartiality over a commitment to craft that might have painted more accurate portraits of both candidates. High-quality reporting, he said, may mean less focus on finding scoops and more time sharing resources to chase impactful stories.

How can journalism be better?

“A lot of journalists might disagree with me, but I think news media should be less competitive among each other and find ways to collaborate, especially with the industry gutted. And the news can’t lose sight of what’s important by chasing clickable stories. Covering chaos and conflict is tempting, but journalism’s interests in this respect do not always align with the security of democracy. While threats to democracy are real, amplifying chaos is not how news media should operate during an era of democratic backsliding.”  

***

After the 2016 election, Brian C. Keegan was searching for ways to use his interests in the computer and social sciences in service of democracy. That’s driven his expertise in public-interest data science—how to make closed data more accessible to voters, journalists, activists and researchers. He looks at how campaigns can more effectively engage voters, understand important issues and form policies that address community needs. 

 The U.S. news media has blood on its hands from 2016. It will go down as one of the worst moments in the history of American journalism.”

 Mike McDevitt
 Professor, journalism

You’ve called the 2012 election an “end of history” moment. Can you explain that in the context of what’s happening in 2024?

“In 2012, we were coming out of the Arab Spring, and everyone was optimistic about social media. The idea that it could be a tool for bots and state information operations to influence elections would have seemed like science fiction. Twelve years later, we’ve finally learned these platforms are not neutral, have real risk and can be manipulated. And now, two years into the large language model moment, people are saying these are just neutral tools that can only be a force for good. That argument is already falling apart.

 I think 2024 will be the first, and last, 
A.I. election.”

Brian C. Keegan
Assistant professor, information science

“You could actually roll the clock back even further, to the 1960s and ’70s, when people were thinking about Silent Spring and Unsafe at Any Speed, and recognizing there are all these environmental, regulatory, economic and social things all connected through this lens of the environment. Like any computing system, when it comes to data, if you have garbage in, you get garbage out. The bias and misinformation we put into these A.I. systems are polluting our information ecosystem in ways that journalists, activists, researchers and others aren’t equipped to handle.”  

***

One of Angie Chuang’s last news jobs was covering race and ethnicity for The Oregonian. In the early 2000s, it wasn’t always easy to find answers to questions about race in a mostly white newsroom. Conferences like those put on by the Asian American Journalists Association “were times of revitalization for me,” she said.

When this year’s conference of the National Association of Black Journalists was disrupted by racist attacks against Kamala Harris, Chuang’s first thoughts were for the attendees who lost the opportunity to learn from one another and find the support she did as a cub reporter.

“What’s lost in this discussion is the entire event shifted to this focus on Donald Trump and the internal conflict in the organization, and I’m certain that as a result, journalists and students who went lost out on some of that solidarity,” she said. And it fits a larger pattern of outspoken newsmakers inserting themselves into the news to claim the spotlight. 

How can journalism avoid being hijacked by the people it covers?

“It comes down to context. We need to train reporters to take a breath and not just focus on being the first out there. And I know that’s really hard, because the rewards for being first and getting those clicks ahead of the crowd are well established.”  

“I can’t blame the reporters who feel these moments are worth covering, because I feel as conflicted as they do.   
Angie Chuang
Associate professor, journalism

***

Agenda setting—the concept that we take our cues of what’s important from the news—is as old an idea as mass media itself, but Chris Vargo is drawing interesting conclusions from studying the practice in the digital age. Worth watching, he and other CMCI researchers said, are countermedia entities, which undermine the depictions of reality found in the mainstream press through hyper-partisan content and the use of mis- and disinformation.

How did we get into these silos, and how do we get out?

“The absence of traditional gatekeepers has helped people create identities around the issues they choose to believe in. Real-world cues do tell us a little about what we find important—a lot of people had to get COVID to know it was bad—but we now choose media in order to form a community. The ability to self-select what you want to listen to and believe in is a terrifying story, because selecting media based on what makes us feel most comfortable, that tells us what we want to hear, flies in the face of actual news reporting and journalistic integrity.”  

