Nancy Benson, professor emerita of journalism, died on April 21, 2025. She was 72 years old.
In 1996, she was hired as a visiting professor in the Department of Journalism and became an assistant professor in 1997. She was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2014. Before retiring in 2019, she served as interim head of the Department of Journalism.
During her 40-year career in broadcast journalism at various television and radio stations across the Midwest, including morning drive anchor and reporter at WMAQ radio in Chicago, Benson won numerous awards for reporting.
The highlight of her teaching career was developing an international reporting course. After a term of teaching about a particular country, she traveled with her students to that country. There, they would research and produce stories about issues that otherwise had been ignored. Nancy took students to Peru, China, Romania, Italy, and Turkey.
Update May 29, 2025: Congratulations to the students who presented “Uman Tok: Tailoring Hope, Renewing Futures in Sierra Leone” for receiving an award for Outstanding Oral Presentation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium from theOffice of Undergraduate Research! Some of these students previously won an award in 2024 for Outstanding Exhibit on this same research topic, which they continued work on in 2025.
Updated April 28, 2025
Students from all four majors in the College of Media participated in the annual University of Illinois Undergraduate Research Week, held April 20-26.
The Undergraduate Research Symposium, the signature event held on Thursday, April 24, at the Illini Union, features presentations, posters, and performances from students across campus.
Below is a list of Media student presentations as well as acknowledgements of Media graduate students and faculty who have mentored students presenting at Undergraduate Research Week.
Oral Panel
Health Modalities
“Evaluating the Persuasiveness of LLM-based Chatbots in Health Communication”
Tuesday, April 22, 4-6 p.m., Illini Union Rooms A, B, C, and South Lounge
“Salesperson-Product Matching Recommender System”
Alexia Rendon, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
“Understanding High school Students’ Experiences in a Culturally Responsive Computing Program”
Skyla Jin, Freshman, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
“Virtual Reality Game for Interactive Motion Planning”
Grace He, Junior, Computer Science + Advertising, COM
Omosefe Edomwande, Freshman, Computer Science, ENG
Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program
The Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program offers undergraduate students with little or no research experience the opportunity to work with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars on their research projects, explore the culture and process of research, and build on their existing abilities within a community of scholars.
Nina Issel, Sophomore, Journalism (COM)
Media Research Mentors
Doctoral student Veranika Paltaratskaya (above right), Institute of Communications Research, was the research mentor for Alina Huang, sophomore in communication and psychology (LAS), who presented “Understanding Consumer Interactions with Product Transparency Apps (PTAs) Using the Persuasion Knowledge Model” as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.
Doctoral student Alice Ji (above right), Institute of Communications Research, was the research mentor for Ayushi Maskey, junior in statistics + computer science (LAS), who presented “The Effect of Message Fatigue on Attention to Mental Health Messages” as part of the Heath & Wellness poster presentations.
Kevin Wise, professor of advertising, was the research mentor for Pushti Vora, junior in brain and cognitive sciences (LAS) who presented “The Impact of Mindless Scrolling on Dopamine Regulation and its Parallels to Gambling Addiction” as part of the Social Science & Human Behavior poster presentations.
Get to know some of our College of Media students! Lauren Barjami is a Class of 2026 advertising major.
What interests led you to choose advertising at the University of Illinois? Prior to coming to Illinois, I knew I wanted to pursue something in business that would also allow me to incorporate creativity. In high school, I started my own business, selling the art I made. When it came time to apply for college, I ended up getting accepted into advertising, which turned out to be the perfect fit for me. I immediately fell in love with the advertising program and the College of Media as a whole. Advertising sort of fell into my lap, and I am so grateful for that because it is a major that allows me to incorporate my personal interests of art and business into what I learn and, eventually, turn that into my career.
In what ways have your aspirations evolved since you began your college journey? Throughout my time on campus, I have been able to hone in on what I want to pursue through my involvement in different registered student organizations and classes. I have seen such a broad perspective of different opportunities, which has allowed me to find the specific path in advertising that is best for me. Fall semester freshman year, I took Statistics 107 and fell in love with the course so much that I became a course assistant. This class allowed me to discover my interest in the relationship between statistics and advertising, which goes to show how many routes in advertising you can take when you are given a wide array of opportunities. After exploring the science of advertising, I knew I wanted to go the technological route, so I declared a minor in Computer Science and Informatics. I want to work in some variation of an advertising data analyst role or to get into consulting because those are perfect fusions of technology and advertising. I have a summer internship consulting at Baker Tilly, where I hope to further immerse myself in the technical side of the advertising world and navigate what I want my future to look like.
