Media faculty and TAs make list of teachers ranked as excellent

Congratulations to all of the College of Media faculty and teaching assistants who were ranked as excellent by their students! This list is based on Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms completed by students during the Fall 2022 semester. Only those instructors who distributed ICES forms at least once during this time period and who […]

Full Ebertfest 2023 program announced

March 27, 2023 Producer Lawrence Bender (‘Pulp Fiction’) brings ‘Fresh’ perspective to Ebertfest, along with Michael Morris with ‘To Leslie,’ and Shoah collaboration ‘My Name Is Sara’ Festival closes with empathic film ‘Forrest Gump’ with guest Mykelti Williamson Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is pleased to announce the full lineup of films and accompanying filmmakers who […]

Journalism alumni to be inducted into Illini Media Hall of Fame

The Illini Media Company will honor 10 inductees into the Illini Media Hall of Fame Class of 2023 during a ceremony on Saturday, April 29, in Chicago. Five of the inductees are journalism alumni from the College of Media. Illini Media, which oversees The Daily Illini student newspaper, WPGU 107.1 FM radio station, and the […]

Alum Mike VanBlaricum combines passion for James Bond, University of Illinois to create media scholarship

March 23, 2023 | Kelly Youngblood It’s a toss-up for Mike VanBlaricum on which he loves more—anything related to James Bond and the fictional character’s creator, Ian Fleming, or his beloved Alma Mater, the University of Illinois. Luckily, he’s rarely had to choose. In fact, VanBlaricum has found opportunities over the years to combine his […]

Recent MACS alumni reflect on film and winning UIUC Student Film Festival Jury Award

March 21, 2023 | Paige Terando, New Voices Intern Joanna Raimo (BS ’22, MACS; pictured at right) and Gio Giles-Sanchez (BS ’22, MACS), creators of A Tint of Red, won the 2022 UIUC Student Film Festival Jury Award, selected by members of the College of Media faculty. The pair’s film, a 21-minute psychological horror, was […]

Q&A with Grace Chen

Get to know some of our College of Media alumni. Grace Chen (MS ’10 advertising) is a product manager at Meta.  When did you know that you wanted to study advertising?As a child, I remember being very fascinated with old catalog ads. Throughout my childhood, a lot of advertising consisted of subscription-based magazines and order […]

Molly Cornyn joins College of Media as project coordinator for Ebertfest

March 14, 2023 | Kelly Youngblood Molly Cornyn recalls the time she and the cast of her musical just happened to run into Roger Ebert one night at a local Steak ‘n Shake after one of their high school performances. Ebert, the late Pulitzer-Prize winning film critic and Media alum (BS ’64, journalism), was a […]

First slate of Ebertfest films and guest Frank Oz announced around theme of ‘Empathy at the Movies’

March 9, 2023 A diverse selection of films that generate empathy have been curated for the 23rd Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, running April 19-22 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign. Ebertfest—co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert—will honor the 10th anniversary of her husband Roger Ebert’s death by screening films and bringing filmmaker guests […]

Aranda named assistant news editor with American Heart Association

After a 24-year career at the Charlotte Observer, journalism alum Rogelio Aranda has become assistant news editor with the American Heart Association. He will continue to be based in Charlotte, North Carolina.  In his new editorial role, Aranda will help to raise awareness around heart disease and stroke through the AHA’s news service. He will also […]

Anderson Cobb produces play about insurrection

Update March 7, 2023: Anderson Cobb facilitates workshop on her play about insurrection Nicole Anderson Cobb (MS ’16, journalism) recently facilitated a community workshop about her play Homegrown: An Insurrection Play, following a free screening at the First Mennonite Church of Champaign-Urbana.  The play had previously run at the Station Theatre in Urbana in December […]

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