News 4 | College of Media

College of Media launches new bachelor’s degree in sports media

Illini Sports Night pregame show at women's basketball game

March 9, 2026 | Holly Rushakoff

After years of planning, a new bachelor’s in sports media is ready for prime time.

Illini Sports Night hosting live pregame show before Illinois women's basketball game.

In response to a growing interest from students—and with a proven track record of successful alumni across the sports media industry—the College of Media is expanding its roster to offer a Bachelor of Arts in Sports Media.

The program will prepare students for a variety of careers in sports media, including as PR and strategic communication managers, content creators and digital storytellers, social media and data analysts, sportscasters and producers, and more.

The new undergraduate degree received official approval from the Illinois Board of Higher Education in Spring 2026.

This is an area of high interest from students and employers alike, and, together with our campus partners, we are prepared to offer students a first-rate experience marked by the innovation, rigor, and personalized attention that defines all of our degree programs in the College of Media.

Tracy Sulkin

College of Media Dean

Starting April 27, current University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students may apply to transfer into the BA in sports media for Fall 2026. Transfer students from outside the University of Illinois can apply to the program for Spring 2027. First-year students can apply for Fall 2027 entry.

Courses from all three departments in the College of Media—Advertising, Journalism, and Media & Cinema Studies—will make up the core curriculum for the sports media degree.

“We’re excited to offer this interdisciplinary degree to prepare students for exciting career paths within sports media. This is an area of high interest from students and employers alike, and, together with our campus partners, we are prepared to offer students a first-rate experience marked by the innovation, rigor, and personalized attention that defines all of our degree programs in the College of Media,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin.

As streaming, podcasting, and multi-screen sports viewing continue to reshape how teams, fans, and brands interact, graduates who understand these evolving dynamics will have an advantage in the job market.

Illini Sports Night interviews sports anchor alum Cassie Carlson

The College of Media already offers sports-focused courses, including “Sports Public Relations,” “Sports Journalism,” “SportMedia, Technology & Culture,” and just this spring, “Sports Advertising & Branding” debuted. Students can also gain firsthand production and reporting experience through Illini Sports Night, a program covering Illinois Athletics, through the course “Newsroom Experience.”

Sports media majors will be able to take elective courses within the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism in the College of Applied Health Sciences, such as “Sport Analytics: Data-Driven Decision Making,” “The Foundations of Sport Management,” and “Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics: The Big Ten Conference.”

To expand experiential learning opportunities, the College of Media plans to collaborate with alumni working in the sports industry to create additional immersion and internship opportunities. These efforts will build upon past programs that included tours of athletic companies like Nike and Adidas. Alumni currently hold top positions across sports media such as producing, anchoring, and writing for national networks and publications; leading communications and videography for professional sports leagues; working with celebrity athletes, athletic brands, and sports teams; and some have even competed as Olympic athletes.

Students will also benefit from the extensive opportunities that come with the University of Illinois’ premier athletics program and its membership in the Big Ten Conference. For example, students have produced live pregame shows for Illini Sports Night in collaboration with the B1G+ network, and many intern at Fighting Illini Productions, the video team for the University’s Division of Intercollegiate Athletics. Additionally, DIA colleagues serve as adjunct instructors in the College of Media, and both local and national sports personalities frequently visit classes, including Brian Barnhart, the Illinois football and men’s basketball play-by-play announcer, and Gus Johnson, the lead college football and basketball play-by-play announcer for FOX Sports.

The BA in sports media is the sixth undergraduate degree offered by the College of Media, along with advertising, computer science + advertising, journalism, media and cinema studies, and an online degree in media for transfers. Learn more about Media’s academic programs.

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ICR student selected for 2026-27 Humanities Research Institute Fellowship

March 6, 2026

Anirban Mukhopadhyay, a student in the Institute of Communications Research, has been selected as a 2026-27 Humanities Research Institute Graduate Student Fellow.

