College News

Truth, technology, togetherness: What CMDI experts are thinking as Election Day nears

Joe Arney — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 18:10:29 +0000

Truth, technology, togetherness: What CMDI experts are thinking as Election Day nears Joe Arney Tue, 10/20/2026 - 12:10

Joe Arney

The midterm elections are shaping up to be a referendum on technology’s role in our democracy.

It’s allowing candidates to connect with voters in digital town squares, but also providing fertile ground for sowing mis- and disinformation and allowing feeling to spread faster than fact. And that’s not to mention the citizen-led uprisings against artificial intelligence—both the spread of slop and the sprawl of data centers.

Faculty studying political communication, networks and trust at �鶹��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information said it’s important for voters to think deeply about these broader questions around technology and democracy as they cast their ballots this fall.

“We need the liberal arts right now—as a tonic to everything being A.I., for critical thinking, and for the sole purpose of creating amazing citizens who love learning and discovery,” said Susan Abbott, who teaches media studies at CMDI.

Here are some of the college’s experts with their thoughts, and what they’re watching for this fall.

All the feels

Karen Ashcraft

More than 20 years ago, Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness”—the idea that truth is becoming less about facts, and more about how something feels.

Now that we find ourselves in this post-truth communication landscape, it’s those feelings we should be paying attention to.

Karen Ashcraft (PhdComm’98), a professor of communication, is an organizational communication expert who studies differences—like gender and race. She and other scholars said the explosion of networked economies—especially social media and other participatory digital platforms—have allowed not just a flow of information, but of sensation.

“I’m not suggesting getting rid of critical thinking. We need fact checking, we need to track mis- and disinformation,” Ashcraft said. “But we haven’t thought about critical feeling—about how to train media users or communication students on how sensation operates on the body when it’s traveling like this,” or how it influences political discourse.

A key focus of hers is gender, from how pollsters report trends to how candidates communicate with stakeholders. More real than the gender gap, she said, is the depth of divisions within men and women, drawn along fault lines like the MAGA movement, tradwives, tech bros and hypermasculinity. Many of those distinctions defy traditional gender boundaries.

“Men and women, as groups, don’t do anything the same,” she said. “There is far more difference within us than there is between us. And when we look at elections only in terms of men and women, we’re not understanding how gender is an animating factor for political movements and participation.”

Innovation amnesia

Nathan Schneider

During the 2024 election, Nathan Schneider coined the term “campaign financialization” to describe the transition to speculative technologies, such as cryptocurrency and prediction markets, that turn campaigns into investments.

Now, he sees it happening with A.I.

This builds on Schneider’s concept of “innovation amnesia,” which explains how technology-driven changes allow us to forget things we used to know—and policies that should still apply. For instance, prediction markets have called what they do journalism to get around gambling regulations.

“You have Donald Trump saying contributions to his meme coin aren’t corruption, because it isn’t somebody coming up to Mar-a-Lago with a bag of cash,” said Schneider, an associate professor of media studies and director of the college’s Media Economies Design Lab. “Because it’s a new technology, it offers a veneer that you’re doing something different."

“We’re seeing a wholesale transformation of our political process through the ability of that money to move in politics.”

Nathan Schneider, associate professor, media studies

What’s different is how aggressively tech companies are flexing their influence. Elon Musk’s donations to Republican candidates in the midterms have topped $275 million; other tech CEOs have poured money into projects like Trump’s ballroom. “We’re seeing a wholesale transformation of our political process through the ability of that money to move in politics,” Schneider said.

Cryptocurrency is one area Schneider has studied, and he’s troubled by how its leaders have turned support for the technology into a litmus test, without demonstrating its public benefit.

“The industry can deploy large amounts of capital in targeted ways to take out candidates who won’t do its bidding,” he said. And though resistance is building around A.I., “a lot of powerful interests are trying to ensure these things go forward.”

Building bridges

How can you study human-computer interaction and data science and not be discouraged by the evolution of online platforms from digital town squares to a handful of trillion-dollar companies weaponizing algorithms to poison political discourse?

Brian Keegan

“When a bridge falls down or a plane collapses, we don’t just shrug and say, that’s what planes and bridges do,” said Brian Keegan, associate professor of information science. “We have regulatory institutions that investigate failures and ensure we build these technologies better based on what we’ve learned. This isn’t the first time we’ve brought airplanes or bridge builders to account.”

Keegan hopes that history will inform the future direction of A.I., one where these tools support greater participation and transparency, especially when it comes to local issues. In addition to his academic work, he’s a columnist at Boulder Reporting Lab and a regular contributor to the Daily Camera’s op-ed page; this October, he’s watching to see how local candidates are using A.I.

“When you see candidates going all-in on A.I.-generated imagery and copy, it may show a lack of savviness with where these tools break down, particularly with the nuances of local campaign issues,” Keegan said. “Will voters perceive them as authentic? If not, what are the consequences to candidates for outsourcing their thinking?”

It’s especially interesting against the backdrop of Boulder’s shifting demographics.

“As our population gets older, I worry about our susceptibility to advanced technologies driving inauthentic campaigns,” Keegan said. “We probably don’t want 80-year-olds on Twitter all the time, but if you’re not being exposed to what A.I. can do, maybe you lack the kind of cognitive immune system response to think critically about what you see in the wild.”

