ICR Student Research Spotlight: Seo-Jeong (Rachel) Heo

August 19, 2026 Describe your areas of research interest. I’m especially interested in three questions. First, how do people make sense of AI in the first place—what do they believe a machine can genuinely experience, claim, do, or create? Second, what changes when AI moves from simply providing information to recommending, interpreting, and eventually acting […]

Media faculty, students present research at 2026 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference

August 12, 2026 This year’s conference theme was “Jazz & Jambalaya: Nurturing Harmony and Health in Higher Education.” Presenters included faculty in the Institute of Communications Research, the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, and the Department of Journalism; and graduate students in ICR’s PhD program and the MS advertising program.  A Science Communication paper, “Exploring […]

Media faculty, students present research at 2026 International Communication Association conference

June 25, 2026 This year’s conference theme addressed “Communication and Inequalities in Context.” College of Media presenters included faculty in the Institute of Communications Research and the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising; graduate students in the MS advertising program; and doctoral students in the Institute of Communications Research PhD program.  College of Media research […]

Advertising and ICR faculty, students, alumni present research at 2026 American Academy of Advertising Conference

April 22, 2026 Advertising faculty with appointments in the Institute of Communications Research, doctoral students in ICR, graduate students in advertising, and ICR alumni participated in the 2026 annual conference of the American Academy of Advertising, held March 26-29 in Austin, Texas. Through presentations and panels, they discussed research and ideas related to teaching AI and advertising, […]

ICR team co-edits book on media, meanings surrounding quinceañeras

March 16, 2026 Jillian M. Báez (PhD ’09, communications and media, ICR), Diana Leon-Boys (PhD ’20, communications and media, ICR), and Institute of Communications Research Professor Emerita Angharad N. Valdivia (PhD ’91, communications and media, ICR) edited a collection that draws on the expanding field of girlhood studies to examine the increasing visibility of the event and the figure of […]

ICR student selected for 2026-27 Humanities Research Institute Fellowship

March 6, 2026 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 […]

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

January 28, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood 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 […]

Centennial Circle: Investing in the next century of media education

Join a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of the College of Media at Illinois January 14, 2026 As the College of Media approaches its 100th 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, […]

I on the Media: Melita Garza discusses journalism’s role in Ken Burns’s ‘The American Revolution’

December 15, 2025 Ken Burns’s new PBS series The American Revolution is more than a sweeping historical documentary—it illustrates the ways in which journalism helped ignite and sustain the fight for independence. Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, and winner of Journalism History’s 2024 essay contest, shares […]

ICR faculty and students receive honors at 2025 National Communication Association convention

December 10, 2025 The Institute of Communications Research marked a highly productive year at the 2025 National Communication Association convention from November 19-23 in Denver, Colorado, with faculty members, students, and alumni presenting research, chairing panels, and contributing to programming at the 111th annual event. In addition to this strong scholarly presence, several members of […]

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