Mukhopadhyaym will join six other graduate students and seven faculty members who will meet at the Humanities Research Institute throughout the year to address how they are rethinking research paradigms.

The theme for this year’s Fellowship is “Up Against Erasure,” which invites researchers to persuade others of the stakes of identifying processes of erasure, of being up against it, and of working in opposition to it. Mukhopadhyay’s research narrative is “Governing the AIR: Radio, Polity, and Nationalism in Postcolonial India, 1950–2023.”

As an HRI Graduate Student Fellow, Mukhopadhyay will receive a $25,000 stipend and a tuition and partial fee waiver.

HRI grants fellowships to Illinois faculty and graduate students, who spend the year engaged in research and writing. All HRI Fellows participate in HRI activities, including the yearlong Fellows Seminar.

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Content Creation Lab to help local high school students acquire media production skills

March 6, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood

An open, hands-on media studio for local high school students will launch this spring that encourages critical thinking, media literacy, and community engagement.

Angela Aguayo, associate professor of media and cinema studies, created the Content Creation Lab to help young teens acquire media production skills. The pilot program, which will be held in new podcasting studios at Illinois Public Media, was awarded a grant from the College of Media and is supported by the Illinois Community Media Project.

The first Content Creation Lab workshop will kick off this spring on Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., on April 4, 11, and 25. There is no fee for students to participate.

Aguayo said the program will offer a space for teens to try out new ideas, collaborate, self-direct, and articulate their own perspective on the world through media production.

“My biggest hope is that local youth can see the College of Media and the Content Creation Lab as a resource hub and a space for exploration, that we are a location where students can come decide if they’re interested in developing lives as media makers, creators, and thinkers,” said Aguayo.

This spring, the Lab will focus on media literacy, audio production, storytelling, and podcasting. In Fall 2026, instruction in video production and short-form storytelling will also be taught.

Aguayo has been training a team of undergraduate and graduate students who will help facilitate the open studio lab, guiding participants to develop their own projects through a practice of media literacy and encouraging them to direct their curiosity toward the local community as a place of discovery. The student-led team includes journalism major Leonor Carrillo; Earth, society, and environmental sustainability major Angela Conde; and Institute of Communications Research doctoral students Tom Farrenkopf and Gillian Paxton. Carrie Wilson-Brown, senior lecturer of media and cinema studies and of advertising, will also help oversee the project.

There’s a barrier to students trying media production, and the idea of the Lab is to lower that barrier so that students who might want to pursue media—either as a hobby or as a profession or as a pathway of study—can do so without having it cost anything.

Angela Aguayo

Associate Professor of Media and Cinema Studies, Creator of Content Creation Lab

“We’re going to lead students through the process of thinking about the things that concern them the most, the questions that they have about their world and their local community, and where those stories show up,” Aguayo said.

High schoolers will also be able to experiment with audio and video tools to learn more about recording and editing, an invaluable opportunity for local teens who may not have access to production equipment or facilities. The Lab’s partnership with Illinois Public Media will provide an opportunity for young people to work in a professional media facility and acquire mentorship from experts there.

“There’s a barrier to students trying media production, and the idea of the Lab is to lower that barrier so that students who might want to pursue media—either as a hobby or as a profession or as a pathway of study—can do so without having it cost anything,” Aguayo said.

In addition to providing instruction and hands on experience with media tools, Aguayo would like to see the Content Creation Lab function as a space for continued research on the evolving pedagogical approaches to youth media production.

While some students may end up with a finished product, Aguayo envisions the Content Creation Lab as a creative space for development.

“The Lab is not outcome-focused, it’s process-focused. What we’re really doing is [determining] how we can help students understand that media production is a productive way to contribute to their community.”

Learn more about the Content Creation Lab

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I on the Media: Inside the Cultural Momentum of the 2026 Sports Season

Fans in a pub watching hockey and cheering together

February 19, 2025

Fans at a pub watching hockey and cheering together

The Super Bowl, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup this summer have set the stage for a sports season defined not just by competition but by community.

These sporting events create shared viewing rituals that bring millions of people together to experience the games in real time. And while audiences continue to reach historic highs, even as media habits fragment, it’s worth examining how these events shape identity, fandom, community, and the way people connect with one another.

To help understand why sports carry such cultural influence and how brands try to engage with fans in these moments of collective attention, we spoke with Steve Hall, senior lecturer of advertising, who is teaching a brand new course this semester on “Sports Advertising and Branding” and serves as chair of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Athletic Board.

With the rise of “communal viewing”—from watch parties to bars to fan zones—how does the social nature of watching sports amplify the impact of an ad compared to watching alone?

Viewing sports together as a shared social experience can be extremely powerful and create incredible opportunities for advertisers. It can also pose serious challenges.

The impact of advertising in communal contexts is complicated and depends on a dizzying array of variables. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. For starters, how does an advertiser define and measure impact? From a media perspective, there’s a ton of data analytics being generated to measure what and when people are watching when it comes to sports on linear and streaming platforms. But that’s just scratching the surface.

Questions remain: What kind of fan zone, bar, or watch party is it? Organized or spontaneous? Is the game, match, or race interesting or boring? What stake or emotional connection do each of the audience members have with the sport, teams, players, and the group of people or type of fans who are there watching? Favorite or rival team winning or losing? Are people intensely engaged, having side conversations, focused on eating a pastrami on rye, checking fantasy stats, or posting videos of themselves at the party on social media?

Then you have the ad itself. Is the storytelling mediocre or amazing? Does it connect with the audience on an emotional, human level from a creative perspective? Do people discuss, share, or comment on the ad with others in a positive or negative way? Is there a strategy to amplify the advertising message across omnichannel touchpoints?

Understanding the impact of advertising in communal viewing environments is complicated. Stay curious. Keep asking questions. Because you’ll never have all the answers.

With the United States co‑hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, how significant is this moment for American brands looking to reach a global audience—especially given soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S.?

Whether you call it soccer or football doesn’t matter—the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a huge moment for all brands looking to reach global audiences. As the most popular sport on the planet, fandom is massive and culturally diverse. That opens a very big door for advertisers to tell their stories, create experiences, and connect with people everywhere on the world stage. To be successful, culture should be at the epicenter of advertising, fan engagement activities, and marketing programs. Branding is about what people think, feel, and believe. It’s reputation.

The FIFA World Cup will present incredible opportunities for advertisers to leverage culture, meet new audiences, create trust, and build relationships with everything from in-stadium brand activations to prime-time TV commercials. This global event will allow brands to align fans, teams, and athletes with relevant, authentic storytelling, sponsorships, partnerships, and innovative experiences that will not only reach global audiences, but connect with them in entirely new ways. After all, the world will be watching. Game on.

What are students currently analyzing and discovering in your brand new “Sports Advertising and Branding” course?

Currently, we’re looking at the relationship between culture, trends, and sports. Overall, the class allows students to explore, discover, and examine sports advertising and branding in a broad array of contexts that connect advertising, marketing, media, sports, teams, athletes, fans, events, experiences, and partnerships at amateur, collegiate, and professional levels.

The course introduces industry practices and processes to help students understand and apply concepts related to research, data, consumer behavior, strategic planning, creative content, production, media, and branded integration into the incredibly immense and fascinating world of sports.

Specific topics include sports information, public relations, event management, fan engagement, merchandising, brand activation, technology, e-sports, NIL, gambling, ethics, personal branding, sports celebrities, and collaborations. The class also incorporates experiential learning opportunities with alumni, sports industry professionals, and coaches, as well as attending NCAA athletic events on campus.

‘New York Times’-bestselling authors on presidential campaigns to visit University of Illinois for Q&A

Fight book cover with headshots of Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

February 17, 2026

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, co-authors of the New York Times bestsellers, “Fight,” “Shattered,” and “HRC,” will be on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to discuss their recent reporting, Donald Trump, and a preview of the 2026 elections on Monday, April 20, from 5-6 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media.

Attendees may join the event in the Illini Union, Room B, 1401 W. Green, Urbana, or register to join via Zoom. The conversation will be led by Colleen King, director of the Frank Center and clinical assistant professor of journalism.

Allen is an award-winning senior national politics reporter for NBC News. He covers presidential campaigns, the White House, Congress, and national political issues.

Parnes is a senior political correspondent covering national politics at The Hill. She previously worked as a staff writer at Politico, and during the first Trump administration, she was a CNN political analyst.

Their newest book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House—which provides an inside look at the Biden, Harris, and Trump camps during the 2024 battle for the White House—has been optioned for TV and film by Aline Brosh McKenna.

For more information, please contact Colleen King at cck@illinois.edu.

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Take 5 with Media Alumni: Alex Studer

February 6, 2026

Alex Studer (BS ‘17, advertising) is the director of web strategy at Peacock. He joined the streaming service in 2020—playing a key role in its launch—and now leads all major web initiatives and experimentation strategies across PeacockTV.com. Previously, Studer worked in the advertising industry as an account executive at Deutsch NY, where he supported the ACUVUE account, and later at Ogilvy NY, where he led client workstreams for Gerber and Nestlé. Studer has received multiple industry honors, including a Sports Emmy, Webby nomination, and three Webby honorable mentions. He has also been recognized as a 2023 MAIPer to Watch and was honored as an ADCOLOR FUTURE in 2019.

1. What is your current role at Peacock?

Currently, I’m the director of web strategy on the growth go-to-market team here at Peacock. I’ve been at the company for six years now and have been one of the key acquisition and experimentation leaders who have helped launch and grow the business. Put simply, my team runs our website (PeacockTV.com). We are responsible for everything consumers see when they come to our site, and we run experiments to try to get new users to sign up as efficiently as possible.

2. What do you find most challenging and most rewarding about your career?

The fast pace at which the marketing/advertising world moves is both a challenge and a reward for me. Each year, there are new advancements in technology, evolving consumer sentiments and values, and shifting company structures (e.g., mergers) in the industry that all result in a need to think into the future to stay ahead of it. This can for sure be daunting but also is satisfying as it challenges me to keep learning, adapting, and evolving alongside the industry.

3. When did you first realize advertising was the career path you wanted to pursue?

I started my journey at the University of Illinois as a pre-med psychology major. I spent my freshman year exploring different majors in the STEM world (electrical engineering, calculus, physics, and chemistry, to name a few), but everything changed my sophomore year on Quad Day when I stumbled upon the American Advertising Federation booth.

I’ll never forget my first AAF meeting and how inspired I was when learning that careers in advertising/marketing existed. The idea that you could have a career in a field where you analyze consumer behavior and use creativity to influence it really made an impact on me and motivated me to one day break into the industry. After getting heavily involved in AAF throughout my sophomore year, I was elected to the executive board my junior year and ended up running AAF Illinois as president my senior year. AAF is the reason I was able to finally discover a career path that felt more in line with my passions and interests. It’s also the reason I fell in love with NYC, thanks to our industry immersion visits here.

4. What advice would you give to students trying to break into the advertising industry today?

The biggest piece of advice I would give is to fully maximize and learn how to talk about all your past experiences to help land your future ones. Even before I started gaining industry experience, I was able to gain relevant, transferable skills through my involvement in student organizations, which later helped me land internships.

Once you start to compile your own set of experiences, I’d encourage students to focus on networking with those who are in the advertising industry, and to seek out professional organizations that can help further your career. For instance, I was fortunate to land my first ad agency internship at Bailey Lauerman in Omaha, Nebraska, after meeting a senior leader during an AAF Illinois campus visit.