A matter of trust

Trust in the U.S. news media has, as is the case with many institutions, been declining for years. But in Gallup’s most recent poll, the level of trust in the press ticked up slightly, driven by an increase among Republicans.

It’s too slight an increase, after years of falling, to have real significance. But Meagan Doll noted that the opportunity for higher trust in media is something she saw firsthand while studying and freelance reporting in authoritarian countries like Rwanda and Uganda.

Meagan Doll

“Ugandan journalists and the public have been living in an electoral autocracy for a long time, where elections happen, but they’re not free and fair,” said Doll, an assistant professor of journalism. “Now we’re seeing some of that happening in the U.S., to different degrees. We have an interesting opportunity to learn about how journalists do their work in the face of real threats to their lives and safety.”

Doll studies political communication, public opinion and media trust, especially the social and political contexts where it takes place. A lot of her work focuses on how local news can rebuild trust with audiences, such as public fora between readers and newsmakers, which The Texas Tribune has experimented with.

Nationally, though, there are dangerous indicators of the country’s flirtation with authoritarianism.

“The relationship between the news and politics—and how public some of the clashes have been, like the ban affecting the White House press corps—is not encouraging,” Doll said. “But I hope it helps people see where journalism comes from and the methods journalists use to get their information.”

Between the elections

Elections, Susan Abbott said, are lightning rods for attention. But what really matters is what happens between those elections, “which is why it’s so important to support everyday types of literacy around media, algorithms and data—skills every 21st-century citizen needs.”

Abbott knows what she’s talking about. An assistant teaching professor of media studies, she has decades of international experience strengthening public interest media, democratic governance and information ecosystems; in addition to her consulting business, she previously was an advisor on information integrity and independent media development to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

But literacy is waning, Abbott said, pointing to a social media-driven attention economy that rewards content that gratifies in seconds. And fewer voters are actively seeking out news; they may instead only encounter journalism incidentally on social media or through A.I. It’s another reason to rethink how media and information literacy are taught.

Susan Abbott

“A big assumption about our democracy is that if you put information out there, people will read it, make an opinion and vote,” Abbott said. “But our information spaces are not well curated. We need not just a digital detox, but a decluttering of these spaces.”

She pointed to some alternatives, like election watch parties and citizen assemblies, a strategy Boulder is experimenting with to engage citizens to solve complex problems.

The alternative is continuing in a troubling direction—“where people are using A.I. as a surrogate,” Abbott said. “So, asking ChatGPT to tell you how to vote on ballot issues, for example. And this is where information literacy becomes even more important, because you have to have the skills to know, are you being duped? Are you verifying what you’re getting with other sources?”

Follow the issues

When she worked election nights in newsrooms, Erica Hunzinger was the editor you’d go to when you needed a cup of coffee on deadline.

But when students at The Bold, one of �鶹��ý’s student-led media organizations, are looking for tips on politics, they ask about coverage, now coffee. Her experience editing politics for The Associated Press, The Denver Post and elsewhere offers a wealth of resources to students figuring out how to tell the right stories amid the pressure of high-stakes campaign reporting.

“I learned so much from the reporters that I worked with—getting people to talk to you, following the money—and I love sharing those tips and tricks with students.”

Erica Hunzinger, assistant teaching professor, journalism

Not that they have a choice. Students in her Covering Political Campaigns class are each assigned a race or a ballot measure to cover. That reporting, plus efforts from staffers at The Bold, comprises two voting guides the students produce—one for state and federal races, one for local issues—to help Coloradans navigate their ballots.

“Doing this work is how you learn to do it,” said Hunzinger, assistant teaching professor of journalism and faculty director of student media. “I teach them the fundamentals so that they’re ready when they hit that obstacle. I learned so much from the reporters that I worked with—getting people to talk to you, following the money—and I love sharing those tips and tricks with students.”

The biggest lesson she shares is that election reporting doesn’t end when the ballots have been counted.

“If you’re reporting on, say, that graduated income tax question on the ballot, don’t forget to come back once it goes into place to see how it’s working,” she said. “That’s the accountability piece of journalism that’s so important to this kind of political reporting.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Six faculty members share what they’re watching as voters cast their ballots this fall.

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Feeding ad-diction

Joe Arney — Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:03:22 +0000

Feeding ad-diction Joe Arney Thu, 10/15/2026 - 09:03

An ad for BetMGM served up in a social media feed. In a new paper, expert Chris Vargo says the real signal for the growth of sports betting seems to be when the advertising goes into high gear, with power users seeing up to 100 or more ads a week.

Joe Arney

Chris Vargo didn’t need to write a paper about online gambling to illustrate its ubiquity. But it is a reason the advertising expert has become interested in it.

“Sports betting ads are everywhere—they’re inescapable,” said Vargo, an associate professor at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder. “And we have a saying in advertising—if you’re seeing a lot of ads for a certain service, they’re raking it in.”

Rather than fixate on the omnipresence of online gambling, Vargo used a blend of Google Trends analytics and individual user data to understand how exposure to online gambling ads influenced user behavior, including the resumption of betting activity after a pause and searches for addiction treatment resources. Sports betting may be the most widely advertised form of online gambling, but he also looked at casino games, lotteries, skill-based games and financial betting. Some of the most visible non-sports examples are the prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi.

The resulting paper was published in Policy & Internet this month—a different direction for Vargo, who typically submits his work to communication and advertising journals.