Are there any professors or mentors within the College of Media that have helped guide this journey? There are so many people I look up to within the college and the list will continue to grow. The first College of Media mentor I had was Daniel Almanza, assistant director of Media Career Services. I was a member of the New Voices Internship program that Daniel coordinated, and that experience gave me a chance to develop my skills in media and familiarized me with multiple resources within the college, which was so helpful as a first-generation student. He also encouraged me to join different RSOs like the American Advertising Federation, which is now a primary aspect of my college career. Having that mentor relationship comforted me and acclimated me into the college environment early on. Daniel is always happy to give back to the students he works with, and he is a great person to have around.
I also want to mention Steve Hall, senior lecturer of advertising—everyone in advertising loves him. He is always running around, doing something, but no matter what, he always gets back to his students and has their best interests in mind. He is such a caring faculty member who is always willing to help students find opportunities and wants them to succeed far beyond graduation.
Which courses within the College of Media have you enjoyed the most? One class I really enjoyed was ADV 392: Industry Immersion Experiential Learning, with Amazon Ads and Global Overview, taught by Steve Hall. I loved taking a high-level course that taught me about advertising technology. We worked with a real client, managing actual products, campaigns, and budgets, which gave me insights on how advertising careers operate in the real world. The class taught me how to utilize tools for analytics and allowed me to develop presentation skills by creating and presenting pitches to clients. The class is a great balance between technical and personal skills within the field.
Another class I really enjoyed is ADV 480: Social Media Analytics with Professor Leona Yi-Fan Su. This course focused on advertising informatics and taught me how to use different programming languages to run social media campaigns. The content of the course was based on the technological parts of advertising that I find most interesting, which made it a perfect class for me.
The last class I want to mention is ADV 409: Media Entrepreneurship with Terry Kasdan, an adjunct lecturer. This class is essentially like Shark Tank. We split into groups to come up with product ideas and present them, teaching us how to advertise and sell properly. The instructor works in the industry, so we are learning from someone with first-hand experience. This class is a good escape from the technical classes I take because it is solely based on creativity and working with a team, which I find to be very enjoyable.
Do you have any advice for current or incoming freshmen as they start their journey? Do not put any pressure on yourself at all. Join anything and everything you can. Even for only two weeks, make your schedule back-to-back with trying new things, and then find out what you like most from there. Do not put too much pressure on yourselves over internships, and remember it is okay to get rejected. In college, everyone is on their own path, so don’t be too hard on yourself as you navigate your own. Make it a priority to make friends, join clubs, find hobbies, and have fun. Find a support system that cares for you whether that’s College of Media or anyone else on campus. Don’t focus too much on the past or future, just live in the present and appreciate everything because it all goes by so fast.
—Interview by Brooklynn Hubbard, New Voices Intern
Get to know some of our College of Media students! Emily Campos is a Class of 2026 advertising major.
What inspired you to choose advertising as your major, and how did you decide that College of Media was the right fit for you? When I was about 12, I started exploring entrepreneurship by launching my own slime business, managing everything myself from marketing and running my website to shipping products worldwide. Looking back, this experience greatly inspired my passion for both business and writing. When I first entered college, I pursued journalism because it seemed to align closely with these interests. However, after exploring further and discovering advertising, I realized that it perfectly combined the creative and strategic aspects I’d been searching for all along. Advertising is a constantly evolving field, full of opportunities to learn, meet new people, and stay connected with what’s happening around us. That’s why I’m so passionate about advertising.
What is your future goal as an advertising student? I have two main goals. Professionally, I’d like to start my career working at an advertising agency, ideally in copywriting. My ultimate career goal is to become a creative director, as I’d love to have the opportunity to lead campaigns and collaborate with diverse brands. I’m also interested in exploring other creative fields like film and animation because I enjoy different forms of storytelling and want to expand my experience beyond advertising. On a personal level, my long-term goal is to keep learning, stay curious, and approach every situation with an open mind and an open heart.
What specific opportunities or resources at the College of Media have helped you grow and learn in advertising? The most valuable resource at the College of Media to me is the people here. Create your own opportunities because you never know who you’ll meet or where those connections can take you. During my freshman year I had three internships—one with New Voices involving student media and another in global science communication, but my third internship started simply because I paid attention to the College of Media’s newsletter. At the time I felt uncertain about my college path and I saw a Zoom session featuring Professor Kevin Wise and his research on eye-tracking in advertising, so I joined. I was intrigued and asked how I could get involved. I wasn’t sure what might come of it, but I was curious enough to follow up. After we talked, he decided to create an internship for me. As a freshman, I ended up working with him, a PhD student, and a grad student on a research team. That experience really showed me how important it is to connect with people and be open to new opportunities. The people here are always willing to help if you show genuine interest, and that’s made all the difference for me.