“I do worry about our institutions. I don’t like that a majority of Americans don’t trust CNN. 
 

Chris Vargo
Associate professor, advertising, 
public relations and media design

***

Her research into deepfakes has validated what Sandra Ristovska has known for a long time: For as long as we’ve had visual technologies, we’ve had the ability to manipulate them.

Seeing pornographic images of Taylor Swift on social media or getting robocalls from Joe Biden telling voters to stay home—content created by generative artificial intelligence—is a reminder that the scale of the problem is unprecedented. But Ristovska’s work has found examples of fake photos from the dawn of the 20th century supposedly showing, for example, damage from catastrophic tornadoes that never happened. 

Ristovska grew up amid the Yugoslav Wars; her interest in becoming a documentary filmmaker was in part shaped by seeing how photos and videos from the brutal fighting and genocide were manipulated for political and legal means. It taught her to be a skeptic when it comes to what she sees shared online. 

“So, you see the Taylor Swift video—it seems out of character for her public persona. Or the president—why would he say something like that?” she said. “Instead of just hitting the share button, we should train ourselves to go online and fact check it—to be more engaged.”  

Even when we believe something is fake, if it aligns with our worldview, we are likely to accept it as reality. Knowing that, how do we combat deepfakes?

“We need to go old school. We’ve lost sight of the collective good, and you solve that by building opportunities to come together as communities and have discussions. We’re gentler and more tolerant of each other when we’re face-to-face. This has always been true, but it’s becoming even more true today, because we have more incentives to be isolated than ever.”   

***

Early scholarly works waxed poetic on the internet’s potential, through its ability to connect people and share information, to defeat autocracy. But, Nathan Schneider has argued, the internet is actually organized as a series of little autocracies—where users are subject to the whims of moderators and whoever owns the servers—effectively meaning you must work against the defaults to be truly democratic. He suggests living with these systems is contributing to the global rise of authoritarianism. In a new book, Governable Spaces, Schneider calls for redesigning social media with everyday democracy in mind.

If the internet enables autocracy, what can we do to fix it?

“We could design our networks for collective ownership, rather than the assumption that every service is a top-down fiefdom. And we could think about democracy as a tool for solving problems, like conflict among users. Polarizing outcomes, like so-called cancel culture, emerge because people don’t have better options for addressing harm. A democratic society needs public squares designed for democratic processes and practices.”  

***

It may be derided as dull, but the public meeting is a bedrock of American democracy. It has also changed drastically as fringe groups have seized these spaces to give misinformation a megaphone, ban books and take up other undemocratic causes. Leah Sprain researches how specific communication practices facilitate and inhibit democratic action. She works as a facilitator with several groups, including the League of Women Voters and Restore the Balance, to ensure events like candidate forums embrace difficult issues while remaining nonpartisan.

What’s a story we’re not telling about voters ahead of the election?

“We should be looking more at college towns, because town-gown divides are real and long-standing. There’s a politics of resentment even in a place like 91������, where you have people who say, ‘We know so much about these issues, we shouldn’t let students vote on them’—to the point where providing pizza to encourage voter turnout becomes this major controversy. Giving young people access to be involved, making them feel empowered to make a difference and be heard—these are good things.”   

***

Toby Hopp studies the news media and digital content providers with an eye to how our interactions with media shape conversations in the public sphere. Much of that is changing as trust and engagement with mainstream news sources declines. He’s studied whether showing critical-thinking prompts alongside shared posts—requiring users to consider the messages as well as the structure of the platform itself—may be better than relying on top-down content moderation from tech companies.   

Ultimately, the existing business model of the big social media companies—packaging users to be sold to advertisers—may be the most limiting feature when it comes to reform. Hopp said he doubts a business the size of Meta can pivot from its model.

How does social media rehabilitate itself to become more trusted? Can it?

“Social media platforms are driven by monopolistic impulses, and there’s not a lot of effort put into changing established strategies when you’re the only business in town. The development of new platforms might offer a wider breadth of platform choice—which might limit the spread of misinformation on a Facebook or Twitter due to the diminished reach of any single platform.”   