Chris Vargo

“This paper is really looking at advertising in a critical way,” he said. “A lot of studies in marketing or advertising journals focus on how to make advertising more effective. Here, we’re saying that this advertising is associated with gambling engagement and help-seeking searches.”

In 2020, Colorado became the 10th state to legalize sports betting; today, nearly 40 states have legalized some form of wagering on athletics. The uneven rollout across the country meant Vargo and his co-authors—Toby Hopp, also of CMDI, and Harsha Gangadharbatla, formerly of the college and now with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—could see the same pattern of help-seeking behavior repeated each time the industry rolled out advertising in a state.

“We thought it might be like marijuana—it becomes legalized, it takes a little time and then takes off,” Vargo said. “And while that’s true here, it’s really the introduction of advertising in each of these states that clearly signals the growth of sports betting.”

100-plus ads a week

The individualized data that Vargo and his co-authors analyzed for this paper comes from a YouGov/RealityMine survey and passive digital trace data, which he narrowed to 419 users. That dataset includes website and app visits, video plays, searches, social media activity—and, of course, the advertising they saw.

While gamblers see more gambling ads—an easy feat for advertisers with digital retargeting tools at their disposal—Vargo found higher exposure to these ads appeared to represent a higher risk for gamblers. While the research does not identify a “safe” threshold for online gambling ads, “some of our people in the survey were served 50, 100 or more gambling ads a week,” Vargo said.

More worrisome, he said, is the activity sportsbooks took to guide gamblers back to their apps and websites. The study’s authors looked for “clean” exposures—24-hour periods without gambling activity showing up in a user’s history.

“It’s really the introduction of advertising in each of these states that clearly signals the growth of sports betting.”

Chris Vargo, associate professor, advertising

“Once they hit that threshold, we watched to see if a gambling advertisement would precede their immediate visit to a gambling property,” Vargo said. “The answer is yes.”

According to the team’s findings, 8.3% of clean gambling-ad exposures were followed by some gambling touchpoint by the user within 24 hours.

“These sites are targeting these gamblers who’ve stepped away, to nudge them back in,” Vargo said. If you have alcoholism, for instance, social media platforms will allow you to hide ads that might trigger your addiction, “but I don’t know of any that allow you to hide gambling.

Establishing limits

Vargo hopes his paper helps change the conversation around online gambling—such as requiring advertisers to adopt limits, including rules around free bets and other enticements, or stronger platform oversight. For addiction support, he said, “the strategy is to meet people at the activation moment,” through counter-messaging on search and social media, links to self-exclusion and counseling, and partnerships or pressure on platforms to show support resources when betting ads appear.

While Vargo said he doesn’t have any issues with gambling, “I do find it interesting to look at different problems in society and try to understand them a little bit better.” As a professor, he said he’s seen students who have been sucked into these apps—especially amid widely watched World Cup and NBA Finals games, not to mention prediction market platforms that have dramatically expanded ways they can wager.

“I get it—it does make things more exciting, so you can imagine how young people become addicted by chasing that dopamine high,” he said.

The long-term behavior of gamblers is Vargo’s next project. He’s parsing Reddit to understand whether gambling correlates to an increased likelihood of getting divorced, developing bad habits or becoming more incivil.

“We’ve got around 4,000 or 5,000 people who say they gamble, and have been talking about it for at least three years,” he said, including some users who appear to be encouraging others to not give up the habit. “It’s an interesting dataset, all right.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

New research from CMDI experts demonstrates how digital sportsbooks and gambling services identify bettors—and retarget them when they try to leave.

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The News21 dispatch

Jayden Fortner — Wed, 14 Oct 2026 17:50:03 +0000

The News21 dispatch Jayden Fortner Wed, 10/14/2026 - 11:50

Sarah Taylor, a senior studying journalism at CMDI, traveled to California to speak with residents affected by the Altadena fires. Photo by Sarah Taylor.

Sarah Taylor

CMDI has sent many students to participate in News21 over the years. Read more of their stories, and what they learned from completing the fellowships, in the fall 2026 edition of CMDI Now.

Sarah Taylor, a journalism major, spent the summer before her senior year as a fellow with the prestigious investigative journalism Carnegie-Knight News21 fellowship. Her mission was to tell stories of the U.S. housing crisis; she traveled to California and Hawaii to uncover how communities have risen from the ashes of the Altadena and Maui fires. She shared her memories and some moments from behind the scenes with us.

Entries edited for length and clarity

May 30

I arrived in Phoenix last week. So far, the heat has been pretty manageable—but temperatures leap to 120 degrees in July, so I might retract that statement! This is my first time living outside of Colorado, but I feel like I have a support system of empathetic editors and fellow students alongside me.

Our theme this year is “Unsettled,” and we’ll be covering the housing crisis. I’ve noticed long-form storytelling was a main prerogative for previous cohorts, but that’s not necessarily the case this sumer. My reporting team is prioritizing two-minute social media explainer videos to engage readers and break down complex concepts.

June 3

The first two weeks in the newsroom have been very administrative—taking headshots and so much paperwork! News21 does more than just teach field reporting; they also teach us how to convince our editors why our reporting should take place in a specific location—as well as how to keep track of travel expenses, book hotels and rental cars. I had to race through all these logistics because I’m about to go on my first reporting trip to Los Angeles.

Sarah Taylor, a senior studying journalism at CMDI, traveled to California to speak with residents affected by the Altadena fires. Photo by Sarah Taylor.