What course within the College of Media do you enjoy or would like to recommend to other students? I would recommend any class with Shachar Meron, senior lecturer of advertising. I enjoy the way he teaches, making everyone curious and genuinely interested with the content. One of my favorite classes has been ADV 390: Content Creation. It’s a creative and engaging course that offers a clear view of what advertising involves. Many people underestimate how competitive the advertising industry is, and you need to stand out in order to succeed. This course helps you explore your perspective and figure out how you can contribute to the field.
What advice would you give to incoming students who are considering a career in advertising and are interested in joining our College of Media? My best advice is to absorb as much as you can from the world around you. Whether it’s learning about different people, noticing details in everyday life, or paying attention to things you’d usually overlook, there’s so much value in staying curious. You not only learn more about the world but also about yourself and what you’re capable of doing with that knowledge.
Also, many incoming students might feel like they are not doing enough or that they need to constantly prove themselves. But I believe that things happen the way they are meant to. What I hope more people realize is how valuable it is to stay open, curious, and engaged with the world around them. When you take the time to observe and appreciate what is in front of you, it can lead to meaningful growth in ways you might not expect. Sometimes, simply being present is enough to move forward.
April 14, 2025 | Ruth Kwak, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Technology Services
When the Website Management Center of Expertise collaborated with the College of Media, the College of Law and the School of Social Work to solve the challenges on each unit’s websites, the result was three new websites and a roadmap for building more.
Launched just one year ago from the grassroots efforts of the Website Implementation Guidelines Group, the Web CoE was established as part of the universitywide Operational Excellence initiative. With a mission to streamline dedicated resources and centralize expertise, the Web CoE now serves as a vital resource for helping units campuswide create and manage secure, accessible, and Illinois-branded websites.
How does it work?
At the heart of the Web CoE is its Website Management Consulting Service, designed to serve any group on campus—regardless of their levels of web experience. Groups can submit a ticket to start the consultation process, whether they’ve inherited an outdated website or are building one from scratch. The consulting team meets with the group to understand their specific goals, audience, technical capacity and needs. Based on this consultation, the team provides expert recommendations and, when appropriate, full-service migration support. Visit the Website Management Consulting Service webpage to learn more about the details of the process.
One of the biggest draws of working with the Web CoE is that it guarantees the final product will meet the university’s standards for accessibility, privacy, security and branding.
Previous Website Implementation Guidelines Group co-leader and current program director for the Website Management Center of Expertise, Cordelia Geiken shared more about why the Web CoE was identified as a part of the Operational Excellence initiative.
“People have been making websites at U of I since Mosaic in 1993, but it’s been all over the place. Our goal is to make things more streamlined, and to enable people to get the help they need in order to be accessible, secure and also branded…. Illinois branding is still pretty new. People are really excited about it and want to improve the user experience on their sites. If you’re on a University of Illinois site, you should know you’re on one.”
People have been making websites at U of I since Mosaic in 1993, but it’s been all over the place. Our goal is to make things more streamlined, and to enable people to get the help they need to be accessible, secure and branded.
Cordelia Geiken
Program Director for the Website Management Center of Expertise
Early adopters
This spring, the Web CoE completed full website implementation engagements with its first three early adopters: the College of Law, the College of Media and the School of Social Work. These projects were not only impactful for the individual units, but also valuable learning experiences for the Web CoE itself. The Web CoE engaged in a full website migration for each early adopter.
Geiken said that the early adopters each had a unique situation that the Web CoE had to work through. “All of campus will benefit from the unique situations those units faced,” Geiken said.
The College of Media
Without a web developer on staff, Holly Rushakoff, director of communications for the College of Media, was seeking assistance to update the college’s site when she was connected with Cordelia Geiken.
The College of Media’s previous homepage.
Media’s previous website was on Drupal and was a redesign that had been completed in 2019. According to Rushakoff, the web design of their page had impactful landing pages, but the other pages were simple with limited design and functionality options. Rushakoff also explained that the photos had to be a certain width or else it would break the flow of the page. These limitations were addressed with the Web CoE.
“The new website has accessibility enhancements and an incredible selection of design and layout options, from buttons to call-to-action blocks to clickable cards, plus photo slideshows, pull-quotes, and many header styles—and of course Illinois orange and blue templates to choose from. These design features enable us to make our stories much more visually dynamic and pull readers through the story or a landing page in a more engaging way, with multiple entry points,” Rushakoff said.
Working on the site was a year-long process, with many working meetings between Rushakoff and her Web CoE liaison, Liz Shallenberger, user experience design specialist at Technology Services.
The College of Media’s new website adheres to campus brand guidelines.
“The Web CoE team offered a wide range of expertise in web, graphic and user experience design, information architecture, accessibility and more. There were no questions they couldn’t answer! It was incredibly helpful and reassuring to have guidance from the Website Management Center of Expertise team throughout the entire process,” Rushakoff said.