***

 Images have always required us to be more engaged. Now, with the speed of disinformation, we need to do a little more work.”
 

Sandra Ristovska
Assistant professor, media studies

CU News Corps was created to simulate a real-world newsroom that allows journalism students to do the kind of long-form, investigative pieces that are in such short supply at a time of social media hot takes and pundits trading talking points.  

“I thought we should design the course you’d most want to take if you were a journalism major,” said Chuck Plunkett, director of the capstone course and an experienced reporter. Having a mandate to do investigative journalism “means we can challenge our students to dig in and do meaningful work, to expose them to other kinds of people or ideas that aren’t on their radar.” 

Over the course of a semester, the students work under the guidance of reporters and editors at partner media companies to produce long-form multimedia stories that are shared on the News Corps website and, often, are picked up by those same publications, giving the students invaluable clips for their job searches while supporting resource-strapped newsrooms. 

With the news business facing such a challenging future, both economically and politically, why should students study journalism?

“Even before the great contraction of news, the figure I had in my mind was five years after students graduate, maybe 25 percent of them were still in professional newsrooms. But journalism is a tremendous major because you learn to think critically, research deeply and efficiently, interact with other people, process enormous amounts of information, and have excellent communication skills. Every profession needs people with those skills.”

Off

William W. White Outstanding Seniors are chosen by department faculty to recognize academic merit, professional achievement and service to the college. The Outstanding Graduate award honors the CMCI student with the highest overall GPA in his or her graduating class.

White, a 91������ native, graduated from CU’s School of Journalism in 1933. He was a reporter in 91������, Denver and New York before becoming the foreign editor of Time from the early 1940s through the mid-1950s, based in London, Brazil and Montreal. At the advice of his friend Edward R. Murrow, who told him “it doesn’t matter what you do, what matters is that you do it where you want to live,” White returned to 91������, where he started the White and White public relations firm. White and his wife, Connie, established this endowment in 1998.

Meet our graduates and read their stories.

Andrew Schwartz: College of Media, Communication and Information

Andrew's advice to students is to try everything and talk to as many people as you can—especially outside your major. That way, you'll broaden your perspective.

   When it comes to impact and being able to make something I’m proud of, a big part of that is being able to make technology for the people to use it, and make things that people enjoy using and improve their lives. Info places a big emphasis on that."

  Read more 

Lisa An: Department of Critical Media Practice

Lisa started her CU career as a computer science major before switching to media production. She said this was one of the best decisions she ever made because through the program, she discovered a passion for photography.

  "I learned that keeping your work to yourself because of the fear of not being good enough does no good. If you share your work and receive feedback, you are able to improve your craft and obtain opportunities you otherwise never would have been able to.

  Read more 

Elijah Boykoff: Department of Information Science

Going into college, Elijah's goals for himself were to learn as much as he could and make it to the finish line. He says he's made good on those goals, and this award is an exciting bonus.

   Your professors are people just like you. Get to know them—if you are able to resonate with your professors on a deeper level, you will be much more enriched by the knowledge they have to share."

  Read more 

Bianca Perez: Departments of Communication, Media Studies

Bianca is the first CMCI graduate to win outstanding student honors from two different majors. She's now off to a prestigious Ph.D. program.

  "What I have is like a wish coming true. You can work very hard and that can still not be enough, and I’ve seen that happen to people around me my whole life.

  Read more 

Sujei Perla Martinez: Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design

For Sujei, a first-generation college student, graduating means she's carving a new path for her family.

   My community helped foster a place for self-discovery and encouraged me to be unapologetically myself while helping me grow within my values and beliefs."

  Read more 

Nic Tamayo: Department of Journalism

Nic's CMCI experience in three words: fulfilling, inspired, treasured.

  "I will take with me the connections I’ve been able to make with people from so many corners of life. They’ve taught me lessons that I may never have learned without their friendship and mentorship.

  Read more 

Off

By Joe Arney
Photos by Kimberly Coffin (CritMedia, StratComm’18)

When Bianca Perez called her mom in the middle of the day to tell her she’d been accepted to a prestigious doctoral program at one of the nation’s foremost universities, she expected there might be some tears.

She wasn’t wrong. But it wasn’t her mother who cried.

Perez’s mother, Leyda, was born and raised in Mexico, while her father, Ernesto, came to the United States from Peru. For almost 30 years, they have worked tirelessly at growing Perez Cleaning Services, in Steamboat Springs, in order to provide their daughter with opportunities they couldn’t imagine—and don’t always understand. When she explained that she was applying to schools to be a doctor, Perez (Comm, MediaSt’24) would clarify “a doctor of words,” since her family thought she was maybe interested in a medical career.

Now, as she explained on speakerphone that she was accepted to the PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious Annenberg School for Communication, in Philadelphia, “my mom wasn’t sure what to make of it,” Perez said. “I could tell she was happy because she could hear the excitement in my voice.”

But the client her mother was speaking with when Perez called couldn’t believe his ears.

 What I have is like a wish coming true. You can work very hard and that can still not be enough, and I’ve seen that happen to people around me my whole life.”
Bianca Perez (Comm, MediaSt’24)

“He was like, ‘Did I just overhear that your daughter's going to graduate school at Penn?’” she recalled. “And I could hear him start crying, and my mom said to me, ‘Oh, no, I have to go, one of the clients is upset.’ But he wasn’t—the guy went to UPenn for his undergrad, had wanted to go to grad school there but couldn’t, and he was so happy and excited for me.

“I think for my mom, seeing a random person cry like that and be so joyful, helped her understand just how exciting this was for me.”

Driven to change the world

It’s not the first time she’s had to overcome the barrier separating her lived experiences from those of her parents. But her working-class upbringing—combined with her curiosity, care and enthusiasm for working hard—has already made her a promising scholar in the realm of artificial intelligence and labor.

“It’s because of her humble background that she understands that the ability to be in college, to read books and write for a living, is a privilege,” said Sandra Ristovska, an assistant professor of media studies at the College of Media, Communication and Information at the 91������, and Perez’s advisor. “It’s unsurprising she’s interested in questions around technology and labor because she is seeking, through her research, to improve the lives and livelihoods of working-class people, immigrants and people of color.”

Perez studies generative artificial intelligence and labor through the lens of copyright law. In the past year, artists and publishers have sued tech companies that have used copyrighted work to train generative A.I. platforms like ChatGPT, opening up a larger question of how to fairly value labor—not just of plaintiffs like J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and The New York Times, but everyday social media users, whose likes and shares train algorithms to better recommend content that keeps people online.

Because that data is disassociated from the users, the labor of whoever generated that data—those likes and shares—is obscured, meaning they can’t be compensated. And these are, of course, some of the world’s deepest-pocketed tech companies, whose forays into the development of A.I. are far ahead of gridlocked government regulators and already-alarmed ethicists.  

“We have no way to check these models, even though we’ve all been producing them through our work,” Perez said. “It’s a new and complex expansion of wage theft. They’re taking all our labor and remixing it to make something else—but it’s still our labor. How is that fair?”

Fairness focus

That question of what’s fair is central to Perez’s identity. Just the time and space to work as hard as she does, she said, is a privilege, especially when in high school she would see other smart, ambitious students fall behind because of work or family commitments.

“I always feel that there’s only a few degrees separating me being a migrant daughter who’s picking cherries, to my being here,” she said. “My parents taught me how to work very hard—I can’t underscore that enough—but what I have is like a wish coming true. You can work very hard and that can still not be enough, and I’ve seen that happen to people around me my whole life.”

Fairness also ties into her related research interest in the exploitation of Black and Latino tech labor—like DoorDash drivers during the pandemic, or Amazon warehouse workers toiling in hotter facilities in a warming climate. The combination of her interests has resulted in some unique scholarship that’s already getting noticed: This summer, Perez will present her thesis at the annual conference of the International Association for Media and Communication Research, in Christchurch, New Zealand—an honor usually reserved for PhD students and faculty.

Ristovska, her advisor, also attended a prestigious conference as an undergraduate before going on to Annenberg for her PhD, and is excited to see how sharing her work at one of the field’s most prestigious events influences Perez’s future work.

“What she does is bring the human back to the discourse around A.I. and technology,” Ristovska said. “Her work makes us think about how human creativity and human engagement are central to the development of A.I., and why it’s so important we figure out labor protections now, before the technology is even more advanced.”

‘Someone who knows how to push me’

Perez called Ristovska “an incredible influence on me—someone who knows how to push me and who has held my hand on this journey, even though we were going uphill sometimes.” Among her mentors, she also counts professors Omedi Ochieng and Danielle Hodge, of the communication department, as well as Rory Fitzgerald Bledsoe, who is pursuing a PhD in media studies; Perez called her first course with Bledsoe the foundational moment of her time at CU.

Bledsoe recalled Perez for both her insatiable curiosity and her writing talent, which she called “refreshing and invigorating in an increasing sea of generic ChatGPT.”

“Bianca will be successful in her PhD for the normal things, like being diligent and curious, but also for her inimitable voice—both creative and critical—that I have no doubt will contribute to our field and make it better,” Bledsoe said. “People would benefit from being a little more like Bianca, by following your passion until it blooms in full force.”

“Her work makes us think about how human creativity and human engagement are central to the development of A.I., and why it’s so important we figure out labor protections now, before the technology is even more advanced. 
Sandra Ristovska, assistant professor, media studies

Perez’s focus wasn’t always so direct. She arrived at 91������ thinking she’d major in media production, given her interest in documentary filmmaking, but after exploring different paths, arrived at her current combination after briefly considering information science. At commencement, she was honored as the William W. White Outstanding Senior for both communication and media studies, the first time a student has been recognized by two departments. The White awards are chosen by CMCI faculty and honor students for their academic accomplishments, professional achievements and service to the college.

“My different majors helped me discover different frameworks of thinking about the topics I was interested in, which has helped me think about my research more critically,” she said. “It wasn’t always a specific lesson I was taught, but professors like Dr. Hodge showed me to think about whether what I’m working on actually speaks to the community—and you do that by speaking with that community.”

It’s a new twist on what Perez said is the most important lesson she learned at home.

“The best thing my parents taught me was to actually care about what you’re doing—to show up for others when it matters,” she said. “Maybe cleaning is trivial to some people, but their business is pretty exceptional in our town, and it’s because they care very much for their reputation and the people they serve.”

That’s why her mentor is convinced Perez will make her CMCI professors proud years after she has graduated.

“Whether she chooses an academic career or the policy realm, I really think she’ll make the world a better place, because her commitment to justice is ingrained in her,” Ristovska said. “I’m so excited for what comes next for her.”

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CMCI students from all departments develop their portfolios through classes, competitions, internships and more.

Here we have collected a variety of student work that highlights their personal and professional passions explored during their academic careers at 91������.

  View the work

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By Joe Arney

Dances for hit songs. The antics of cute animals and babies. Easy dinner recipes.

A campaign to raise awareness about air and water pollution in the Denver metro area?

If you think TikTok videos are all fun and games, think again. A new generation of social-savvy activists is learning how the format can be used to draw attention to major societal challenges in hopes of creating solutions.

It’s why Bianca Perez where her attempts to de-stress by doing meditative practices are interrupted by the reality of air and water pollution.

“Breathe in the sweet Rocky Mountain air,” a narrator says as Perez attempts to deep-breathe. “Look around you, you’re in a safe space, you’re protected.”

“But not from PFAS,” the voice breaks in harshly, startling her out of her meditative routine.

“We study plenty of social media, and so a lot of students are aware that these movements happen online,” said Perez, a senior pursuing a degree in media studies. “But I don’t think many students try to create movements of their own on TikTok, and we really got to see how hard it can be to create impact on social media.”