My senior year, I decided I wanted to start my career in NYC, but recognized I didn’t have a strong network outside of Chicago. I applied to the Multicultural Advertising Internship Program and became a finalist, which gave me the opportunity to move to NYC after graduation to intern at Saatchi & Saatchi NY. My career in NYC wouldn’t have been a possibility without these prior experiences as I was able to finally start building my network and career here!

Alex Studer Olympics — Alex Studer with fellow members of the 2024 Paris Olympics campaign team for Peacock.

5. You were part of a campaign team that earned the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Experience for the 2024 Paris Olympics. What was your role for that campaign and what was it like to receive that recognition?

My team was responsible for the website acquisition and experimentation strategy to garner as many new subscribers as possible for the Olympics. For all organic traffic and paid media, our website served as a destination to learn more about the Olympics and helped consumers sign up for Peacock as seamlessly as possible to start streaming.

If I’m being candid, receiving this recognition didn’t feel real until I opened the (heavy!!) box the Emmy came in and saw my name on it. Early in my career, I was given valuable feedback from a mentor that I don’t take the appropriate amount of time to celebrate my wins and instead immediately look ahead to the next one. I challenged myself for this award to start to shift that and will definitely incorporate more celebration and reflection into any future awards/recognition my career brings me!

Receiving an Emmy was without a doubt a career highlight so far! It doesn’t feel like an “all-at-once” type of recognition, and instead feels more like a culmination of all my past wins, failures, lessons learned, etc. I feel fortunate to have this under my belt, and every day feel reminded of the accomplishment when I walk past the statue at home.

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Ebert Symposium 2026 focuses on fandom and the media

January 30, 2026

The 2026 Chaz and Roger Ebert Symposium, presented by the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, will address “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media.” Join us for this free two-day event on March 30-31, featuring a film screening, a roundtable discussion, and keynote address.

Monday, March 30

Film Screening: The Wiz

7 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum

Before Wicked, there was The Wiz.

Join the Ebert Center for a screening of Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (1978). See cultural icons such as Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Nipsey Russell follow the yellow brick road in this musical retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

While considered a failure upon its release, the film has since developed an enduring and charming legacy, as well as a dedicated cult fan base.

The film will be introduced by Dr. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at University of Miami, and Ebert Symposium keynote speaker.

Tuesday, March 31

Roundtable Discussion

2-3:30 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum

Join a roundtable discussion with doctoral students from the Institute of Communications Research on the Ebert Symposium theme of “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media.” Not only will it explore themes from The Wiz and the Ebert Symposium keynote speech, but it will also expand to all types of media. Moderated by Cait Coker, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Illinois, this discussion will be held among ICR students Youngin Kang, Gustavo Nery, Stephanie Perez, Kendra Williams, and Nansong Zhou. Audience participation is encouraged.

Keynote Address

4 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
Or register to join via Zoom

“What The Wiz Was (and Is): Media Industries, Distribution, Reception and The Wiz”

The Ebert Symposium keynote will be delivered by Dr. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at University of Miami.

As a part of the Ebert Symposium’s theme, “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media,” Martin draws attention to The Wiz as the first Black-cast blockbuster and re-assesses its significance to issues of Black media production, initial reception, distribution, and its enduring fandom. Concomitantly, this presentation is about the ways, particularly within a socio-political environment hostile to Blackness, The Wiz provides a prism through which to place the feminist “I” and joy into research. Engaging media industry studies, fandom/reception studies, and media studies, this presentation argues that the history and ongoing legacy of The Wiz is far more complicated than reducing it to a financial failure.

Martin is associate professor of media studies and chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Miami. He is author of Fandom for Us, by Us: The Pleasures and Practices of Black Audiences (New York University Press, 2025) and The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom (Indiana University Press, 2021), editor of Rolling: Blackness and Mediated Comedy (Indiana University Press, 2024), and co-editor of The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai (Rutgers University Press, 2025). A former marketing communications executive and ballet dancer, in his spare time, Martin is a ballet teacher, coach, and choreographer.

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Margaret Ng selected as Center for Advanced Study Associate for 2026-27 academic year

January 28, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood

Margaret Ng, associate professor of journalism and a faculty member in the Institute of Communications Research, has been selected as a Center for Advanced Study Associate for the 2026–2027 academic year.

As a CAS Associate, Ng will take time off from teaching in Fall 2026 to advance her research on “platform migration,” focusing on how regulatory bans, algorithmic shifts, and geopolitical tensions drive user migration between social media platforms. She argues that these shifts are fueling digital nationalism and reshaping digital sovereignty in an increasingly fragmented society.

Ng said recent events highlight the urgency of this topic, including the restructuring of TikTok in the U.S. and regulatory restrictions in Taiwan, the decline of Twitter/X use among journalists and academics, and the rise of Truth Social as the de facto official channel for the U.S. Presidency. These events reveal how global tensions and local politics are transforming the platforms people choose and the public spheres they build.

“We live in an era of rapid digital migration. We are seeing a wave of “digital migration” where users are trading in the dominant platforms for new communities that match who they are and what they care about.” Ng said.

“This project examines the forces behind this shift—from algorithmic decay and privacy concerns to political polarization and digital fatigue—and how these movements are reshaping the social, political, and cultural dimensions of online life.”

Ng said her study will particularly investigate digital migration across the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan by integrating large-scale computational analysis, surveys of thousands of users, and in-depth interviews with college students, journalists, tech workers, and elderly users. Drawing from those insights, the project will develop a framework that explains how political systems, institutional pressures, and everyday user practices intersect to shape modern migration patterns.

Ng said the findings promise to advance both theory and policy by documenting how these digital migrations create new forms of labor precarity, fragment public discourse, and erode the shared information environment essential for democracy. As users segregate into platforms that reflect their personal identities, the project explores how this new “digital mobility” challenges Big Tech dominance, redefines national sovereignty online, and ultimately reshapes the future of media, regulation, and public life.

Ng was appointed a CAS Associate for the Fall 2026 semester upon the recommendation of CAS professors and with concurrence of campus and university administrations.

CAS Associates are tenured Illinois faculty members whose project proposals are selected in an annual competition. They are granted one semester of teaching release time to pursue an individual scholarly or creative project.

The Center for Advanced Study works with every department on campus to identify and support the most productive, high-achieving, and innovative faculty at Illinois, providing them with connections and funding to pursue their work. Members of this accomplished community are invited to participate in CAS activities throughout the year and given opportunities to present their work to the CAS community. See CAS’s upcoming events.

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Documentary Club provides students a platform for real-life storytelling

January 22, 2026 | Giuliana Means, Communications Intern

From capturing fall aesthetics to investigating local ghost stories, students in the Documentary Club take a deeper look into campus life.

The registered student organization began in Spring 2024 to create a supportive space for both amateur and professional documentary filmmakers. They meet weekly in Gregory Hall to discuss and work on current projects, as well as host workshops to enhance their interviewing, filmmaking, and editing skills.

“I don’t necessarily need it to be good, professional, or amazing,” said Paige Gaines, president of the Documentary Club, and a senior earning a dual degree in media and cinema studies and in communication. “I just want people to make something and grow their skills because I think those skills are really transferable.”

Gaines said she was inspired to form the club because there was no official community for documentary-making on campus.

“I decided to be the change that I wanted to see and make a club for anybody who wants to be able to tell their own stories.”

Gaines says that documentaries are important because they shed light on stories that are often forgotten about in the media.

“There are so many different, wonderful, and beautiful things that are being discovered in our world,” Gaines said. “A lot of people have made big differences in our world, and those stories are often not talked about.”

The club is modest in size, with only five members, but welcomes interested students to join them. They currently have a handful of projects in the works, including a mini-series about campus life called Candid Campus. That project will feature footage from campus that shows what students see and hear on a typical school day at the University of Illinois.