Throughout the engagement, the College of Media was responsible for tasks such as auditing and organizing their content, tracking accessibility reviews, redesigning past stories with the new story template, updating short URLs and testing the development site for any issues before launch.
“I had an excellent experience working with the team from the Website Management Center of Expertise! Although it was a lot of extra work, it was primarily a joyful process because we could see the exciting transformation as we worked on the development site and chipped away at our milestones,” Rushakoff said.
The final product is a new Illinois-branded, accessible and secure website hosted on the Tech Services server, with people from the College of Media ready to perform site maintenance.
Krista Gaedtke, senior director of strategic marketing and communications for the College of Law was always looking for ways to stay connected with what was happening with website design at a campus level. The College of Law had been needing a refresh for a while, and so when talks about the Website Management Center of Expertise reached Gaedtke, she immediately submitted a ticket requesting available resources.
“Our previous site was not in terrible shape – it was nicely designed, well-structured, responsive and accessible, but it was decidedly not ‘on brand.’ There were also a few features that we were using on our previous site that didn’t provide the level of customization or flexibility that we needed, so finding viable alternative solutions was also a priority for the migration,” said Gaedtke.
According to Gaedtke, WordPress had been meeting their needs sufficiently, and so they opted to migrate their old WordPress site onto another WordPress site, focusing on minor re-structuring instead of changing the host.
“The end result is a website that is now fully compliant with Illinois brand guidelines and accessibility standards and takes advantage of many of the design features and components available within the Illinois web theme,” Gaedtke said.
In addition, Gaedtke noted that they were able to complete the website migration at no cost to the College of Law.
“Having gone through the process for a full-service website redesign project within the past ten years, I am well aware of the significant cost savings we were able to achieve with this partnership,” Gaedtke said. “I think we can easily say that we saved the College of Law at least $50,000 on this project, if not more.”
Gaedtke also mentioned several other benefits to partnering with the Web CoE, including regular access to the developers who were building the tools, the ability to offer feedback at will, see adjustments being made in real-time and suggest future developments.
Geiken said that the Web CoE worked with the College of Law for a full migration, and the College of Law then opted to perform their own future regular maintenance. However, as an official user of the Illinois Web theme, the College of Law will now have first access to all new product releases on the Illinois Web theme and tech support whenever needed.
“There was a point person for the project on both the Web CoE team and on our team. Dena Strong was assigned as our Web CoE liaison for the project; her background is user experience design, but she had to wear many different hats throughout our project, and she was an absolute rockstar. We met on a bi-weekly basis,” Gaedtke said.
Dena Strong, the Web CoE liaison for the project, is a senior information design specialist at Technology Services.
Gaedtke explained that the Web CoE drove the overall management of the project, prioritized action items, migrated all the content over to a development site, worked with them to make it look how they wanted; they performed troubleshooting and also advised on how to utilize certain tools.
On the other hand, Gaedtke’s team worked on making sure all the content was accurate and up-to-date, structured as they wanted it to be, and designed consistently across pages. As the site was on the College of Law’s server, they were also responsible for ensuring that they were aligned to the College of Law’s privacy and security best practices.
“There were certainly some growing pains along the way… simply because this was the first time that either of our teams were engaged in this type of project,” said Gaedtke. “We are really pleased with the end result.”
Over the years, the School of Social Work has had many conversations with units on campus about their lack of internal web support. Without internal staff dedicated to web support, they had been working with an external vendor.
“We started with well-designed, accessible, highly customized site that was expensive to maintain. Through migration [with the Web CoE], we transitioned to a clean, fresh design with significantly improved content organization. The new site aligns with our brand, enhances user experience and will hopefully be much easier to maintain in the long run,” said Becky Ponder, director of communications for the School of Social Work.
The previous site was a vended site hosted on WordPress with extensive customization.
“We had to do custom scripting in order to export their site out from their old environment to their current one. They don’t have staff to maintain their site, so we came up with a solution to address that, working with field consultants at Tech Services. We were able to hire a part-time field consultant to do maintenance for them,” Geiken said.
According to Ponder, the Website CoE managed more of the technical aspects of the site, while the School of Social work’s team focused on content, design preferences and identifying functional needs.
Social Work partnered up with Web CoE liaison and lead consultant for the project Huaqi Zhang, user experience design specialist at Technology Services.
“It was a true partnership, with both teams working diligently to ensure the site met our goals,” Ponder said.
The result was a full migration to a fresh site with dedicated web maintenance support from Tech Services. Receiving overall website support from campus has resulted in significant cost savings for the School of Social Work.
“One of the biggest takeaways from this migration is how complex website transitions can be, even with a great support team. Every website has unique needs, and ensuring all integrations function properly takes time and patience. It was a learning experience for everyone involved! While it was a complex transition, we’re grateful to have the new site launched and are very happy with it,” Ponder said.