Sarah Taylor, seated center in striped shirt, represented CMDI in the 2026 cohort of News21 fellows. Photo by Sarah Taylor.

June 10

After four days in Los Angeles, I’m back in Phoenix and working on a story that includes audio, while my colleague Lavanya Paliwal is reporting visually with photos and videos. Altadena has such a welcoming spirit, reminding me a lot of Boulder. It also has a rich history as one of the first places in the West where Black families could own land. Since many Black families have been in Altadena for generations, there’s a tug-of-war between selling and growing economically, or staying and preserving legacy.

My biggest takeaway from this trip: Showing up means everything. Many would ask us in surprise, “You came here from Phoenix? To tell our stories?” We took the time to meet with residents and gain their trust, so now I have two people to feature in my audio story.

June 30

Lavanya and I spent less than 72 hours in Maui—it was nowhere near a vacation, though it was the most beautiful place to be stressed out!

My main connection took us around the town to look at the rebuilding efforts. She connected me with two members of the Kupuna Council (elder council), and I was so relieved they were willing to talk to me with such short notice.

July 15

With all the reporting done, it’s time to rerecord my Altadena audio package and my Lahaina story. I’ve been working with my editor to create a multimedia website layout that switches between text and audio, and I’ve loved finding ways to integrate Lavanya’s photos and videos. We’re not set to publish our pieces until August, so I’ve got plenty of time to polish them and refine my vision!

August 13

My stories are live! It was so much effort, but I’m so proud of the work I did and how my stories of the communities in California and Hawaii turned out. It was such an incredible experience and I feel even more prepared as I go into my senior year at Boulder. Hard to believe I’m graduating in May, but I’m so excited for what’s next.

Taylor, far right, says one of the best parts about participating in News21 was developing a community with journalism students from across the country. Photo by Sarah Taylor.

Sarah Taylor, a senior studying journalism at CMDI, interviewing Lahaina locals about wildfire recovery. Photo by Sarah Taylor.

Senior journalism major Sarah Taylor spent 10 weeks traveling between Phoenix, Los Angeles and Maui on an investigative journalism project exploring the U.S. housing crisis.

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Envisioning a strong future for a broken world

Joe Arney — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:11:49 +0000

Envisioning a strong future for a broken world Joe Arney Mon, 10/05/2026 - 10:11

Iris Serrano

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed right now—the climate crisis, violence against immigrants, wars, social and economic inequality, and countless other catastrophes have left communities in need of spaces where people can digest information and imagine a stronger future.

If you go

What: Why We Come Together: Media, Religion, and Community.

When: Oct. 21 to Oct. 23. A welcome reception will take place Wednesday, Oct. 21, 5 to 6:30 p.m. in Eaton Humanities 1B50. A closing reception Friday, Oct. 23, will run from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Koenig Alumni Center.

Where: With the exception of the opening and closing receptions, all programming takes place at the Williams Village Conference Center.

Who: Students, faculty, staff and the university and Boulder communities are invited.

Notable: The Center for Media, Religion and Culture, which is hosting the event, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The conference is free to attend.

Learn more

The Center for Media, Religion and Culture will create that space at its upcoming conference, Why We Come Together.

“This is a moment to really ask radical questions about what we do and how to do it better,” said Nabil Echchaibi, director of the center and associate dean of scholarly and creative work at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at �鶹��ý. “CMDI is a platform for that kind of reflection.”

The purpose of the conference isn’t to go over the endless list of tragedies society is facing. Instead, it’s to uplift, by creating a space for scholars, educators and activists to rethink how communities come together and how industries can reorganize for the greater good.

“Academia thrives on assessment, but we wanted to figure out what’s on the other side of assessing the world,” said Echchaibi, also a professor of media studies at CMDI. “The idea is to go beyond that—to ask tough questions in order to think through them, and then figure out a more humane response to the moment in which we live.”

The conference will include talks from three featured speakers:

Fred Moten, professor of performance studies and comparative literature, New York University. His teaching and writing focus on poetics, aesthetics, Black studies and critical theory.
Nichole M. Flores, associate professor of religious studies, University of Virginia. She researches the relationship between aesthetics and democracy, with emphasis on the Catholic and Latine theological and ethical traditions.
Jen Deerinwater, an award-winning journalist and organizer. Deerinwater is the founding executive director of Crushing Colonialism, an indigenous storytelling, arts, and media nonprofit.

Nabil Echchaibi

Moten’s talk will open the conference; Echchaibi said his work on the Black radical tradition and spaces of study make him a natural fit for the event.

“Fred Moten has always said that you have to live in the brokenness of the moment, because the brokenness of the moment is what really produces something that we don't necessarily recognize,” Echchaibi said. “He's a jazz musician, a poet, a scholar. He's the kind of eclectic thinker who you really want for a conference like this.”

This year’s conference is the center’s 12th, and takes place as it celebrates its 20th anniversary. To mark the milestone, a reception will be held on Friday, Oct. 23, recognizing the work faculty and fellows have done to explore the intersection of media and religion.

Beyond that reflection, Echchaibi hopes the event prompts people to reflect deeply and boldly on the world around them.

“It’s a moment for people to stop, pause, and acknowledge the brokenness of the world, and to acknowledge the fact that we live in this brokenness,” he said. “Whether we live here in Boulder or we live in the Congo, we are all implicated and we need to assume that responsibility.”

