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UNC at the virtual ICA 2020 conference

May 11, 2020

Nine graduate students, 11 faculty members and various alumni will represent the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media on May 20-26, 2020, at the 70th annual International Communication Association conference, held in a virtual format. These scholars will participate in panel sessions and present authored or co-authored papers.

Hussman School faculty and student activities at ICA 2020 include:

Awards and honors
  • Ph.D. student Tegan Bratcher won a top student paper award for her paper, "The New Space of Opinion? Understanding the Role of Black Podcasts in Contemporary Black Thought."
  • Ph.D. student Michele Meyer won a top student paper award for her paper, "Why I Left Buzzfeed: What Confessionals From Former Buzzfeed Video Employees Reveal About the Mythologies and Realities of the Social Media Entertainment Industry."
  • Ph.D. student Jasmine Gray won a top student paper award for her paper, "Life Plotting: A Self-Conceptualization Process."
  • Adam Saffer and colleagues won a top paper award for their paper, "International Interorganizational Relationship Patterns in Civil Society: Modeling Valued Relations Exponential Random Graph Models."
  • Suman Lee and colleagues won a top paper award for their paper, "Farmers Under Threat: Implications for Attitudes Toward China and Perceived Risks From the Trade Dispute."
Friday, May 22
  • Ph.D. candidate Yan Qu will present “Practicing Public Diplomacy by Doing Good: Examining the Effects of CSR on Country Reputation."
  • Tegan Bratcher will present "The New Space of Opinion? Understanding the Role of Black Podcasts in Contemporary Black Thought."
  • Suman Lee and colleagues will present "Farmers Under Threat: Implications for Attitudes Toward China and Perceived Risks From the Trade Dispute."
  • Ph.D. student Ashley Hedrick, Barbara Friedman and Anne Johnston will present "What Adolescents Know, Think, and Feel About Sex Trafficking: Exploring Knowledge, Opinions and Emotions as a First Step to Designing Curriculum."
  • Deb Aikat will serve on the panel "South Asian Media and Communication Research: Multiple Perspectives, Challenges and Opportunities."
Saturday, May 23
  • Maria Leonora Comello, Jasmine Gray and Ph.D. alumna Diane Francis '16 (Kentucky) will present “Immersion in Game Worlds and Associations With Well-Being Among Cancer Survivors."
  • Maria Leonora Comello will present "Using Persuasion Techniques to Develop Engaging Presentations for Classroom and Conference Environments."
  • Jasmine Gray will present "Life Plotting: A Self-Conceptualization Process."
Sunday, May 24
  • Ph.D. student Kirsten Adams will present “Famous Last Words: Temporality and Legacy Construction in Public Figures’ Obituaries."
  • Amanda Reid will present "Music Matters: Copyright and Music Therapy."
  • Lucinda Austin and Ph.D. alumnae Barbara Miller '06 (Elon) and Seoyeon Kim '19 (Alabama) will present "Values Speak Volumes: Examining Corporate Social Advocacy and Relational Outcomes."
  • Daniel Kreiss will present "Social Identity and Social Knowledge."
  • Michele Meyer will present "Why I Left Buzzfeed: What Confessionals From Former Buzzfeed Video Employees Reveal About the Mythologies and Realities of the Social Media Entertainment Industry."
  • Ph.D. alumna Meghan Sobel '16 (Regis), Daniel Riffe and Ph.D. alumna Seoyeon Kim '19 (Alabama) will present "Media and Money: A 50-Year Analysis of International News Coverage and U.S. Foreign Aid."
  • Adam Saffer and colleagues will present "How Movement and Countermovement Communities Interactions Affect Temporal Evolution of Topics: A Study on 2016 Refugee Crisis Twitter Discourse."
  • Adam Saffer and colleagues will present "International Interorganizational Relationship Patterns in Civil Society: Modeling Valued Relations Exponential Random Graph Models."
Monday, May 25
  • Ph.D. student Heesoo Jang and Daniel Riffe will present “When a Robot Journalist Is a Specialist, Is It More Credible?".
  • Ph.D. candidate Josh Barker, Adam Saffer and Seth Noar will present "The Interplay of Personal Networks and Outcome Expectancies: An Egocentric Analysis of E-Cigarette Beliefs and Use Among Young Adults."
  • M.A. student Bridget Barrett will present "Evolution of the Digital Political Advertising Network: A Longitudinal Analysis of Platforms’ Rise to Dominance Over Four Election Cycles."

More details about this conference can be found on ICA's website.