The Web CoE has created a list of campus web resources for anyone at the university. This list of resources will be ever-evolving, updated with resources to support groups with all web-related concerns.
“Not everybody needs someone else to set up or maintain their sites. So we wanted to provide some resources for those who do have staff who can do all this for them. This is where collaboration comes in, and this is what this resources page and what our group is all about. We are trying to create a place for people to collaborate, to use whatever resources they have to join in the efforts to unify and protect our websites. So far, it has produced a much better product across the board,” Geiken said. Following the work on the three early adopter’s websites, the Web CoE will be reflecting and refining the program processes while engaging with the College of Applied Health Sciences on a website migration. The Web CoE will be ready to work with more units in the later summer of 2025. If you’re interested in learning more or working with the Web CoE, submit a ticket to start a conversation or to get on the list.
On February 25, 2025, the Suburban Illini Club hosted the College of Media for “Engaging in a Divided Society: Lessons from Journalism,” a panel discussion on how to engage with others in an age of polarization.
Leon Dash,Professor and Swanlund Chair, Department of Journalism; 1995 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Explanatory Reporting while at The Washington Post
Colleen King,Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism; Director of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media; former Executive Producer for MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams
Dan Balz(BS ’68, MS ’72, journalism), Chief Correspondent at The Washington Postcovering national politics, the presidency and Congress
Stephanie Lulay(BS ’08, journalism), Executive Editor and Co-Founder, Block Club Chicago, an award-winning, reader-funded nonprofit newsroom focused on Chicago’s neighborhoods
Read excerpts from “Engaging in a Divided Society” below. Note: Answers have been condensed for length and clarity.
Sulkin: It strikes me that a threshold that we discuss a lot is the lines between news versus commentary. And many see the lines between those two as becoming increasingly blurred. I wonder what your thoughts are about the extent to which that seems a useful theoretical divide, and then what the consequences are of the blurring of those lines.
Dash: News columns are very clear that they are news columns, and I try to point that out to the students, in terms of understanding what a news column is. An opinion column is very, very different from a news column, in which you have a lot of leeway to express your opinion. I think social media has blurred the lines between what is considered news and what is considered an opinion. But I think the conventional publications have continued to distinguish between the two and keep them separated.
Lulay: I think Twitter/X and TikTok are full of opinions. We’re in a period where newsrooms are rapidly disappearing and we’re in an era that the world really needs more truth tellers. Something I’ve seen, engaging with readers for a long time, is that readers on the whole really aren’t able to distinguish between news-driven reporting and opinions on the Op-Ed page, and I think that that damages trust.
Balz: One of the things we’ve noticed is that commentary and opinion writing draws a huge audience. And we know that because of the siloed nature of how people get their news, that people seek out opinion journalism that conforms with their points of view. And in the in the digital age, particularly when you’re looking at a homepage for—whether it’s the Washington Post or the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal—the commentary pieces are right there smack next to the news pieces. In a printed paper, the opinion pages are in a separate place. They’re clearly marked. But in a sense the, the presentation has helped to blur the lines.
Sulkin: We’ve been talking about the public’s trust in the news and looking at polling about what people think about the media. There’s been a slow decline in trust in all sorts of institutions over the past several decades, with the news media being part of that. Pew reports that over three-quarters of Americans and majorities from both political parties think that news organizations tend to favor one side or the other. Yet large majorities also say that news coverage keeps politicians from doing things that they shouldn’t. So that scrutiny, that watchdog role, still holds. What are your views about what would help the public to regain trust, if we think it’s been lost, or where could we build on some of those pockets of trust?
Lulay: I’m really happy to be in a local newsroom these days. I think we can make a real impact in terms of trust. Trust is built from the ground up and there’s no better place to build relationships with readers than in a local newsroom. Rebuilding trust in our city is key to why Block Club was founded.
When we started this newsroom, there was a study that trust, particularly on the South and West sides of our city—these are under-resourced areas of our city—trust was at an all-time low with the media. And that was because of generations of the media either only reporting on crime or chaos that happened in those neighborhoods, if they ever showed up at all. At Block Club, instead of covering a traditional beat like courts and education in such a big city where there’s too much going on, our reporters are assigned to two to three contiguous neighborhoods. And when they’re covering a smaller area like that, they really are able to build close relationships with readers, which we believe ensures the news that we’re reporting not only reflects what they most care about, but also leads to a more accurate portrayal of their neighborhood.