“We’re going around campus and just seeing what’s happening,” Gaines said, adding that they are working with other student organizations to make short informational videos about them.

Gaines’s most recent video in this project is a profile about Velosity Dance, a sorority-led dance club.

“Filming dance is so interesting,” Gaines said. “You can play around a lot with how the body moves, so I’m really excited for the final project.”

The documentaries usually take a semester to complete and are often captured on smartphones or cameras that students in College of Media courses can check out from the Media Technology Center.

“We use whatever we can get our hands on,” Gaines said. “It’s truly just a hodgepodge; we fix it all in post-production, where we do a lot of color correcting to make everything look cohesive.”

Gaines’s favorite part of the club is the community.

“It may be small, but we are mighty,” Gaines said. “I love working with the people here. I just hope these friendships and relationships will last because it’s something I have found really fulfilling.”

To learn more about the Documentary Club, watch their videos on YouTube, visit their website, or check out their Instagram. To join Documentary Club, or to ask questions, please email uiucdocumentaryclub@gmail.com.

Photos courtesy of Paige Gaines.

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Centennial Circle: Investing in the next century of media education

Futuristic illustration of person viewing screens

Join a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of the College of Media at Illinois

January 14, 2026

A centennial is more than a milestone—it’s an invitation to define the future together.

As the College of Media approaches its 100^th anniversary, we celebrate our proud legacy and commit to advancing the next era of media education and research. Illinois Media graduates have informed the public, shaped culture, advanced technology, and transformed the way the world connects. To ensure this momentum carries into the next century, the College of Media invites its most passionate supporters to help lead the way through the Centennial Circle.

The Centennial Circle will be launched to honor visionary donors who make transformational investments. Induction into the Centennial Circle recognizes gifts of $100,000 or more to any fund in the College of Media between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2027. Donors can make an outright gift, a pledge, or a deferred gift such as a bequest in their will or a beneficiary designation of their IRA.

College of Media Dean Tracy Sulkin emphasized the historic significance of the Centennial Circle as the college celebrates its 100^th anniversary in 2027.

“A centennial invites us to honor our past while envisioning a bold future. In this unique moment, philanthropy will play a central role in shaping the next 100 years of media,” said Dean Sulkin. “Joining the Centennial Circle is an opportunity to create a powerful, lasting legacy—one that uplifts generations of students and strengthens media education and research at Illinois for decades to come.”

Donors may choose to support any fund in the College of Media, including the Centennial Fund, which helps meet emerging priorities, from technology advancements and innovative pedagogy to faculty and student research. Recent examples of donor-funded impact include the founding of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media and the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, student support such as scholarships and the Media Technology Center, and faculty support such as research initiatives and named professorships.

Preparing students for academic and professional success means ensuring they can navigate, analyze, and communicate effectively in an ever-changing media landscape. Support for the Centennial Fund positions the college to address complex societal challenges, including AI, media literacy, civic and public engagement, and the accessibility of news and information.

Joining the Centennial Circle is an opportunity to create a powerful, lasting legacy—one that uplifts generations of students and strengthens media education and research at Illinois for decades to come.

Tracy Sulkin

College of Media Dean

“The Centennial Circle reflects the power of partnership between the College of Media and our alumni and friends,” said Deanne Johnson, senior assistant dean for advancement. “By aligning philanthropic vision with emerging priorities, donors help ensure Illinois remains at the forefront of media education for generations.”

The historic cohort of Centennial Circle donors will be recognized during a College of Media centennial celebration and featured across the college’s communication channels. Recipients will also get a commemorative Centennial Circle lapel pin.

Join us in shaping the College of Media’s second century:

We welcome the opportunity to explore how your philanthropic vision can align with your passions and create lasting impact for the College of Media’s second century. To learn more, please contact Deanne Johnson, Senior Assistant Dean for Advancement, at 217-244-5466 or jhns@illinois.edu.

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