News
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June 13, 2023
Summer Harlow to Join Journalism as ‘Transformational Hire’
The Department of Communication & Journalism is excited to announce that Summer Harlow is joining the faculty as an associate professor in the newly relaunched journalism program.
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June 11, 2023
Journalism Majors to Helm Battalion for Summer, 2023 Academic Year
Journalism senior Ruben Hernandez will serve as the summer editor-in-chief and journalism junior Zoe May will serve as the 2023-24 academic year editor-in-chief. Hernandez has been an editor for the Life & Arts desk for three semesters, while May has served as both a multimedia editor and sports editor for The Battalion.
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June 10, 2023
A&M Welcomes New Associate Director of Student Media
Spencer O’Daniel will join the Division of Student Affairs as the associate director of Student Media. O'Daniel is an award-winning publication advisor, mentor and media educator who will help guide the vision of a new office of Student Media.
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January 13, 2023
Ryan Faulkner ’23: Finding Your Passion
2021 University Studies graduate Ryan Faulkner ’23 found his home and career calling in sports journalism while at Texas A&M University.
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December 14, 2022
Lia Musgrave ‘19: Blazing A Trail For Women In Sports
As a woman in sports media, Lia Musgrave ’19 has had to work hard to make her voice heard — and she’s certain her perseverance will help define a new era for the future of women in the industry.
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November 19, 2022
Josh Byerly ‘99: An Aggie With A Story To Tell
As the former voice of NASA and current vice president and chief communications officer for SLB, 1999 Texas A&M journalism graduate Josh Byerly has made a career out of telling a good story.
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March 31, 2022
COMM Returns to Italy
After nearly three years of setbacks due to COVID-19, COMM students can now register before the August 1 priority deadline to study abroad in Italy in Spring 2023.
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February 28, 2022
Collaboration and Creativity Meet Up in the Media and Gaming Lab
Conversations happen in the Lab. While the equipment is important, building a creative community as a safe space for students and faculty is objective No. 1.
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February 27, 2022
When the Church Went Digital – Professor Leads Research on the Rise of Remote Worship
Churches and religious organizations faced struggles moving to virtual formats at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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February 9, 2022
2022 Extend the Reach: Increasing Diversity in the Newsroom & the News
Watch now! Journalism at Texas A&M’s third annual Journalism Seminar The March 25 journalism seminar allowed both high school and college journalism students to meet award-winning journalists, including keynote speaker Erin Ailworth, reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Others featured during the live broadcast included sports media professionals and standout graduates of the Texas A&M […]
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December 3, 2021
Defining ‘Serving’ in A&M’s new Hispanic Serving Institution status
A&M recently announced the university had achieved Hispanic Serving Institution designation by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. Professors and graduate faculty reflect on what it means to serve Hispanic and Latinx Aggies moving forward.
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October 19, 2021
On The Grind
Scholars and athletes break down life in the spotlight while prioritizing mental health, and how life experiences connect to academic research, teaching and in the classroom.
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September 17, 2021
Public Health Messaging during Coronavirus Pandemic
Health communication researchers weigh in on why health messaging – and how to communicate effectively – has never been more important. Tragic news of a Texas A&M student's death from COVID-19 complications prompted a campus protest calling for administrators to increase safety measures including more online learning options.
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May 27, 2021
Graduate students create a safe place for scholars to share lived realities
Department of Communication graduate students planned the 2021 Communicating Diversity Student Conference where undergraduate and graduate student scholars from Hawaii to Texas to Massachusetts presented their work on collective healing, the theme for this year’s conference.
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May 14, 2021
Introducing Code^Shift, a data science collaboratory for social justice initiative
Srividya Ramasubramanian, a Presidential Impact Fellow and Professor of Communication, is director of the initiative by Texas A&M University faculty to create a research lab using data science for social justice to combat bias.
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May 14, 2021
Honoring accolades and accomplishments of the Department of Communication faculty
By Allison Brock As the Spring 2021 semester comes to a close, faculty in the Department of Communication were asked to share notable publications, honors and awards from academic year 2020-21. In Publishing Sandra Braman, Ph.D. Published in 2020 by MIT Press, “The irony of Internet governance research: Metagovernance as context” as a book chapter […]
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April 16, 2021
Dr. Sandy Stone and Dr. Lucy Miller to speak during final Showing Trajectory Talk Series
Showing Trajectory, a lecture-based talk series highlighting the success of individuals and their paths, will host (Trans)parency in Academia on April 21 at 6 p.m. via Zoom and Facebook Live.
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April 8, 2021
Unique opportunities, customized paths attract students to communication degrees
As decision week for accepted freshman and prospective graduate students approaches, undergraduate and graduate students and faculty weighed in on the advantages of choosing COMM degrees at Texas A&M.