King: I would say it’s very tricky because the skills that we teach our students to cover Chicago and maybe go work for Stephanie [Lulay] are not different than skills I would teach up-and-coming reporters to go work with Dan [Balz]. I think people are turning off the news in large part because it always seems like bad news right now. So perhaps we can be more creative in our angles, but I also think transparency is a big part of reporting. And being honest in what we know and what we don’t is a big part of it, too. You know, it is our job to hold people accountable; that’s why we do what we do. Hopefully over the course of time, people can see that our reporting holds up and is fact-based and we’re just trying to report the truth as best we know it.
Balz: Repairing the decline in trust is a very difficult job that we can’t do in and of ourselves as news organizations. What’s happened in terms of the decline of trust is a societal-wide problem. Just as the polarization of the country is a societal-wide problem. And it will take time to begin to overcome that. We have a role to play in that. There are things we can do about that. Colleen [King] is exactly right. Transparency is important. The idea of being open about what we know and what we don’t know is important. But we also have to do what we’ve always done, which is to be aggressive in our reporting and follow that wherever it leads us and live with the consequences of that. Our first obligation is to find the truth to the best that we can find it on any day or week.
Sulkin: We had Chuck Todd visit the College of Media in December right before he announced that he would be departing NBC News after a long career there. I think a narrative thread he was pulling was that local news is the cure to what ails the news ecosystem. I think part of the argument was that maybe if folks have the opportunity to engage with local news, that helps with some spillover to how they think about national news. But the growing news deserts mean a lot of folks don’t have local news.As we are preparing students and launching them out into their careers, Colleen and Leon, what are we doing to correct some of these news desert issues?
Dash: My emphasis with my students is fact-based reporting. It’s a no-no in my classes when they say, ‘I assume’ or ‘I think.’ I say you shouldn’t be ‘assuming’ and you shouldn’t be ‘thinking’ anything. You should know. If you don’t know, you should say you don’t know. And transparency is a big part of that. Being honest and upfront. I don’t even know how you overcome this divide in this society today. But in terms of conventional journalism, fact-based reporting is very, very important and transparency is also very important.
King: And I would say we’re training our student journalists to learn all kinds of skills. Our students are leaving our universityknowing how to podcast and write, do audio and video journalism, and write online or for print news outlets. So they could really drop in anywhere and cover any community they want to. While we’ve got many who want to return home to the Chicagoland area, or make it big in New York or LA or Washington, we do encourage them to think about covering smaller communities— at least getting a start there—and understanding what it’s like to cover a community where you do get to know your audience and the people you’re covering and in government as well.
Congratulations to all 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 questionnaire forms completed by students during the Fall 2024 semester and Winter 2024-25. Only those instructors who distributed ICES forms at least once during this time period and who released their data for publication are included in the list. View the complete list.
Note: * denotes that the instructor ratings were outstanding.
Director Francis Ford Coppola to participate in a virtual Q&A Actress Jane Levy and Critics Michael Phillips, Richard Roeper, Matt Zoller-Seitz, Nell Minow, Brian Tallerico, Eric Pierson, Dion Metzger, and Brenda Butler will be attending in person
April 1, 2025
CHAMPAIGN, IL (April 1, 2025) — Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, also known as Ebertfest, announced today the final three films screening at this year’s festival, to be held April 23-26 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign:
Francis Ford Coppola’s MEGALOPOLIS
Walter Salles’ Academy Award-winning I’M STILL HERE
Lotte Reiniger’s THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED
Coppola will participate in a virtual Q&A immediately following the screening of MEGALOPOLIS; Michael Barker, Co-President of Sony Pictures Classics, will discuss the Oscar-winning film I’M STILL HERE, which Sony Pictures Classics distributed domestically; and back by popular demand, The Anvil Orchestra will perform during THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED.
“It is incredible that Nate Kohn and I are just as excited to present the lineup for this 26th Ebertfest as we were for the first!” said Chaz Ebert, CEO of movie review site Rogerebert.com and cofounder of Ebertfest. “What Roger said about movies being a machine that generates empathy is so true. My heart swells with emotion in anticipation of the films and guests who will join us. And I look forward to sharing this communal film experience with our Ebertfest audience. Roger, we thank you!”
“Echoing Chaz, this year’s lineup is one of the most exciting we’ve ever had,” said Nate Kohn. “There will be lots to celebrate in Champaign this year, and I know Roger would be very proud to see how his festival continues to grow.”
MEGALOPOLIS is a Roman Epic set in an imagined Modern America. The City of New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver), a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare. Torn between them is socialite Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel), the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar has divided her loyalties, forcing her to discover what she truly believes humanity deserves.
The film was nominated for multiple awards and had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in 2024.
“Francis Ford Coppola has once again given us big ideas to digest,” said Chaz Ebert, “Are the characters in Megalopolis akin to those in Rome before its collapse, or can we find some redemption in acts seemingly small, but that portend hope for the future. Does Coppola’s film hold a mirror up to today’s society? And if so, does this master director give us a roadmap to avoid similar obstacles? We will eagerly pose these questions and others when he appears after the screening of this gorgeously shot film.”
