Journalism

‘The epitome of accountability journalism’: Coverage of fatal school bus crash leads to reforms on Texas roads

Joe Arney — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 15:53:30 +0000

‘The epitome of accountability journalism’: Coverage of fatal school bus crash leads to reforms on Texas roads Joe Arney Tue, 11/18/2025 - 08:53

Iris Serrano

When a concrete truck crashed into a school bus in Texas’ Bastrop County last year, killing two and injuring dozens of children last year, it became the state’s deadliest school bus crash in nearly a decade.

For a team of reporters at the Austin American-Statesman that spent months chasing the story, the tragedy wasn’t just that a child died, but that the whole incident was preventable.

Photo by Jay Janner, Austin American-Statesman.

“There was a big avenue for us to bring accountability to what happened,” said Tony Plohetski, an investigative reporter with the American-Statesman. “We wanted to better understand all of the forces that were at play that contributed to this.”

The series of articles, published earlier this year, examined the crash, including Texas’ safety laws for school buses regarding seat belts and its regulations for commercial drivers, and led to legislative action aimed at preventing a disaster of this magnitude from happening again.

Their extensive reporting earned Plohetski, Tahui Gómez and Keri Heath the 2025 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting, awarded by EndDD.org and the journalism department at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

“The requirement to have seat belts on school buses was, in some ways, nonexistent. School districts could exempt themselves for a variety of reasons,” said Heath, an education reporter. “One of the most significant things so far is that Texas is going to study how many buses have seat belts, and how much it would cost to outfit them.”

Beyond the policy changes, their work truly brought awareness and gave a voice to those affected by the crash. Gómez, a Latino communities reporter at the American-Statesman, recalled spending months working closely with the victims’ families, making sure their stories were heard.

“Being with them in that process, seeing how they were coming to terms with things, how their grief was changing over time and being able to give voice was very rewarding,” he said. “This isn’t a tragedy that we should just bow our heads in remembrance of. We needed to suggest that things can be done.”

The reporting award honors Casey Feldman, a Fordham University journalism student who was killed by a distracted driver in 2009. It is sponsored by CMDI and EndDD.org, which was created by the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation to end distracted driving.

Chuck Plunkett, director of the capstone �� News Corps course at CMDI, and Kirk Siegler (Jour’00), a national correspondent for NPR News, were judges for this year’s submissions. Siegler described the winners’ work as the epitome of accountability journalism.

“I was immediately enthralled by the character-driven narratives of the crash victims’ parents. Along the journey, if you will, it also highlighted in clear language the gaps and failures across the system—and namely, in regulations—that led up to the tragedy,” he said.

The judges also gave special mention to the runner-up entry from Austin’s KXAN for a seven-part investigation on truck crashes in Texas.

Iris Serrano is studying journalism and strategic communication. She covers student news for the college.

Three reporters from the Austin American-Statesman won the 2025 Casey Feldman Award for Transportation Safety Reporting.

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Playing to win

Regan Widergren — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:43:36 +0000

Playing to win Regan Widergren Mon, 11/17/2025 - 17:43

Iris Serrano

As the growing sports media industry seeks people with data, communication and social media skills, CMDI has created different pathways to prepare students for rewarding careers.

Photos by Kimberly Coffin and Jack Moody.

When Kathryn Castanoli worked in a backstage production role during Super Bowl LIX, it wasn’t just a dream come true—it was a glimpse of a career that once seemed out of reach.

“I almost gave up trying to get into the sports media industry,” said Castanoli, a junior studying strategic communication. “But coming to CMDI—a college of entrepreneurs, artists, go-getters and leaders—really inspired me to keep pursuing my dream.”

Castanoli is just one of a growing number of CMDI students breaking into sports media. Although journalism has long been a path of study for students interested in this specialty, the changing nature of both sports and media as industries means different skills are needed.

“Sports media has become a convergence of different fields,” said Rick Stevens, associate dean of undergraduate education and associate professor of media studies. “Our majors are particularly well positioned to take a piece of the puzzle and help students understand more cohesively what sports media is.”

Students get a close look at those connections in Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership, a course Stevens created last year. Guest lectures from prominent alumni like Kordell Stewart (Comm’16), Joel Klatt (Econ’07) and Brent Schrotenboer (Jour’96) round out class discussions led by CMDI faculty, with occasional appearances from Coach Prime.

The course counts toward the sports media minor—the largest in the college. But it’s more than just classroom learning. With a new global seminar, media outlets like Sko Buffs Sports, and conferences and networking events, students have numerous opportunities to develop the skills needed to break into the industry.

Lila Nuttle, a sophomore studying journalism, is already putting those skills into practice. An aspiring sports writer, she is a reporter for the �� Independent and has produced content for Sko Buffs Sports, which gives her on-the-field reporting experience.

Our professors are always telling us it’s not only what you do in class, or what grade you get, but your portfolio and actually getting experience.”

Lisa Nuttle

"These organizations offer a really great way to jump in and get that experience, while also providing a good community.”