Iris Serrano graduated from CMDI in 2026 with degrees in journalism and strategic communication. She covers student news and events for the college.

In its 20th year, CMDI’s Center for Media, Religion and Culture asks why we come together and how that can help us respond to global crises.

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The persistence of memory

Joe Arney — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:55:31 +0000

The persistence of memory Joe Arney Mon, 09/28/2026 - 11:55

The clothing worn by victims of the Rwandan genocide on display at the Nyamata Genocide Memorial Center. A new book from a CMDI expert combines thoughts on remembering and reconciliation in understanding how media influence the way we interpret such horrors.

Joe Arney

Like many people growing up in the 1990s, Andrew Young remembers the violence of the Rwandan genocide playing out on nightly newscasts, with anchors warning viewers of the violent imagery they were about to encounter.

It was only when he went back to study media coverage of the atrocity as a graduate student that he found memory and history were out of alignment.

“Things did not happen exactly as I remembered them. The U.S. media didn’t even have reporters based in Rwanda when the genocide started,” said Young (Film, Hist’08), an assistant professor of media production at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

What he found, in studying network nightly news segments from the time, was “shocking discourse and ill-informed analysis going on by journalists—though they were doing the best they could with what they had.”

That sense of misremembering has fueled Young’s creative and scholarly interests. That includes a documentary, Kigali100, completed as a student, and two publications this year—including a book, Identity and Discourse in Contemporary Rwandan Media: Rethinking Reconciliation, that came out in the spring. It also might characterize Disavowed, a game he created in 2021 to explore the idea of recall and identity against misremembering a historical event.

The book and article, which was published in the Journal of 20th Century Media History, draws on the work he started while creating the documentary. Young analyzed news broadcasts to examine kinds of coverage, the attitudes of media toward the atrocity and the ideological content of those broadcasts. The terminology used by anchors and reporters, he said, reveals a racialized and exoticized posture of those broadcasters that he said should challenge us to think critically about news reporting in general.

Something Young became curious about during the course of his work were the “reconciliation villages” that made neighbors of Tutsi victims and Hutu perpetrators after the atrocity—something that caught his attention while visiting Rwanda to make the film.

Critical thinking around reconciliation

“Everything I do starts with a question—something I don’t understand, something I’m trying to grasp, and usually it revolves around my own limitations as a human being,” Young said. “I wanted to understand how people in that context could forgive one another—like, if you orphaned your neighbor’s children, then adopted those children in order to atone for that—I struggle to rationalize that.

“There’s a lot of scholarship, particularly out of journalism, that’s asking what reconciliation actually means in Rwanda, when people have had to erase their core ethnic identities in this sort of post-ethnic state,” Young said. “Who doesn’t love forgiveness, right — but what are the actual implications of that? Because there is this sort of underbelly to it.”

Andrew Young

The hybrid approach of creative practices and critical studies-meets-journalism is something special about CMDI, which combines different, but related, perspectives in ways that prepare students to become critical thinkers who search for ideas and answers in the places where disciplines intersect.

In fact, Meghan Sobel Cohen (Jour’09), who joined the journalism faculty this fall as an associate professor, is familiar with Young’s work from her own research interests into media systems in authoritarian contexts. She said Young’s work helps people understand how Rwanda’s carefully cultivated image was built—“through decades of deliberate media discourse that fused forgiveness, unity and loyalty to the state into a single, difficult-to-question ideology.”

“Understanding Rwanda’s media architecture is essential for anyone trying to make sense of how ‘reconciliation’ gets defined, marketed and enforced,” Cohen said, “especially amid ongoing global conflicts; A.I. use; and the rapid, borderless spread of state-driven narratives across digital platforms.”

Young’s contribution in the face of the geopolitical landscape is a major point of pride for him. The country’s free speech protections are weak, limiting Rwandan scholars from speaking and publishing as candidly as he was able to.

“The deeper I went into my research, the more I realized the incredible risk that Rwandan scholars take in writing about their country. I don’t know if my contributions will ever open up a space for Rwandan scholars to be able to do this kind of work, but I hope they do.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A CMDI expert’s reflections on the Rwandan genocide come from his interest in misremembering—as well as reconciliation.

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Pressing on

Joe Arney — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:05:27 +0000

Pressing on Joe Arney Fri, 09/25/2026 - 10:05

Joe Arney

Before joining the journalism faculty at �鶹��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, Vicky Sama covered news from New York, Washington, Atlanta and around the world as an international journalist with CNN.

You can imagine how she felt when journalists—including those from her former network—were barred from the White House.

“We saw this in Donald Trump’s previous administration, but not to this extent,” said Sama (MJour’02), who teaches media law and ethics at CMDI. “Almost every president has acknowledged at times they didn’t like what journalists reported. But they handled it differently.”

Vicky Sama

A First Amendment expert, Sama expected the court to reject the government’s ban on White House reporters; on Tuesday, the judge presiding over the case ordered Trump’s administration to restore credentials for CNN, MS Now and Politico.

“We see this pattern with President Trump—when he’s unhappy with journalism he disagrees with, he reacts quickly and emotionally, and then his lawyers have to backtrack and reframe the conversation,” Sama said.

“And that’s what we saw here. Trump’s original outbursts were critical of what the journalists were reporting—he complained about their coverage, he called them ‘liars’ and ‘fake news.’ The White House seems to understand that’s an unconstitutional argument, so they’re now saying in the court filing that the reason for the ban is the conduct of the reporters. That’s an entirely different argument.”

Sama also pointed out the flaws in Trump’s national security argument—one he’s used to justify his ballroom project and proposed Triumphal Arch. After Trump’s initial complaints about coverage, the White House said the banned outlets published classified information related to, among other topics, the Iran war and dwindling munition stockpiles.

It’s a common argument, she said, “but in multiple Supreme Court cases, justices have ruled the government has the burden to prove a restriction on the free press is necessary to protect national security before it can violate the press’ First Amendment rights. And here, you can see Trump tell them you’re fake news and you’re liars, which would seem to invalidate the national security argument.”

Bringing the Constitution to class

“There are definitely times I’m afraid, but there are other times where I feel empowered—that the work I’m doing really matters, and is deeply meaningful to society.”

Avery Clifton, journalism

In her classes, Sama leans into critical thinking and media literacy, asking students to picture an information economy entirely subject to the whims of a monarch and pushing them to bring a less-trusting perspective to social media—a challenge for a generation that grew up alongside digital platforms.

“People in power no longer have to go through journalists, and be edited, be vetted, be verified. They can bring their message directly to the public on social media,” she said. “Trump is not the first president to do this, but he realizes its power to construct his truth, control the message and hide from the public anything he doesn't want them to know. And you can’t do that when you’re surrounded by reporters who ask the tough questions.”

If one of the goals of Trump’s sustained attack on the press is to dissuade people from studying and entering the profession, he might be in for a surprise at a place like CMDI, with both its journalism department and a healthy collection of student press outlets.

Avery Clifton, a junior majoring in journalism with a minor in political science, said even as a student reporter, she’s afraid an honest mistake could cause her to be deplatformed before her career truly begins. But it’s inspired her to continue chasing her dream of one day covering politics.

“There are definitely times I’m afraid, but there are other times where I feel empowered—that the work I’m doing really matters, and is deeply meaningful to society,” said Clifton, editor-in-chief of the student-run CU Independent and an editorial intern with Denver Life Magazine.

‘Things may not always be what they seem’

Avery Clifton

In the Independent’s editorial offices, Clifton said she challenges her fellow journalists to be critical thinkers and truth seekers, even as press freedoms remain under attack.

“My journalism experiences have helped me grow as a person,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and the world by putting myself in different places, seeing how things really are and challenging my own assumptions—and understanding that things may not always be what they seem.”

That attitude is what Sama hopes to cultivate in all her students.

“How can we prepare students for journalism careers at a time like this? This is the preparation—going through what’s happening in our world and what we’re seeing in the White House,” she said.

“I want my students to hone their critical thinking skills in my classes—to be able to recognize the difference between propaganda, opinion, fact, truth and lies—so they can ask the hard questions, verify information and hold the power to account. A free press may be our most important freedom—and we may find if it’s gone, we didn’t really know what we had.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Faculty call out ‘unconstitutional’ White House ban on television reporters, while a student journalist refuses to be intimidated.

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‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers

Ellie Chase — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 13:21:55 +0000

‘I love it here’: CMDI’s Class of 2030 eager to turn creative passions into careers Ellie Chase Thu, 09/24/2026 - 07:21

Ellie Chase

When it came time for Nolan Vuldy to choose a university, he thought back to the lights, lasers and sounds that captivated his childhood.

The chance to dive deeper into production effects, and build a network and career path that will allow him to further explore his interests, led him directly to �鶹��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“I hope to start a production company someday,” Vuldy said. “CMDI stood out the most to me—I think this is a place that can help me with my career goals.”

Originally from France, Vuldy’s family moved to Colorado when he was a child to pursue opportunity. Now, he joins CMDI’s Class of 2030, one of 516 new first-year students eager to make their mark on �鶹��ý.

Though new-student enrollment is slightly down from last year—following years of growth after the pandemic—students in CMDI’s Class of 2030 are among the high-achieving undergraduates in the college’s history. Here are some highlights:

54% of students enrolled were in the top 25% of their high school class.
The average SAT score among enrolled students rose to 1243, from 1230 last year.
CMDI also welcomes 62 new transfer students and 50 new graduate students.

“Each opportunity I’ve had to speak with our new first-year students—whether during their orientation or seeing them around campus over the last few weeks—has left me impressed with both their intellectual curiosity and their passion for creativity,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college. “I’m really excited about the potential this group has to shape CMDI and, with what they’ll learn here, the world.”

Chris Bell (PhDMediaSt'09), speaks with new CMDI students after his speech for CMDI Go. (Kimberly Coffin)

Vuldy, a media production major, is a self proclaimed DJ and producer who hopes his peers can influence his future projects.

“I’m a very creative person, so being around other creative people is something that really excites me,” he said.

Dawson Justus, a Texas native who is studying architecture at CMDI, is also pursuing his degree based on an early fascination. In his case, it’s design.

Justus has family in the architecture industry who introduced him to the discipline. His dream is to design an aquarium or a zoo—both of which were among his favorite places as a child.

“I’ve always been drawn here, mostly by the architecture and environmental design department,” Justus said. “I really appreciate how we get to diversify our studies, learning about product design, urban planning and landscape architecture in our first year.”

The family trade is no stranger to Charlotte Callahan, who draws inspiration from her mom, formerly a traveling journalist for Inside Edition. Callahan grew up admiring her career and adventures abroad.

With a passion for speaking with people and sharing their stories, Callahan will be pursuing a journalism degree from CMDI. Her interest in the environment is what drew her to Boulder, and she’s considering environmental science as a second major.

Her dream job? Working for National Geographic.

“Journalism is so important, especially now,” she said. “We really need good journalism and better access to information.”

Callahan’s recognition of Boulder’s remarkable environment is not lost on other new students. The campus’ beauty and vibrant student life brought Elizabeth Lockhart from California to CMDI.

“I toured campus and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I love it here.’ When I got accepted, I almost cried,” she said.

Lockhart is majoring in strategic communication, with an emphasis in public relations.

Her goals in public relations offer a perfect intersection of youthful passions with career—she wants to work for Disney. She also has interest in PR for Formula One drivers, seeing an opportunity to bridge the gap in gender representation in motorsports.

“There’s not many women in F1—and it’s detrimental because a lot of their fan base is women, but you don’t see representation,” Lockhart said.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly. It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Violet Valentin

Violet Valentin shares Lockhart’s enthusiasm for public relations. Valentin is a strategic communication major, as well, and spent part of her summer with the Pathways to Excellence program. The summer bridge program introduces incoming students to CMDI’s majors and builds community before school starts.

“I just love the campus and the people—everyone is so friendly,” Valentin said. “It feels good knowing I’ve already found my people.”

Information science is the smallest major in the incoming class, but its unique blend of computing, social science and the humanities interested Heidi Welsh, who is curious about hospital technology, which involves studying data to create preventative technology.

“I want to be hands on,” she said. “I want to go out in the world and apply what I know to help people. I’m so excited for all of my classes—I think it’s going to be so different from anything I’ve ever done.”

Ellie Chase is studying journalism at CMDI, with a minor in business. She covers students and student news at the college.

CMDI welcomes its Class of 2030, an academically accomplished group with big dreams for the future.

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‘Think you know sports?’ Expert says Sydney Sweeney doesn’t

Joe Arney — Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:07:14 +0000

‘Think you know sports?’ Expert says Sydney Sweeney doesn’t Joe Arney Sun, 09/20/2026 - 08:07

A CMDI researcher says it's empowering that Sydney Sweeney can choose to use her body to advance her interest in Novig, but by doing it in a sports setting, she undermines the work women have done to be seen as respected athletes, as opposed to sex symbols. Photo courtesy Norvig.

Joe Arney

Ashley Carter had just wrapped up a unit on gender and sport in her Sports, Media and Society class when a sports betting outfit called Novig released the now-notorious ad starring Sydney Sweeney.

“When you talk about gender representation and media with students, some of them will push back and say, ‘Is this still an issue? I thought we progressed past this, and women’s sports are doing great,’” said Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26), an assistant teaching professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“It’s not exciting that this is still happening—but it’s exciting when you can show them, this is what I’m talking about, this is why it’s important for you to study and think about this.”

Carter was listening when someone told her to do what you love. A triathlete, former sports journalist and occasional freelancer, and women’s basketball fan, she is an expert in gender and identity in sports media—especially how those topics play out in an evolving media landscape, where athletes and fans share their stories on channels that bypass traditional gatekeepers.

“These athletes have massive platforms where they’re able to talk about things like mental health or body image,” she said. “For female athletes, it’s been groundbreaking, and a chance to prove women’s sports do matter.”

The Sweeney ad, she said, puts lamentable emphasis on athletes’ body image. If you somehow haven’t seen the spot, picture the actress wearing only a smile, strategically posed behind sports equipment, saying the word “sports” a bunch of times.

Carter noted Sweeney is a strategic partner for the brand, not just an actress playing a role, “so she’s profiting off this, right? To some extent, this is her deciding that this is how she wants to use her body—and that’s empowering. But she’s doing it in a space where women have had to work extremely hard to be seen as athletes, instead of being sexualized.”

A different game

“When I discuss these topics with my students, my hope is that they’re thinking about what they can do, as aspiring media professionals, to change that media representation of women in sport, and do better.”

Ashley Carter, assistant teaching professor, journalism

In her classes, Carter talks about concepts like how female athletes need to portray a certain degree of femininity to get sponsorships and appear in media stories. Rather than solely focus on excellence on the field, “women have to think, do I appear athletic enough, or too athletic?” she said. “If the message is that women in sport should look like Sydney Sweeney, then we’re just objectifying bodies, not celebrating authentic sports bodies.”

And it’s not just women. The ad’s viral nature means plenty of girls—who aren’t old enough to bet on sports using Novig’s platform—have either seen or heard of it; Carter brought it up to her middle school-aged sister, Aniko Carter, who knew exactly what she was talking about.

“When you see this on YouTube, on TikTok, then it’s being seen by younger women who are trying to figure out where they fit in in sport,” she said. “And if they’re comparing themselves to certain body types, and that leads to an insecurity, they’ll drop out—which many do, as teenagers.”

Ashley Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26)

The one positive Carter has seen is something hard to imagine in the old sports media landscape, when images from the Sweeney ad would have looked at home in Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit edition. Athletes immediately took to Instagram and other channels to showcase the diversity of bodies that are welcome in sport.

“Athletes having that online platform, that ability to create social change, is entirely different from when I started my PhD work,” Carter said. “They have really made mental health a huge part of the conversation, which really resonates with Gen Z and my students in particular.”

It’s one thing she really enjoys about teaching younger students, who bring different perspectives and question the way things have been done in the past—important in a landscape that’s shifting so rapidly.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A researcher says her students often assume there’s equality in sport. The notorious Novig ad challenges them to think otherwise.

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Networking goals

Jayden Fortner — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 16:12:04 +0000

Networking goals Jayden Fortner Fri, 09/18/2026 - 10:12

Hannah Stewart

Tivoli Freedman’s biggest piece of advice to her fellow students is to take a chance on yourself and connect with people.

The summer before her senior year Tivoli Freedman, right, interned in Los Angeles for the World Cup, where she was part of the operations team and helped lead the youth program. Photo courtesy of Tivoli Freedman.

While waiting for a flight home to California, she chatted with a woman who was a manager at Fox Sports and later connected Freedman with other executives. And cold-messaging contacts on LinkedIn led to her landing an internship with FIFA for the 2026 World Cup.

“I ask to pick people’s brains and for advice for somebody like me who’s up and coming,” she said. “I’ve probably had 200 informational interviews over the past couple of years.”

Freedman is more than just a fan—the San Diego native grew up around sports; her parents and an aunt had careers working major sports events. But working in media wasn’t her first collegiate passion—she enrolled at �鶹��ý as a psychology major before getting caught up with the Buffaloes.

“My whole weekend was consumed by college football, the NFL and MLB, going to games any chance I could get,” she said. “I took a sports media class and changed my major to communication.”

Around the same time she took that first CMDI course, Freedman landed two jobs that laid the groundwork for a career in sports—a freelance production assistant for Fox Sports and an intern for CU Athletics’ recruiting and scouting team.

Though she enjoys the forward-facing aspect of working with student-athletes and designing on-screen graphics for NFL games, she also learned those roles weren’t her calling. Instead, she’s more interested in the planning and operational side of events, especially the big ones like the World Cup.

Ashley Carter (MJour’21; PhD’26), an assistant teaching professor of journalism, called Freedman “a really ambitious student. And you can tell she cares not just about class assignments, but about doing what it takes to be successful beyond CU.”

Freedman took those lessons to heart. Even while she was studying abroad in Barcelona, she was still networking on LinkedIn to make connections in the international sports world. Eventually, she met a manager at FIFA, which led to her working as a partner rights delivery coordinator in Los Angeles. On off days, she helped prepare SoFi stadium for upcoming matches, doing everything from coordinating schedules and partner activations to supporting stadium tours and hospitality services.. On match days, she was in charge of the youth program.

“If you watched any of the prematch ceremonies with the kids holding flags and escorting players, that was me,” she said, smiling. “I always had two headsets on, so I could listen to both the broadcasts and my team, and kind of be the one to start the show.”

Now a senior, Freedman is continuing to gain event operations experience with the Colorado Rockies. She hopes to start a career in the industry after she graduates from CMDI in May—and she feels prepared to do so thanks to experiences she’s had while still a student.

“Working in sports is very competitive, which I didn’t fully realize until I took those classes and got into the industry,” she said. “I would love to work at the Olympics, and then I would love to go to a team or an agency, and get into event operations.”

Communication major Tivoli Freedman, back row right, spent her summer in Los Angeles interning with FIFA for the World Cup. Photo courtesy of Tivoli Freedman.

Hannah Stewart graduated from CMDI in 2019 with a degree in communication. She covers student news for the college.

Strategic communication senior Tivoli Freedman had the summer internship to remember as a partnerships coordinator for the 2026 World Cup.

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Who's telling the truth? What media literacy, authenticity and gatekeeping mean now

Amanda J. McManus — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 21:27:45 +0000

Who's telling the truth? What media literacy, authenticity and gatekeeping mean now Amanda J. McManus Tue, 09/01/2026 - 15:27

On Monday, Sept.14, Colorado Mesa University’s Languages, Literature and Mass Communication program and �鶹��ý’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information are presenting Who's Telling the Truth? What Media Literacy, Authenticity and Gatekeeping Mean Now in Grand Junction on the CMU campus.

If you go:

When: 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Monday, Sept. 14
Where: Meyer Ballroom, Colorado Mesa University Center
1100 North Avenue
Grand Junction, Colorado

Reserve your free spot

This interactive community conversation, which is free and open to the public, will include a moderated panel with reporters and researchers followed by audience participation at table conversations to address: What is needed to ensure our communities receive news they trust on the issues important to them.

Chuck Plunkett, a longtime professional journalist who is the director of CU News Corps, a capstone program for �鶹��ý journalism students, will moderate the panel.

“Strong, independent local newsrooms are vital to protecting and preserving our democracy,” said Plunkett, who served as the editorial page editor for The Denver Post and is widely known in the industry for his stance on the importance of local journalism for preserving democracy. “So is gathering to engage with one another to discuss the quality of the offerings that inform the public square.”

Panelists include Stina Sieg, Colorado Public Radio Western Slope Reporter; Julia Wildman, editor-in-chief of the CMU Criterion; Holly Oberle, CMU associate professor of political science; and Pat Ferrucci, �鶹��ý’s journalism department chair.

As part of the program, Laurena Davis, CMU assistant professor of mass communication, will lead the table conversations with participants.

Supporting partners for “Who's Telling the Truth?” include Restore the Balance, The Daily Sentinel, Colorado Public Radio and the Western Colorado Journalism Foundation.

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