I’M STILL HERE is set in Brazil, 1971, as it faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship. Eunice Paiva, a mother of five children, is forced to reinvent herself after her family suffers a violent and arbitrary act by the government. The film is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s biographical book and tells the true story that helped reconstruct an important part of Brazil’s hidden history.
The film had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in 2024 where it was critically acclaimed and received the Best Screenplay Award. I’M STILL HERE, which is certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a score of 97%, has continued winning over audiences globally and earned 69 nominations and 49 awards including a Golden Globe Award and the Best International Feature Film Academy Award, the first-ever Brazilian produced film to win an Academy Award.
“Through Fernanda Torres’ formidable presence, the deliberate I’M STILL HERE, a film that locates further meaning in the face of Brazil’s present Far-Right wave, remains in the heart long after the picture fades,” said Robert Daniels in his 4-star review for RogerEbert.com.
THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED is a fantasy animated film from 1926 that tells the story of a handsome prince with a flying horse who befriends a witch, meets Aladdin, and battles demons to win a princess’ heart. The screening will feature a performance from Ebertfest’s audience favorite group The Anvil Orchestra.
Newly announced guests include actress Jane Levy (A LITTLE PRAYER), and critics Michael Phillips, Richard Roeper, Matt Zoller-Seitz, Nell Minow, Brian Tallerico, Eric Pierson, Dion Metzger, and Brenda Butler.
Ebertfest tickets and passes are currently available to purchase online or by calling the Virginia Theatre box office at 217-356-9063. Individual tickets to each film cost $20, while festival passes to see all films cost $200, with both including reserved seating. Four-film bundles are available for $65.
Ebertfest is hosted by Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn, the festival director since the very beginning, in collaboration with the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For additional information, including the full festival schedule, please visit https://ebertfest.com/, and follow us on social media:
Editor’s Note: Although originally announced as attending, unfortunately, actress Carrie Coon had to cancel attending Ebertfest with her film His Three Daughters. Director Azazel Jacobs will still be participating in the post-screening discussion.
Advertising faculty and graduate students in the MS advertising and ICR doctoral programs, as well as several alumni, participated in the 2025 annual conference of the American Academy of Advertising, held March 6-9 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ICR doctoral student Alice Ji and advertising graduate student Ruiheng (Rachel) Sun co-present “TikTok Made Me Buy It” at the 2025 AAA conference.
Faculty and graduate students participated in eight paper presentations and three panels, discussing research and ideas related to teaching AI and advertising, disability, ethics and data, and more.
As vice president of AAA, Chang-Dae Ham, professor of advertising and associate head of graduate studies, organized the research paper reviews and conference program and Kevin Wise, professor of advertising, served as chair of AAA’s graduate student committee.
The full list of Illinois papers and authors included:
“Finessing Realism: Harmonizing Behavioral Realism and Message Framing in Virtual Influencer Advertising – Mind Perception Theory Application” Seo Jeong Heo, Se Il Park, Floria Yujin Lee
“Does Authenticity Matter? The Impact of Visual Realism and Humanlike Expressions on the Effectiveness of Virtual Influencers” Jinping Wang (University of Florida), Assistant Professor Guolan Yang
“Navigating Consumer Acceptance of Cultured Meat: An Exploratory Narrative Review of Communication Strategies” Ziyang Gong, Tianli Chen, Yan (Anna) Liu, Associate Professor Leona Yi-Fan Su, Jingen Xuan
“In Watermark We Trust? Exploring How Consumers Cope with AI Influencer Advertising: Multidimensional Persuasion Knowledge and Construal Level Approach” Se Il Park, Floria Yujin Lee, Seo Jeong Heo
“TikTok Made Me Buy It: Breaking Expectations with Shoppable Ads” Alice Ji, Muskan Khowaja, Kevin Gilloly, Haoxue Luo, Nelson Oshodi, Zoe Randolph, Ruiheng Sun, Chun-Yao Wang, Professor and Head Michelle Nelson
“Exploring How Consumer Evaluation of Social Justice Issues Influence Brand Activism Effectiveness” Assistant Professor Louvins Pierre, Carolyn Lin (University of Connecticut)
“Understanding Consumer Engagement with Vertical Farming Brands on Twitter: An Approach Using Guided Latent Dirichlet Allocation for Topic Modeling” Junqi Shao, Tianli Chen, Associate Professor Leona Yi-Fan Su
“When Virtual (vs. Human) Celebrity Voice Matters: Interplay between Celebrity Type and Endorsing Message – Construal Level Theory Application” Floria Yujin Lee, Seo Jeong Heo, Se Il Park
“Generative AI and the Future of Advertising Creativity: Bridging the Gap Between Academia and Industry” Weizi Liu (Texas Christian University), Yanyun (Mia) Wang (University of Boulder), Assistant Professor Louvins Pierre, Tripp Westbrook (Firehouse Agency), Linda Groendyke (Digital Insights Labs), Jon Irwin (Liquid Agency)
“Disability DEI in Advertising: Preparing Future Advertising Professionals to Embrace Disability Authentically in Their Work” Cathy Chan Butler (American Association of Advertising Agencies), Josh Loebner (VML), Professor and Head Michelle Nelson, Edward Timke (Michigan State University), Beth Haller (Towson University), Erin Whiteside (University of Tennessee), Summer Shelton (Limelight Insights by Shugoll), Maria DeMoya (University of Tennessee), Eric Haley (University of Tennessee)
Actors David Strathairn, William Catlett, and Jeremiah Daniels, two-time Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple, and directors Angus MacLachlan and David Fortune join this year’s star-studded lineup
February 20, 2025
CHAMPAIGN, IL (February 20, 2025) — Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, also known as Ebertfest, announced today the addition of three new films to this year’s festival, to be held April 23-26 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign:
Barbara Kopple’s Academy Award-winning HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A.