There’s more to sports media than what you can see from the sidelines. Priscilla Hopper (InfoSci’22; MS’23) works as a senior reporting and data analyst at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Avalanche, Nuggets and other Denver-area sports franchises.

“There’s an expectation that if you’re working in sports media, you’re going to be on the field, in action,” said Hopper, also a lecturer of information science. “But there’s a whole other side to it, and every year, half of my students want to steal my job,”

Her ability to quickly analyze data and make them digestible for those without technical backgrounds gave her an advantage when interviewing for her role at KSE.

“I graduated able to interpret, adapt and analyze,” Hopper said. “That’s pretty much the entire basis of information science, and my degrees meant I was ready to be
catapulted into any role.”

Michael Burns, an assistant teaching professor of communication, also understands what it’s like to have a nontraditional job in the sports industry. He has worked behind the scenes at eight Olympic Games for NBC’s Today show, and now serves as faculty director for Communication, Culture and Sport, a global seminar that takes place in the United Kingdom.

“There is an army of people who are doing all the research and logistics and planning, which enables and empowers the journalists, the PR folks and the camera people to do their jobs,” Burns said.

CMDI’s alumni network also plays a critical role in launching student careers. Michael Davies (Jour’94), an executive vice president at FOX Sports, said there’s no one way to make it in the industry.

“Everybody has their own origin story—some of them come from networking, some come from internships,” he said. “One thing that’s consistent and is required is passion for the sports business and focus.”

Davies graduated at a time when there were fewer paths to a career in sports media. He regularly visits the college to meet students, and is impressed with CMDI’s approach to preparing the next generation for the evolving industry.

“The school’s only 10 years old, it’s still new, it’s still innovative, and I think that it’s a very exciting time to go to CMDI,” he said.

Game on

CMDI is preparing for the return of its annual Sports Media Summit in the spring semester. This multiday event is intended for students who are curious about the industry, as well as alumni and community members looking to expand their networks and transition into this fast-growing field.

Follow CMDI on social media and keep an eye on colorado.edu/cmdi for updates.

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

Photographer Kimberly Coffin graduated from CMDI in 2018 with degrees in media production and strategic communication.

Photographer Jack Moody graduated from CMDI in 2024 with a degree in strategic communication.

Through relevant courses, networking opportunities and student-led organizations, CMDI is helping students turn their passions into careers in sports media.

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Full circles

Amanda J. McManus — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 06:34:03 +0000

Full circles Amanda J. McManus Fri, 11/14/2025 - 23:34

Iris Serrano

Peter Lasser still remembers the project that connected him to Daniel Niemeyer.

As a student, Lasser was part of a team that filmed and produced a 30-minute talk show covering Buffs football games. Niemeyer was his professor for the independent study course.

“There was never an idea that was too crazy for him,” said Lasser (Comm’76). “If we could put it together, he was behind us, helping us get it done.”

Niemeyer also provided Lasser with hands-on opportunities in the television industry, even helping him earn his first on-screen credit as a camera operator.

“Dan fostered the entrepreneurial spirit that made me successful in my own career,” Lasser said. “I think he was proud of what I ended up doing in the business, and that’s very rewarding to me.”

Lasser considers himself fortunate to have counted Niemeyer as a mentor for more than 40 years. Today, he pays that experience forward, supporting students through scholarships and connecting them to a broadcasting network he’s spent decades creating.

“Work-wise, it’s invigorating to be surrounded by young people,” Lasser said. “Anytime I can help open a door, I will.”

That spirit is why Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI, called Lasser “a quintessential supporter of the college.”

“Peter is not only a tremendously generous supporter, he’s over the top in terms of how he mentors and advocates for our students—listening to their stories and identifying opportunities to start them on their career paths,” Bergen said. “He brings an infectious sense of joy about our students and our college to every conversation he’s a part of.”

After a brief foray in advertising, Lasser moved into sports broadcasting, producing 11 Olympic Games for ABC, Olympic Broadcast Services, NBC and Turner Sports. Since 1998, he has owned Lasser Productions, working as a producer and director for clients such as USA Swimming, Varsity Spirit and ESPN.

For all that, some of his favorite stories come not from what viewers saw during the Olympics, but from how he was able to be a resource for students seeking careers like his. He has spoken at the college’s Sports Media Summit, supports its residential intensive program for incoming first-years, and served on its advisory board.

He also funds the Peter L. Lasser and Daniel C. Niemeyer Endowed Scholarship, which is awarded to students who demonstrate leadership, community service and extracurricular involvement. Five students have received the scholarship so far; one recipient, Sarah Grim (Jour’24), said Lasser’s mentorship helped her secure work as a social media community manager for the NCAA.

They met over coffee at the UMC in 2023, after she received his scholarship, and bonded over their mutual love of sports.

Grim shared with Lasser her dream of combining broadcasting and cheerleading—“such a niche thing to do, and opportunities aren’t always out there,” she said. But through Lasser, she got the opportunity to cover the Summit All-Star Cheerleading Championship for ESPN.

“Having him as a connection has been so incredible for my career,” she said. “Peter challenges me in a lot of ways and is always pushing me to do things I didn’t think I was ready or able to do.”

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

A mentor made all the difference to Peter Lasser as a student. Now, the Olympics producer has become the mentor, providing scholarships and connections to students interested in sports media.

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#American*

Regan Widergren — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:36:49 +0000

#American* Regan Widergren Wed, 11/05/2025 - 17:36

Hannah Stewart

As the daughter of immigrants, Angie Chuang saw how you could have it all and still not belong. Her father—a civil engineer—never felt truly included in this country, a struggle Chuang frequently reflected on, even as her own career has taken off.

“My father was an American success story—a civil engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab,” said Chuang, an associate professor of journalism. “But seeing his struggles as I grew up made me profoundly aware of what it meant to be American with an asterisk.”

Her personal and professional experience—including covering race and ethnic issues at The Oregonian and developing curricula around related topics at both American University and CMDI—has given her a unique perspective when it comes to the news media’s struggles in reporting on race. It’s a topic she explores thoroughly in a new book, American Otherness in Journalism: News Media Representations of Identity and Belonging.

The book would have been published years ago, but as she was completing her first draft in 2016, Donald Trump was riding a wave of white nationalism to the White House, requiring
important revisions.

“I didn’t feel it would be principled, as a researcher, to not consider the radical shift in thinking he represented,” she said.

There hasn't been equal access granted to who gets to say their unfiltered version of events to the press.”

Angie Chuang, associate professor, journalism

In its new iteration, half the book investigates how news media has historically represented people, while the second half looks at how the president has dominated that narrative, in many ways narrowing the definition of “American.”

It’s not a new problem—Chuang covers examples like the infamous “American beats out Kwan” headline from the 1990s and coverage of Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho—but Trump’s rhetoric intrigued her
as a researcher, because while he was clearly talking about race, he rarely used traditional code words.

For example, early reports after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally used phrases like “alt-right,” “pro-white” and, sparingly, “white nationalism” because those were the terms those individuals used to describe themselves. When pressed, Trump referred to them as “very fine people.”

“Journalism’s fundamental flaw is that ‘objective journalism’ has taught people to get their sources’ perspectives and reproduce them in an unbiased, unfiltered way so the reader can decide,” Chuang said. “What we’ve learned is that there hasn’t been equal access granted to who gets to say their unfiltered version of events to the press.”

But she has hope. Thanks in part to public pushback challenging the “objective” earlier reporting, The Associated Press has directed journalists to use more definitive terms like “white supremacist” and even “racist.”

And as younger, diverse reporters emerge in the media landscape, bringing journalism to new places—like TikTok and Substack—Chuang sees the opportunity to make journalism better and more accessible by reflecting the stories and concerns of diverse communities.

“I don’t think we have to be precious about the word ‘journalism.’ And journalism does check itself; it’s not a monolith,” she said. “I’m interested in journalism having these debates and trying to do better, even in the face of attacks from the federal government. Journalism scholars and industry leaders need to continually push and advocate for free speech and responsible reporting.”

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

A new book from a journalism expert examines the news media’s role in identity and belonging in a volatile moment of American history.

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Roam if you want to. Unless you’re a wild animal

Joe Arney — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:11:51 +0000

Roam if you want to. Unless you’re a wild animal Joe Arney Tue, 10/21/2025 - 09:11

Joe Arney

A coyote wanders through urban parkland in Chicago at night. It was a coyote in New York's Central Park that first got Hillary M. Rosner interested in how wildlife roams from place to place—and the human-made obstacles that thwart them. This coyote, which was being tracked with a radio collar, was struck by a car and killed just months after this photo was taken. Photo by Corey Arnold.

Hillary M. Rosner was a young editor with the Village Voice in the 1990s when she read about a coyote living in Central Park.

Nowadays, that’s not quite so special—the park is home to resident coyotes who prowl the improbably green space at the heart of Manhattan. But what fascinated Rosner was their improbable journey—how the animals successfully navigated the urban jungle, and why they chose to do so.

“That idea—just wondering how this coyote navigated these concrete canyons to get to the park—really stuck with me,” said Rosner (MEnvSt’06), an assistant teaching professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information and associate director of its Center for Environmental Journalism. “As I got more into environmental and science journalism, the stories that most moved me were in some way about animals whose lives were changed because of human infrastructure.”

Hillary M. Rosner

That curiosity has culminated in a new book, Roam: Wild Animals and the Race to Repair Our Fractured World, out this month from Patagonia. In it, she draws upon a career of environmental journalism to share stories of the struggles animals face in overcoming human-made boundaries.

Restoring empathy

Her goal is to encourage readers to abandon a human-centered view of the world in favor of one that demonstrates our interconnectedness with the planet, while learning to view other species with empathy and compassion.

The connections she explores in the book are both literal—for example, creatures needing to get from one point to another—and more abstract, such as how animals connect to an ecosystem to affect its resilience and adaptability. “And it’s about showing how human infrastructure presents a barrier to this idea of connectivity for all these other species,” she said. The book further spells out the ecological consequences of a world where wild animals cannot roam—an inability to spread plant life, less genetic diversity—threatening species’ adaptability and survival—and the extinction of charismatic species.

If that sounds dire, Rosner will be the first to tell you there’s real urgency behind the topic. Her work took her around the world to see the obstacles humans have created for wildlife. In Kenya, as more land becomes privately owned, more fences are going up, blocking long-held migration routes. Closer to home, Donald Trump’s funding freeze has canceled wildlife crossings along U.S. highways.

“If we continue to act as though we are the only species on the planet, it’s going to become self-fulfilling.”

Hillary M. Rosner (MEnvSt’06)

“I talk about a lot of bad things that are going on, but the book is about solutions—the race to repair our fractured world,” Rosner said. “It’s about people all across the world doing incredible work and devoting their lives to reconnecting the planet for other species. And I think that is hopeful.”

Rosner’s work has appeared in some of the most influential news outlets in the country—The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, The Atlantic—following her pivot to environmental reporting, which owes quite a bit to her graduate work in environmental studies at �� Boulder, as well as a Ted Scripps environmental journalism fellowship.

“I took an amazing biogeography course during my Scripps fellowship, which really helped shape my thinking around this project, in terms of species movement and the role humans have in shaping that,” said Rosner, who today oversees the Scripps program as part of her work with CEJ. Her work also was influenced by fellowships from Knight Science Journalism at MIT and the National Science Foundation.

Barriers beyond borders, highways

As you might expect from someone with such curiosity for the natural world, Rosner took the most enjoyment from how much she learned about the world through her reporting. A concept she particularly enjoyed exploring was anthropogenic resistance—the invisible ways humans impede animal movement.

“For instance, you may have a physically passable route for a bear, but you have a lot of hikers who recreate in that area, so it won’t go there,” she said. “We more readily think of border walls or highways, but humans have created all sorts of hidden barriers to animal movement that we don’t often think about.”

Her book is a call to action that we need to start thinking otherwise—and quickly. A key theme in Roam is one of empathy, as she invites readers to bring a different perspective to how they, too, move through the world.

“The idea of empathy was not an idea I was thinking about when I started this project,” Rosner said. “When I look around, it’s clear to me that empathy is lacking across the board right now—but perhaps if we can learn to see other species with empathy, it will help us see one another with empathy, also.”

There’s also a more pragmatic reason to take Rosner’s work seriously. Like it or not, those same connections between wild animals and the natural world also link us to the environment.

“We must better understand and appreciate how intimately we are connected to nature,” she said. “I mean, I say it in the book: If we continue to act as though we are the only species on the planet, it’s going to become self-fulfilling. That’s not a world we’ll want to live in, or be able to live in.”

Roam is available for limited release now, and will officially be available at bookstores and online Oct. 28.

A herd of elk at their winter refuge outside Grand Teton National Park, in Wyoming. Photo by Florian Schulz.

Kenya's major highways and railways include underpasses to allow elephants to navigate human infrastructure. Photo by Richard Moller.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A new book from a journalism professor looks at human-made barriers—visible and not—that have disrupted animal migrations and threaten our ecology.

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CMDI brings the conversation on immigration to center stage

Joe Arney — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 20:33:18 +0000

CMDI brings the conversation on immigration to center stage Joe Arney Thu, 10/16/2025 - 14:33

Joe Arney

Courtesy Motus Theater

For the first two years of its existence, the CMDI Distinguished Speaker Series has invited nationally recognized guests to provide insights on relevant topics like how technology encodes inequality into its products and services, and how to remedy a deeply polarized society.

While the focus on impact and important topics is the same, this year, the college invited local voices to share the stage and lead a conversation on immigration.

Boulder-based Motus Theater, which creates original works to facilitate dialogue on important contemporary issues, will stage a performance that will be followed by a panel discussion featuring journalists from The Colorado Sun, 9News and Colorado Public Radio.

If you go

What: Reapproaching Media and Migration

When: 6 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 22, CASE Chancellor’s Hall, fourth floor.

Who: Motus Theater, which brings silenced histories and marginalized voices to the stage, will give a performance of UndocuAmerica, followed by a panel conversation featuring local journalists.

Why: The CMDI Distinguished Speaker Series showcases some of the most pressing challenges of our time and invites future journalists, communicators, designers and technologists to consider their responsibilities as citizens and storytellers.

The event is open to all members of the �� Boulder community and the public.

Learn more

“What this series demonstrates is that CMDI is at the center of important conversations in our society,” said Nabil Echchaibi, associate dean of scholarly and creative work at CMDI and a professor of media studies. “We’re not just isolated in our own world. What we teach, what we do research on, what we explore creatively, it all has direct relevance to the world.”

Echchaibi encountered Motus as an advisor to one of the company’s performances, and invited the group to participate in a seminar class he taught a few years ago to help the students sharpen their media literacy skills.

“One of the things Motus excels at is reframing the conversation about these communities, around undocumented immigration,” Echchaibi, noting the company has been doing such productions since 2011.

UndocuAmerica, the project Motus will perform at CMDI, was created to counter the dehumanizing portrayal of immigrants through thoughtful engagement on the challenges facing the undocumented community, as well as the assets new arrivals bring to the United States. Motus works with leaders from the undocumented community to help them write powerful stories about their lives and experiences, then showcases them in moving monologues.

Echchaibi said he hopes the audience of communicators, storytellers and designers leaves with a better understanding of “our obligation as citizens, neighbors, journalists and educators to immigrant justice and honoring life for everyone.”

“I see CMDI as a convener of these conversations at a time when fewer people are having them,” he said. “We want to give a sense of perspective, some clarity about what we are all dealing with on a daily basis. Those conversations don’t only happen in the classroom—we are trying to foster a culture of meaningful and constructive discussion about issues of great public concern.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A performance by Motus Theater headlines this year’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

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‘Little community,’ big class: Meet CMDI’s groundbreaking Class of 2029

Joe Arney — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 16:17:48 +0000

‘Little community,’ big class: Meet CMDI’s groundbreaking Class of 2029 Joe Arney Mon, 10/13/2025 - 10:17

Iris Serrano

Chip the Buffalo leads CMDI's newest class of students in doing the wave during the college's orientation activities. The college's Class of 2029 is 25% larger than last year's, which was at the time the largest ever. Photo by Hannah Howell.

When Kellen McFarland made the short drive from Thornton to Boulder, he immediately fell in love.

Not just with the university, or its dramatic views of the Flatirons, but with the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information

“I remember thinking it was not only pretty out here, and close to home but all the classes I took were really fun,” said McFarland, who attended Connections, a summer academy for high school students that helped him experience life on campus. “After the program, Boulder felt like the best fit for me, and I considered it as one of my top options.”

In enrolling at CMDI, McFarland joined a monumental class of new first-year students. With 548 new first-year students, this new cohort is by far the largest in the college’s history, reflecting a 25% increase from the previous year.

Some other highlights from the Class of 2029:

The college also added 73 transfer students, bringing the total count of new undergraduate students to 621.
The strategic communication major had the highest number of admits by department, with 155. Information science saw the largest increase in enrollments, jumping by 16 over last year.
Despite the vastly increased size of the class, average high school GPA (3.76) and standardized test scores are slightly up, or on par with, last year.
CMDI also added 38 master’s students and 23 doctoral students for the fall.

Photo by Jack Moody

Notably, the incoming class is the first to be admitted to the renamed college, reflecting the integration of the environmental design department into CMDI.

“It’s so exciting, in our 10th year as a college, to have such a large and dynamic class of students joining us,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI. “I’m especially thrilled to welcome our environmental design students, and am excited to see how their energy and enthusiasm continues to positively shape the direction of our community.”

‘Trying to be ambitious’

McFarland also participated in Pathways, another summer program designed to help students acclimate to college life and build community. It was there that the aspiring sports journalist also had the opportunity to learn more about the clubs and student organizations that would help him build a network and develop experience outside of the classroom.

“I learned about the opportunities that Sko Buffs Sports offers. Members have gone to Big 12 media days, and they get to interview athletes and get flown out to games,” McFarland said. “I’m trying to be ambitious. I know I won’t get there on day one, but I want to experience what it’s like on the field.”

Media production major Eloisa Samper participated in Pathways with McFarland, crediting the experience with preparing her for college life.

“We got really close in our group. We all have different majors, but when we see each other, we stick together,” Samper said. “It was comforting to know I had this little community on my first day.”

She’s no stranger to working in the creative field. Samper has practiced photography for years, and over the summer, she explored videography and content creation to support the global seminar in Medellin, Colombia, run by environmental design each year.

“After that, I started getting invested in my education and trying to figure out how I could do the kind of art that I am passionate about. That’s how I decided to study media production,” said Samper, who hopes her education prepares her to become a cinematographer on feature films or even work as a war correspondent.

Interests in sports, sustainability

Kennah White also came into college knowing what she wanted to do. The first-year student moved from Colorado Springs to study environmental design after taking an introductory class in high school.

Christopher Bell (PhDMediaSt'09) presents to students at orientation. Photo by Jack Moody.

“We still have a lot of problems with sustainability,” White said. “I want to help solve those problems and teach people how to help and utilize the environment.”

Her passion for advocacy started in high school, where she was part of an organization that raised awareness and funds to support women’s and children’s rights around the world. She hopes to continue that work in college.

CMDI is also welcoming plenty of students who have found their home away from home. Jhordynn Garcia, a media studies major, came to Boulder from San Antonio in hopes of breaking into the sports media industry.

Garcia is eager to learn foundational skills in her classes and hopes to better understand audiences and what drives engagement, so she can do multimedia marketing for professional sports teams.

“I’m curious about how to make people feel excited, how to connect with an audience and bring people together through social media,” she said.

With the semester already underway, students said they’re already making the most of the opportunities available to them in and out of class. Sam King, a strategic communication major from Minnesota, hopes to start his own business one day. To that end, he’s started to build his skill set by joining the �� Boulder chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America.

“We’ve had LinkedIn workshops and learned how other students got their internships. These are things that will help me pursue my goal, even if I’m still figuring out exactly what that is,” King said. “If you can communicate well and express yourself, that helps you get along with people and lead them.”

The Class of 2029, with Chip, in the �� Events Center during orientation activities. Including transfer students, the incoming class is made up of 621 new undergraduates. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

CMDI’s first cohort since integrating with environmental design is made up of even more ambitious and creative students.

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At J-Day, student enthusiasm overwhelms challenges facing industry

Joe Arney — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:44:08 +0000

At J-Day, student enthusiasm overwhelms challenges facing industry Joe Arney Fri, 10/03/2025 - 09:44

Iris Serrano

Alumnus Marshall Zelinger welcomes high schoolers to J-Day with a talk about how students journalists can stay adaptable in the face of changes disrupting the news industry. Nearly 1,300 students from around Colorado attended the event. Photo by Nathan Thompson.

For the nearly 1,300 student journalists who attended J-Day at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information on Wednesday, the sweeping changes hitting the industry—from technology, to geopolitics, to economics—were impossible to ignore, especially as many of them consider majoring in journalism when they get to college.

9News investigative reporter Marshall Zelinger (Jour’02) was not there to sweep those concerns away. But he encouraged students to rise to meet challenges, rather than backing down.

“Be adaptable,” Zelinger said. “Break habits and adapt to the change that comes with the unexpected.”

Photo by Jack Moody

For Zelinger, the keynote speaker and a presenter, adaptability means more than just learning new skills. It’s about facing the challenges the journalism industry brings head-on. And it’s a lesson he learned as a newly minted �� Boulder graduate pivoting from the sports he covered as a student to the news side of the business.

He quickly found he had a talent for simplifying complex political topics for an audience, a skill he’s used throughout his career. As a political journalist on Next With Kyle Clark, he asks newsmakers hard-hitting questions while providing balanced reporting in a time of heightened polarization and diminishing press freedoms.

Objectivity and journalism ethics were the themes of his breakout session. Truth has become harder to come by, as politicians stoke outrage among increasingly partisan bases and new tools allow for increasingly sophisticated deepfakes. Reporting, he said, is no longer as simple as presenting both sides of an issue and letting the reader decide what’s actually happening.

“When it comes to politics, and political ads, it’s just truth testing,” Zelinger said. “It’s doing what is factual and dissecting what is being said, instead of hearing opposing views with no contextual explanation between them.”

‘Energy and excitement’ from students

Photo by Nathan Thompson

J-Day is an annual celebration of journalism put on by the Colorado Student Media Association. For the second year in a row, CSMA brought its signature event to �� Boulder, giving high-school students an up-close look at the industry through the eyes of reporters, CMDI alumni, faculty and others.

“I understand why people are concerned about the state of journalism, but I would encourage those people to experience an event like J-Day, to see how enthusiastic young people are about news,” said Lori Bergen, founding dean of CMDI and a former journalist. “Talking to the students who attended, and seeing their energy and excitement, gives me great confidence that journalism’s future is brighter than the pessimists believe.”

For student journalists like June Meehan, the chance to hear from Zelinger and others left her inspired to keep pursuing challenging stories. The senior from Fairview High School, in Boulder, has faced administrative roadblocks in reporting on controversial topics, but left Zelinger’s talk ready to handle these challenges.

“Even if I’m interviewing people in power like our principal or our teachers, I’ll make sure to do the right thing and ask tough questions—even if it’s not the most comfortable subject,” she said.

That’s just the takeaway CMDI wanted for the students who attended J-Day.

“I hope students leave the day inspired to continue doing great journalism at their high schools and equipped with a powerful network of peers, alumni, faculty and industry pros who encourage them to pursue journalism as a field of study and career,” said Christi Wade, student recruitment program manager at the college.

Unsurprisingly, a session on artificial intelligence in journalism attracted a large crowd of students who were curious about the technology’s potential to simplify tedious tasks—like poring through thousands of pages of public records—but also replace or corrupt traditional reporting.

Photo by Nathan Thompson

“We as professionals are taught that journalism is unbiased, but A.I. doesn’t know everything,” said Sean Marcus, an interactive learning designer at MediaWise, the media literacy arm of the prestigious Poynter Institute.

Poynter partnered with CMDI as a stop on the institute’s 50th anniversary celebration, which includes a traveling exhibition on the history and future of journalism. J-Day students were invited to visit Moments of Truth, which remains open through Oct. 9.

“A.I. companies and products can be inaccurate,” Marcus said. “Other organizations and entities have control over how these technologies are created and implemented, so at its heart, A.I. is problematic.”

Sam Rauscher, a sophomore at Centaurus High School, in Lafayette, and junior editor-in-chief of the newspaper club, recognizes the struggles newsrooms face as A.I. becomes part of the conversation. It’s something he already sees as a student.

“As it makes its way into all of our classes and assignments, it does cause some fear—but there are still going to be some ways that humans can regulate it,” Rauscher said. “We have to be the center of the A.I., instead of running away from it, to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand.”

He is eager to take what he learned at J-Day back to the classroom and use it to lead his team next year, when he’ll be editor-in-chief.

“A.I. is a tool that can be used to make our content better, but only if it’s used very strategically and carefully,” he said. “We’re not going to generate articles with it, but we can definitely get ideas and help from it.”

J-Day by the numbers

1,295
Students attended J-Day in 2025

62
High and middle schools that sent students to the event

48
Speakers led sessions

10
Sponsors supported J-Day at CMDI

Iris Serrano is studying strategic communication and journalism at CMDI. She covers student news and events for the college.

Nearly 1,300 student journalists visiting CMDI were urged to remain adaptable and innovative as A.I. and other changes disrupt newsgathering.

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Slow your scroll: Experts talk news, TikTok and critical thinking in Poynter panel

Joe Arney — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 17:07:41 +0000

Slow your scroll: Experts talk news, TikTok and critical thinking in Poynter panel Joe Arney Thu, 10/02/2025 - 11:07

Joe Arney

Phaedra C. Pezzullo, left, welcomes the audience as she prepares to moderate a panel discussion on journalism at the Boulder Public Library. The other panelists are, from left, Mark Trahant, Amanda Williams and Jade Liu. Photos by Jack Moody.

Much ink has been spilled, airtime spent and pixels devoted to questions around news engagement and the youngest generation.

So, rather than speculate, a panel session earlier this week invited a high school journalist to join seasoned reporters, editors and University of Colorado Boulder faculty to explore intergenerational storytelling and the future of the news media.

It started from the first question that moderator Phaedra C. Pezzullo, a professor of communication and director of the Sustainability and Storytelling Lab at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, pitched to Jade Liu.

Pezzullo asked Liu, a senior at Boulder’s Fairview High School, how technology shapes her approach to journalism, especially when telling stories for different generations.

“And you’re going to tell us that Twitter is old news now,” Pezzullo said; Liu drew a lot of laughs when she playfully fired back that “It’s X now, you know.”

“I’m honestly not the most online person, so I don’t know how well I can speak to this,” Liu said. “But years ago, I don’t think anyone was reading the newspaper for eight hours a day—yet today, there are people watching TikTok or scrolling Instagram for that long. When you’re taking in that much information at that rapid of a pace, there’s no stopping to think critically about what you’re seeing.

“I think that the main threat facing journalism today isn’t that it’s going to be replaced, but getting people to really care about it at a time when we’re facing so much information constantly coming at us.”

The panel discussion, which took place Tuesday at the Boulder Public Library, was presented in conjunction with Poynter’s 50th anniversary exhibition, Moments of Truth: An Exploration of Journalism’s Past, Present and Future. This traveling showcase traces journalism’s history, from movable type to A.I.-generated content, and illustrates how the industry has adapted in the face of technical innovation.

“Long before journalism as we know it today took shape, the need to tell our stories and share the truth of the world has been central to the human experience,” said Jessi Hollis McCarthy, a program specialist at MediaWise, the media literacy arm of Poynter. “Across time, we’ve created the tools and techniques we need to communicate the information that shapes our lives. Journalism is a vital part of that tradition.”

CMDI has been honored to be a stop on Poynter’s national tour. The college’s founding dean, Lori Bergen, has been a member of Poynter’s national advisory board and currently serves as a trustee.

“It’s a tremendous privilege to get to bring Poynter’s perspective about news literacy to the university and Boulder communities, especially in a time of hyper-partisanship and ceaseless technical innovation,” Bergen said. “Poynter is personally important to me, and also critical to the work that I do as a journalism educator and a citizen.”

Focus on environmental reporting

In addition to a general discussion of intergenerational storytelling and technology, the panelists spoke specifically about environmental journalism.

Mark Trahant, who has held multiple leadership roles in news, including at SeattlePI and ICT, said the industry is struggling to cover complex, slow-moving environmental crises. He shared stories he’s written about communities on the Taholah River, in Washington, which have been besieged by storm surges and flooding.

One village, Trahant said, has moved itself to higher ground. “But when I went up there with a photographer, we went through 35 villages facing the same lowland situation. Yet none of those communities are going through the same process.

“We have to get people to understand what the big picture is, and then act on it,” he said. “But journalism is not very good on the second part. We can talk about the issues and some of the complexities, but it boils down to policymakers and citizens who have to take the next step and decide what they want to do about it.”

Amanda Williams, a special projects editor for NPR’s 1A, is spending the year at �� Boulder as a Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism. She said the news is responsible for giving people resources to take that action without journalists becoming activists.