As part of the Visual Culture and Human Rights course taught by Sandra Ristovska, Perez and her classmates worked in teams to understand a local human rights crisis, then develop a campaign with clear metrics for success and a video for TikTok. Perez’s team focused on climate and pollution, specifically the role of a Commerce City Suncor refinery in leaching “forever chemicals” through its discharge water. Other teams looked at the opioid crisis and veteran homelessness in and around Denver.

“Typically, when we talk about human rights, we’re used to thinking about places abroad affected by war,” said Ristovska, an assistant professor of media studies at the 91������’s College of Media, Communication and Information. “We tend not to think about a place like 91������. The beauty was in seeing how the students thought about the topics they’re passionate about and get them out of their typical frame of mind.”

Groups of students proposed topics in class, then received coaching from Ristovska about how to build a media campaign that resonates and how to consider audience needs and motivators. The campaign included both print materials and the TikTok videos.

In working on her most recent book, , Ristovska spoke with campaign officers at major human rights groups, like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and “many of them were saying younger generations are not engaged with human rights issues the way prior generations have,” she said. “What this class taught me is that, actually, they're really passionate and want to be involved, but we need to meet them where they are—so if they're on TikTok, then we need to be on TikTok.”

Understanding media influence

Katie Considine, who is pursuing a media studies minor from CMCI to pair with her major in international affairs, said she was excited to take the course because it was “the perfect cross section of my two academic interests.”

“When I graduate, I’d like to be in a role where I can look at how the media influences neofascist movements—the far right, violence, things like that,” Considine said. “The course gave me a really interesting perspective on how different human rights organizations or NGOs run campaigns, but also how media ends up impacting the ways people see human rights issues, and vice versa.”

The opportunity to address local issues in the course also left an impression for the students; Considine said it addressed a weakness in her international affairs courses “that sometimes are a little too broad, when there are fundamental human rights issues taking place right here that deserve our attention.”

Perez said her experience in the course has helped her think more critically about the human rights violations she sees in the media.

“I think I’m more aware of the way atrocity is portrayed in the media, and some concepts behind how it’s shown, like power and identity,” she said.

 A lot of students are aware that these movements happen online … (but) we really got to see how hard it can be to create impact on social media.”

Bianca Perez

Learning from peers as well as professor

The course also involved opportunities for students to learn from one another. During their presentations, the students were encouraged to provide substantial feedback to help hone messages and rethink strategies.

“We knew it was going to be criticized by our peers, so going into it we were able to talk through what holes we had or where things could go wrong,” Considine said. “It helped us make the project better before we even presented.”

Additionally, as digital natives, the students were able to coach one another on the right aesthetics that resonate with audiences, Ristovska said.

“My involvement was more along the lines of—is the messaging right? Is the audience there? What do you want people to do, and how do you ensure that people do it?” she said. 

Both Perez and Considine plan to continue on to graduate school, where each hopes more courses like this one await.

“I feel media literacy is at an all-time low, and courses like this need to be more accessible to people,” Considine said.

For her part, Ristovska said the course offered a real example of when teaching helps shape research, especially since students brought new perspectives in local human rights challenges that don’t always rise to the top in scholarship.

“Being able to go in the classroom and see what things are unclear, what we as faculty take for granted that we shouldn’t, really allows us to ask better questions about human rights, no matter where they're happening, no matter what the context is,” she said. “And so that's why I’m so grateful to my students.”

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New NIL course will equip newsmakers, aspiring media professionals for a sports landscape undergoing seismic change

Coach Prime’s arrival at 91������ has brought new visibility to Buffs in every sport. A new CMCI course is drawing on Deion Sanders, other former pro athletes and sports media luminaries to illustrate the changing nature of athletics, journalism, celebrity and culture in the age of NIL. Photo of Sanders, above, by Nathan Thompson. Below photos are by Glenn Asakawa (left) and Kimberly Coffin (right).

By Joe Arney

Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders saw the value of an athlete’s public persona long before his football or baseball contemporaries.

Now, as the 91������ takes the wraps off a NIL-themed course on sports media, management and culture, it’s hard to imagine a better model. 

 Athletes are media celebrities whose identity gives them access to commerce, reputation, fame, all these kinds of things. But the person who puts on the helmet has to become another person in front of the cameras.”
Rick Stevens, associate dean

“Coach Prime recognized this model before there was a model,” said Rick Stevens, associate dean of undergraduate education and an associate professor of media studies at the College of Media, Communication and Information. “He understood how to perform an identity that allowed him to accomplish the business, social justice, performance and celebrity goals needed in our media system.”

College sports have undergone tremendous upheaval following the NCAA’s adoption of a “right to publicity” that gave athletes control over their name, image and likeness—NIL for short. But those changes have rippled throughout the landscape, meaning media professionals need a new set of skills and perspectives.

The new course—called, fittingly, Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership—is about teaching student-athletes how to create those personas, while preparing aspiring media professionals to tell stories effectively in an age where what college athletes say as students can affect their potential earnings and influence.

“The course will teach student athletes to tell their stories strategically, in ways that help them be who they want to be, and will help journalists learn how to enable, challenge and help the stories they’re telling evolve,” Stevens said. “We have to rethink those relationships and dynamics between media icons and the media who cover them.”

A prime time to create impact

Few people anticipated the new age of college sports like Sanders, who demonstrated the value of an athlete’s personal brand as a two-sport phenom in the 1990s. As head coach of the Buffaloes football team, Sanders’ personality and social-media impact have driven incredible returns to the university and city.

Coach Prime has already delivered a lecture on managing social media to the class, but Stevens said the name of the course is more about the prime time personas each athlete has the opportunity to create in a limited window. 

One of the most hotly anticipated guest speakers in the Prime Time course was, predictably, Professor Prime. The coach spoke about personal branding, authenticity and the college sports media landscape while answering extensive questions from students. The course has been written about in , and others. Photos by Kimberly Coffin.

“Athletes are media celebrities whose identity gives them access to commerce, reputation, fame, all these kinds of things,” Stevens said. “But the person who puts on the helmet has to become another person in front of the cameras. The class is trying to build a particular kind of media literacy, so that those who need to develop a prime-time narrative can think about what the pieces are and how they fit together, and make the right choices accordingly.” 

A deep bench of experts

In addition to an ambitious set of topics—everything from athlete personas and sports betting to confronting racism and how to empower others—classroom lectures will be enhanced through regular appearances by athletes, sportswriters and other media professionals.

Confirmed guest lecturers include Sanders; Kordell Stewart (Comm’18), former NFL star and media analyst; journalists Brent Schrotenboer (Jour’96) and Michael Lyle; analyst Joel Klatt (Econ’05); Tom Garfinkel (Comm’91), president of the Miami Dolphins; and Abbey Shea, assistant athletic director for NIL at CU. 

Those choices might include which products to endorse, what organizations to follow on social media and what causes to align with. Case studies that the students will examine will follow the career arcs of athletes like Colin Kaepernick, Ricky Williams and Richard Sherman, whose prime times coincided with controversy. The final project will ask teams of students to consider the best possible paths for athletes entering their prime times, both theoretical opportunities for historic cases as well as—especially as the course becomes established—CU athletes exploring their social media identities or what endorsements represent the brands they want to build.

A range of perspectives

Invited lectures, which will feature athletes, media personalities and experts from CU's athletics department, will take place one day each week. The other course day will feature a rotating cast of faculty representing CMCI’s thought leadership expertise in media studies, information science, journalism, communication, advertising and public relations.

One of those professors is Jamie Skerski, associate chair for undergraduate studies and an expert in communication and culture. She sees the course as an opportunity to look at the individual components that make up sports culture to better understand how it’s created.

“We have this opportunity to pull apart the different elements—the representation, the producers, the consumers, the regulations, the identities—that go into this new athletics landscape,” Skerski said. “When you do that, you get a more nuanced, leveled view of the way the pieces of the culture interact and become normalized.”

That is especially interesting to her from a gender standpoint. Could a more nuanced understanding of the way we consume sports change how NIL deals are executed—say, if a male athlete gets a certain amount of sponsorship, an equal amount must go to a woman?

“Because it’s basically the wild west right now, it’s a good time to question the status quo,” she said.

Stevens said the new perspectives of faculty invited to participate in the course have helped him think differently about pop culture, sports and media influence. It’s a feature of CMCI, which was formed about a decade ago to solve the kinds of complex, future-oriented problems coming out of media-related disciplines that are increasingly interconnected in the real world.

“This course is very in keeping with our college’s spirit,” Stevens said. “You have this new condition of NIL, resulting in a new arrangement among media, athletes, institutions and systems, and none of our departments are precisely positioned to answer the questions that are arising. But most of our departments have a piece of the puzzle, so by involving this many faculty, we’re able to get a more complete picture of all the dynamics involved.”

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What's the catch?

There’s no getting back the one that got away, but a prototype app designed by a group of recent graduates could help anglers identify the fish they do catch.

COAI (for Colorado A.I.; pronounced “koi”) Fish, designed by Kendall Fronabarger, Ken Vue and Emerson Swan (all InfoSci’23), is especially aimed at those new to the sport who are curious about the fish they’re catching in Colorado’s waters. The app uses a modified machine learning tool that matches photos uploaded by users to a registry of Colorado species built by the students.

Art as activism

CMCI students are encouraged to use their creativity in building projects that allow them to interpret or reflect upon the challenges facing society. Mixed-media work in the last year has focused on topics such as the climate crisis, the plight of refugees and the struggle for gender equality.

Jamie Chihuan (StratComm’23),
“Soon we will all have nowhere to go” 

Citlally Ruedas, strategic communication,
“Homero Gomez” 

Isabella Pao, strategic communication,
“I am a woman, I exist” 

Pablo Aziz, critical media practices,
“Women demand peace and justice”

Sharing student perspectives

Students across CMCI find ways to bring together their personal interests and academic pursuits. Since the college’s founding, we have regularly showcased this diverse collection of student work.

McKenzie Jenkins (StratComm’22), Josh Harman (StratComm’23)

Katya Bollong (StratComm’23)

Hailey Schalk, communication

Olivia Lieberman (CritMedia’23)

Sophie Gould, TEDxCU executive board (Comm’23)

Noya Kinsland, critical media practices

Kelsie Kerr (MediaSt, Film’23)

Kara Wagenknecht (Jour’23)

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CMCI was founded amid change—an answer to how we could best organize the various communication- and information-related disciplines at 91������ in ways that enabled faculty collaboration and student success. We’re no stranger to disruption, so as generative A.I. tools like ChatGPT captured the public imagination early this year, I started wondering what the next chapter for communication—and education—might look like.

The dominant theme in the headlines has been one of concern, but as usual, I’ve found the best perspectives come from our alumni, students and faculty, who are on the front lines of change in these fast-moving times. In this issue, we asked members of our community for their reflections on change, and they shared insights on everything from A.I. and algorithms, to work and water.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by the enormity of the changes you’re facing, I hope you’ll find insight in this issue, which showcases how our community is researching the ways algorithms shape our worldview and the technology transforming how creative projects get done. It also offers a chance for you to reconnect with how our college is changing, including our new Washington, D.C., program.

Reading these stories helped me feel re-energized about the direction of our college and the ways our community is poised to lead through change. I may not have a crystal ball, but I’m confident that CMCI will continue to be a place where new ideas and tools are celebrated, not feared, and where possibility is embraced. I’m excited to be part of this community and to see where we go from here. And change is exciting—just look at the energy and attention Coach Prime has brought to the Buffs!

What about you? I’d love to hear your thoughts on CMCI and its future. Drop me a line or come say hello next time you’re in the 91������ area.

Lori Bergen, PhD
Founding Dean
College of Media, Communication and Information

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