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March 24, 2021
Extending the Reach 2021 Journalism Seminar
Increasing Diversity in the Newsroom & the News Hosted by Journalism Studies at Texas A&M University Texas high school journalism students and advisors, as well as current Texas A&M University students, are invited to meet and learn from national reporters and multimedia journalists during the 2021 Extending the Reach journalism seminar hosted by the journalism […]
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March 22, 2021
Renewing DEI commitments in the wake of anti-Asian mass shooting
We need action; and as a community of communication scholars and students, we are uniquely equipped to aid in the broader struggles toward racial justice. #FightRacism, #StopAAPIHate, #StopAsianHate
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March 22, 2021
Action-based initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion
Save these dates in March and May when three anti-racism programs created by Department of Communication faculty will offer hands-on learning through research innovation.
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January 9, 2021
Beyond Photojournalism
As a lecturer in the COMM department, Tom Burton brings his newsroom career into the classroom to prepare the newest generation of multimedia journalists.
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November 24, 2020
COMM students tackle Covid-19 Misinformation with Facts
As the defining event of 2020, the pandemic has generated countless news articles and health prevention messages, including misinformation. The students in COMM 460 and 305 tackled ‘fake news’ and effective prevention facts about COVID-19.
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October 26, 2020
Honors Students Take on Podcasting and Kamala Harris
Tasha Dubriwny challenged her COMM Honors students to create podcasts around current issues in women’s rhetoric and electoral politics. 'Women's Rhetoric: Election 2020' is now live.
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October 14, 2020
Media and Mental Health Communication During COVID
Health communication researcher Sebastian Scherr studies how people engage with social media – specifically mental health messaging – and how the media is structured to respond to users. At a time when many students are reporting feeling anxious and overwhelmed, Scherr said it is important to raise awareness of the mental health resources available to Texas A&M students.
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October 2, 2020
New Look for COMM Day
The virtual COMM Day on Oct. 8 will look quite a bit different than past years, but what hasn't changed, said Kylene Wesner, is the valuable opportunity to meet and hear from COMM alumni about job search and career strategies.
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September 15, 2020
Building Bridges and Transforming Lives
Srividya “Srivi” Ramasubramanian, Ph.D., has recently been honored with national awards in recognition of her research, publishing and teaching on media, diversity and social justice as a member of the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University.
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June 23, 2020
A Message for COMM Students, Faculty and Staff
#RacismAtTAMUFeelsLike. Reading these stories of systemic racism experienced by A&M students, faculty and staff reinforces the need for collective, systematic and focused action to achieve racial justice for Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color. This is a pivotal moment.
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May 26, 2020
Journalism Program Hosts Virtual Awards Ceremony
In conjunction with the Governor’s Committee on People with Disabilities, the Department of Communication/Journalism program hosted a virtual 2020 Barbara Jordan Media Award ceremony recognizing media professionals and student journalists from across Texas for work published in 2019.
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May 1, 2020
Climate Conference Facilitates Healthy Conversations
In February, the Texas A&M Team Rhetoric Conference started important conversations around the increasingly urgent global climate crisis. Climate change is expected to be a dominant source of disruption in the next decade and the goal is to start conversations while there is still time to create change.
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March 20, 2020
Defining the Mission – Journalism for the 21st Century at Texas A&M
In April, the Department of Communication/Journalism program hosted a virtual awards ceremony for the Office of the Texas Governor Annual Barbara Jordan Media Awards. Media professionals and student journalists from across Texas were recognized for work in all media forms that accurately and positively reports on individuals with disabilities.
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February 11, 2020
When research and politics collide – Jennifer Mercieca’s new book explains how the U.S. created a ‘Demagogue for President’
In Demagogue for President, Jennifer Mercieca outlines six rhetorical strategies used by Donald Trump to win the presidency. Trump took advantage of existing polarization and made expert use of rhetorical strategies to divide, attack and rally his base while intimidating opponents.
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January 28, 2020
Finding a Fit in the Department of Communication
The Department of Communication has fostered multiple student-run organizations where undergrad students can develop professional skills while interacting with like-minded classmates. There is a large boost to professional development for a small time commitment each month. Each organization has its own focus that helps narrow down the COMM degree into a specific field of interest.
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January 13, 2020
Rural Health Is Focus of Grimes County Photovoice Project
The Grimes County Photovoice project is a collaboration of Department of Communication faculty with different areas of expertise with the goal of improving community health for rural residents.
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November 22, 2019
Researcher Advises Public to Reevaluate Trust in ‘Trusted Systems’
Researcher Patrick Burkart said his goal is to prompt Aggies – and everyone in a leadership position – to critically evaluate the public trust in modern 'trusted systems' that subject consumers' personal data to hacking.
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November 8, 2019
Professor Credits Glasscock Fellowship with Advancing Research, Journal Review Process
Dr. Tasha Dubriwny is one of four professors honored with the Glasscock Internal Faculty Residential Fellowship for the 2019-2020 school year. Dubriwny credits the fellowship with advancing her research into contemporary reproductive rights rhetoric.
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October 24, 2019
Encouraging the Difficult Conversation
Difficult Dialogues is an initiative that is open to anybody in the campus community to come and have a conversation about race relations. It started with the idea that some students and faculty experience racism on A&M’s campus and other students are very unaware it is happening.
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October 20, 2019
Getting Students Across the Finish Line & Into the Working World
COMM Days connect students with working alumni to learn about different communication career paths and the skills, tactics and nuances of the career world required to secure internships and jobs. Dr. Kylene Wesner, instructional assistant professor in communication, coordinates the event with the department’s alumni association board.
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October 1, 2019
Turning Passion Into Pedagogy
The department of communication media lab director prefers 'joey lopez phd' for all references to his name and title saying it allows him to 'depower' his title so he can empower students. His multimedia and new media courses, which he describes as theme based rather than skill based, all share the same theme – passion.
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September 12, 2019
Social Media Key to Public Health, Monitoring Disease Outbreak
The rise of social media in the past decade has created a more efficient way to identify disease outbreak through media platforms such as Twitter. Texas A&M health communication expert Dr. Lu Tang and her team work together to identify health behaviors, beliefs and attitudes on social media during disease outbreaks.
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July 7, 2019
Smartphones May Limit Understanding Of News Content
Johanna Dunaway, an associate professor in the Department of Communication, found that the size of smartphone screens can affect how well consumers understand information from video news.
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May 29, 2019
It’s a Golden Age for Black Horror Films
For decades, black characters in horror movies were objects of ridicule, died first or played evil Voodoo practitioners. But now we're seeing a wave of films created by blacks and starring blacks.
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May 2, 2019
Social Media Transforming China Despite Censorship
Social media in China, increasingly one of the most censored countries in the world, is flourishing. Professor Cara Wallis shares how Chinese social media looks different than people might think.
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April 22, 2019
Texas A&M DNA Day Celebrates Genetic Research
Texas A&M's annual DNA Day showcases how advances in genomic research are reshaping lives and the ethical challenges of modern medicine.
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April 5, 2019
Aggie advisors to serve in statewide advising network
Political science advisor Rachel Nemets and communication advisor Valerie Wilson were elected to serve on the executive board for the Texas Academic Advising Network.
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March 24, 2019
Aggie alumni discuss diversity in the newsroom at Friday panel
By Noah Woods @noahwoods_3 Students, teachers, journalists and speakers gathered in the Century Ballroom of the Texas A&M Hotel & Conference Center to discuss a pressing topic in the media world today — diversity. The estimated 180 participants, including high school students from around the area, exchanged conversation and questions concerning the actions to take […]
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March 24, 2019
Batt celebrates 125 years
By Jordan Burnham @RJordanBurnham With every decade since the 1950s represented, The Battalion celebrated its 125th anniversary with a gala on Saturday, and looked forward to future years of producing exemplary student journalism. Over 200 former Battalion staffers, advisers, journalists and community members celebrated Battalion history and the influence of the publication. Speakers and advisers […]
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March 19, 2019
Michael Cohen’s verbal somersault, ‘I lied, but I’m not a liar,’ translated by a rhetoric expert
Michael Cohen wants you to know that throwing your kid a ball doesn't make you a Red Sox pitcher. So he told lies, he says, but that doesn't make him a liar. A rhetoric scholar dissects his argument.
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March 7, 2019
Campus connections
By Madison Brown With thousands of phone apps at your fingertips, one Texas A&M student has created an app designed to get people offline by geo-capturing and alerting two people with shared interests when they are near each other. Think of it as a variation on being alerted there’s a Charmander close by, but instead […]
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February 13, 2019
Arizona State professor lectures on history of lynching in the US
By Paige Brazil Ersula J. Ore spoke to a near-capacity crowd of 90 students and faculty Tuesday morning about the history of lynching in America, and the rhetorical power lynching still commands in modern society. Ore, an assistant professor of African American Studies and Rhetoric at Arizona State University, discussed her upcoming book, “Lynching: Violence, […]
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January 29, 2019
Local Newspaper Closures Polarize Voters, Choke Political Progress
Residents are less informed, less engaged in their communities and less influential with their legislators in cities where polarized national news sources are replacing shuttered local newspapers.