“At the end of a conversation, we try to end with things you could do or think about, or a place you could go to learn more about what we’re talking about,” Williams said. “It’s important to leave people with a direction to go after your story, your conversation or your podcast, so they don’t feel you were just dumping all these problems on a page and then walking away.”

A lengthy question-and-answer session with the audience followed the discussion. Topics ranged from technology, news disengagement, and the political and legal climate journalists are confronting.

A lighter question came from an audience member who asked whether games like Wordle, Connections and “Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!” encourage younger audiences to pay attention to the headlines, in addition to the diversions. Williams credited The New York Times with its boldness in moving into directions like cooking, puzzles and podcasting faster than other outlets.

“I know a lot of people who have New York Times subscriptions because they love the games so much—and making the mini crossword not free anymore probably led to more subscriptions, too,” Liu said. “But I do think the challenge is bridging that gap, and going from playing New York Times games to reading New York Times stories.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI and the Poynter Institute gathered a group of experts to discuss intergenerational storytelling, with a special focus on environmental reporting.

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10 for 10: Projects that inspire

Amanda J. McManus — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 05:34:46 +0000

10 for 10: Projects that inspire Amanda J. McManus Sun, 09/28/2025 - 23:34 Hannah Stewart

CMDI students develop their creative, analytical and investigative skills through hands-on projects that prepare them for the challenges they’ll encounter at work. Here are 10 impressive projects from the college’s first decade, along with a look at where these students are now.

Jacob Glazier (StratComm’17) worked with fellow advertising students to create ��’s commercial The Moment Before, which ran during football games and on television.

He is a freelance director and cinematographer, with some of his work gaining recognition at the Denver Film and Best Short festivals, among others.

Tessa Diestel (Jour’18) was on the 2018 Carnegie-Knight News21 fellowship team that covered “Hate in America,” which received a Murrow award, among others. The fellowship brings together top journalism students nationwide to report and produce in-depth, multimedia projects for major news outlets.

Diestel and Ashley Hopko (Jour’19) worked with students from 19 universities, reporting on hate crimes, racism and intolerance in 36 states. Diestel is currently an associate producer at ESPN.

Francesca Rubin (Comm’19) was director of partnerships for the 2019 TEDx�� event—the first time the annual speaker series was organized entirely by the college. She and her team secured sponsorships from various companies to support the event.

She is now an account executive at the fundraising consulting firm Hudson Farris, in New York City.

Megan Weber (StratComm’19) was on the Project Reface team that won gold at the national 2018 Young Ones award show organized by The One Club.

She is currently at the advertising agency McCann, in New York City, working as an art director.

Julia Muell and Megan Lange (both StratComm’21) won gold at the national 2019 Young Ones show for their Inspired World campaign.

Muell now works as an art director at Wieden + Kennedy, in New York City; Lange is a copywriter for TBWA\Chiat\Day, in Los Angeles.

Max Gannett (InfoSci’22, MS’23) and Jay Ghosh (InfoSci’22) completed a data visualization project that analyzed more than 600,000 tweets to identify target audiences of disinformation campaigns.

“The meaning and work learned on this project launched a friendship that allowed us to start a company and keep combining politics and data science to create change,” Gannett said.

That company, Washington-based Delphi Intelligence LLC, offers data science consulting services; in addition to his work with Delphi, Gannett is a special assistant in the U.S. Senate.

Audrey Mayes (MMediaSt’22) launched a podcast, Where the Aud Things Are, highlighting rural perspectives related to wildlife conservation, as the final project of her master’s program.

She then hosted Remington’s podcast as a marketing manager with the Kinetic Group before transitioning to the health and wellness space. She currently serves as the director of marketing and strategy at Lifeplus.

Reporter Hannah Prince (Jour’22) and photojournalist Alex Levy (Jour’22) investigated fentanyl use for a reporting honors project, which was published in a collaboration between the �� Independent and The Bold.

After pursuing a career in public relations, Levy switched to product marketing and is now with Zayo Group; he also runs a professional cycling program.

Prince is a segment producer of special events at ABC News, covering daily news and producing major U.S. and international news coverage. She embedded with ABC’s investigative unit in Uvalde, Texas, to report on gun violence following the 2022 school shooting, and was an associate producer for the Emmy-winning news documentary It Happened Here—A Year in Uvalde.

Jordan Wirfs-Brock (MJour’11, PhDInfoSci’22) wrote an article for Inside Energy, a collaborative journalism initiative, that includes a history of U.S. coal production set to music. She is an assistant professor of computer science at Whitman College, teaching students creative, multisensory ways to communicate data.

She is working on an NSF-funded project to develop tools that allow people to reflect on the sounds in their lives.

Virtual reality experiences in her classes inspired skiing instructor Natanya Chatfield (CritMedia’24) to create Virtual Slopes: Adaptive Ski Adventure at Eldora Mountain. The project—a first-person skiing journey for VR headsets and YouTube—makes adaptive skiing more accessible by breaking down barriers people with disabilities face in starting the sport. She is now a social media intern with a local Denver studio.

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

Here are 10 student projects from the college’s first decade and where those alumni are now.

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