Angus MacLachlan’s A LITTLE PRAYER starring David Strathairn, Jane Levy, Celia Weston, Will Pullen, Anna Camp, and Dascha Polanco
David Fortune’s COLOR BOOK starring William Catlett, Brandee Evans, Terri J. Vaughn, and Jeremiah Daniels
Kopple, MacLachlan, Fortune, Strathairn, Catlett, and Daniels will all be making their Ebertfest debuts with each receiving a coveted “Golden Thumb Award” following their screenings.
HARLAN COUNTY U.S.A., winner of Best Documentary at the 1977 Academy Awards, will include a post-screening discussion with director Barbara Kopple. The film, which received critical acclaim and currently holds a 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score, had its world premiere at the 14th New York Film Festival in 1976.
In this documentary about labor tension in the coal-mining industry, Kopple films a strike in rural Kentucky. After the coal miners at the Brookside Mine join a union, the owners refuse the labor contract. Once the miners start to strike, the owners of the mine respond by hiring scabs to fill the jobs of the regular employees. The strike, which lasts more than a year, frequently becomes violent, with guns produced on both sides, and one miner is even killed in a conflict.
“The film retains all of its power, in the story of a miners’ strike in Kentucky where the company employed armed goons to escort scabs into the mines, and the most effective picketers were the miners’ wives—articulate, indomitable, courageous,” said Roger Ebert in his 4-star review.
A LITTLE PRAYER will be complemented with a post-screening discussion with director, writer, and producer Angus MacLachlan and actor David Strathairn. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
The film follows a man who tries to protect his daughter-in-law when he discovers his son is having an affair. A LITTLE PRAYER touches upon a variety of issues in a changing modern South, including a woman’s volition over her own body, war veterans grappling with PTSD, and the limits of patriarchal interference.
“Our festival line-up has been carefully curated to give our loyal Ebertfest audiences films that will make them laugh and may make them cry, but even more important, these films and our guests will serve to confirm that we are all in this together,” says Ebertfest Co-Founder Chaz Ebert. “We gather to understand each other better, but also to just have fun!”
COLOR BOOK will be presented with a post-screening conversation with director David Fortune, cast members William Catlett and Jeremiah Daniels, and producer Kiah Clingman. The film had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival in NYC. COLOR BOOK’s Ebertfest debut will be sponsored by the Alliance for Inclusion and Respect.
COLOR BOOK tells the story of single father Lucky who, following his wife’s recent passing, finds himself navigating the challenges of raising his son Mason, who has Down syndrome. Seeking solace, Lucky and Mason embark on a journey across Metro Atlanta to attend their first baseball game together. Throughout their day-long trip, they encounter Murphy’s Law. From car breakdowns to missed trains, the duo faces a series of obstacles that test their relationship with each other. Despite the setbacks, they persevere, determined to reach the game. COLOR BOOK provides an intimate portrait of a father and son while exploring the experiences of raising a child with Down syndrome, highlighting the strength and resilience that emerge from their bond.
Additional updates to the festival program will be announced in the coming weeks.
Ebertfest passes are currently available to purchase online or by calling the Virginia Theatre box office at 217-356-9063. Individual festival passes to see all films cost $200, which includes reserved seating.
Roger Ebert was a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, a University of Illinois journalism alumnus, and an Urbana native.
Ebertfest is hosted by Chaz Ebert and Nate Kohn, the festival director since the very beginning, in collaboration with the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For additional information, please visit ebertfest.com, and follow us on social media:
