College News

‘Not afraid to say yes:’ CMDI mourns actor Pat Finn, who taught unique improv class

Joe Arney — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 22:29:18 +0000

‘Not afraid to say yes:’ CMDI mourns actor Pat Finn, who taught unique improv class Joe Arney Mon, 01/12/2026 - 15:29

Joe Arney

As she prepares to start a new job, Erin Baptiste is reflecting on one of the more unusual classes she took as a senior in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

Pat Finn laughs in this file photo as he watches students working in an improv course he taught at the college. Finn, a well-known actor whose work included roles on The Middle, Seinfeld, Friends and many others, died of cancer in December. Alumni and faculty remembered Finn as a passionate teacher who made improv less intimidating. Below, Finn offers pointers to a group of students during class. Photos by Kimberly Coffin.

The course—a special topics class around improv and strategic communication taught by character actor Pat Finn—challenged students to bring a different set of skills to the kinds of challenges awaiting them as advertisers, marketers, public relations experts and designers.

“Something that stuck with me from that course was not being afraid to say yes—to be open and go with the flow,” said Baptiste (StratComm’18), who is leaving a design, social media and events management role at Groove Toyota, in Englewood, to become marketing director at University Bicycles, in Boulder.

“Anytime I start a new job, I go in feeling—well, like a bit of an idiot,” she said with a laugh. “There’s so much you don’t know. And that openness that Pat encouraged in that improv class showed me it’s OK to not know everything. Saying ‘I don’t know’ isn’t showing ignorance—it’s opening up a chance for other people to share with you.”

Finn, a lecturer at the college between 2016 and 2022, died from cancer in December—a loss that was felt at Boulder and beyond, as Finn’s own acting career led to guest roles on Seinfeld, Friends, Murphy Brown, The Middle and elsewhere.

“There are moments in college that have been lost to time. Pat’s course is not one of those,” Baptiste said. “He brought such joy and kindness to the classroom. Pat was so open to whatever you were feeling. He was excited to take that journey with you, and made an experience like improv feel a lot less scary and easier to grasp and use.”

Bringing ‘yes, and’ to the curriculum

Finn’s use of “yes, and”—an improv technique that’s found home in organizational leadership as a tool for building trust and collaboratively solving problems—was something Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college, mentioned in bringing Finn on board in CMDI’s early days. She first met Finn as dean of Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication, which includes a major in theatre arts, alongside traditional media and communication studies; Finn was an alumnus.

“‘Yes, and’ is almost a cliche in improv, but the idea of keeping things positive, of making other people on your team look good—after all, you’re there together—that’s just what he did, how he taught and how he lived,” Bergen said. “He reached out to me shortly after I started in Boulder to congratulate me, and of course he used ‘yes, and’ to pitch me—‘Who’s innovative enough to bring improv to strategic communication?’ How was I going to say no to that?”

“He was so good at encouraging us to experiment and take risks while being gentle and making sure you felt safe.”

Harrison Morof (StratComm’18),
associate director, Duncan Channon

Finn was not a headliner, “but he’s someone you’d recognize, because he always played such cool roles,” Bergen said. “And that was a reflection of who he was as a person—he worked so hard to make other people feel seen, especially our students. And his generosity and warmth of spirit always made you feel special.”

Harsha Gangadharbatla, who was among the founding faculty of CMDI, recalled enlisting Finn to run a workshop for faculty in the early days of the advertising, public relations and design department.

“He really helped bring our faculty together and instill that ‘yes, and’ attitude and approach to solving problems,” said Gangadharbatla, now a distinguished professor and senior associate dean for the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “He played a key role in building the department’s culture during its early days.”

Bergen echoed that, saying Finn’s ability to make people feel special made the workshop, which she attended, a hit.

“Most of us are programmed to not say the first thing that jumps into our head when we’re solving a problem,” she said. “And when you do that, you’re suppressing creativity and imagination. Pat’s workshop was great because in the early days of the college, those were two things we couldn’t afford to bottle up.”

Teaching students to think on their feet

Gangadharbatla said Finn’s skill as an actor and teacher made students comfortable applying lessons from improv to think on their feet and quickly make decisions.

“Pat helped many of the APRD students hone in on their presentation skills and learn how to get comfortable in front of a crowd,” Gangadharbatla said, adding that Finn’s impact was especially felt at the National Student Advertising Competition, where his guidance helped students earn second place in the district in 2018.

It was perhaps unusual for a Hollywood actor to wind up teaching in Boulder, but Harrison Morof (StratComm’18) remembered him talking about his daughters, who both graduated from CMDI and work in entertainment. Cassidy Finn (Comm’17) worked on Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry and Rupal; Caitlin Finn (Comm’19) has held roles at Netflix, ESPN and elsewhere. His son, Ryan, attended Marquette.

“It was a very touching, sweet thing,” Morof said. “I’m sure he was teaching here to be closer to his daughters, which I think we all admired and appreciated.”

Morof, associate director of media and analytics at Duncan Channon, grew up watching improv on Saturday Night Live, and saw the chance to take the course with Finn as a truly unique opportunity.

“He had a way of making everyone feel welcome and important,” Morof said. “Going up in front of your peers and wanting to impress them—I remember being nervous about that, but he was so good at encouraging us to experiment and take risks while being gentle and making sure you felt safe.”

Making quick pivots

Improv lessons also have helped him rapidly pivot when change happens at work—important, since many of Morof’s clients are in healthcare.

“We worked on California’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, and things were changing by the day,” he said, including who was eligible, how patients got it, moving supply to meet demand, even the period when the Johnson & Johnson shot was temporarily paused. “Figuring out how to solve those kinds of dynamic problems was absolutely influenced by flexing that improv, ‘yes, and’ muscle.”

It’s a sentiment Baptiste shared, as well—especially when her work has taken her places where she may be the only creative professional on the team, surrounded by finance or analytics experts who don’t get the rush of seeing an idea take form as a campaign.

“When you’re on a team where other peoples’ work doesn’t have the same public visibility as yours, it becomes so much more important to hear what they’re saying and recognize how they are informing your process,” she said.

“I have been struck several times in my career about how much I think about improv as a result of that class—like, my team and I should do a class like that, or my husband and I should, because it just opens up communication so much. In such a short time, Pat made such a huge impact on my life.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

He was best known for roles on The Middle, Seinfeld and Friends, but alumni and faculty best remember his joy and kindness—and an impact that extended into their careers.

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Standout student channels enthusiasm for people, pop culture into HBO internship

Joe Arney — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Standout student channels enthusiasm for people, pop culture into HBO internship Joe Arney Mon, 01/05/2026 - 08:00

Hannah Stewart

For someone aspiring to work in public relations for the entertainment industry, Leah Szabo’s internship with HBO was a dream come true. She tracked media mentions and worked the red carpet for shows like The Last of Us and The White Lotus.

Leah Szabo is a great friend to watch TV with. When you ask the inevitable, “Where have I seen them before?” she can tell you.

That pop culture consciousness—combined with top-notch networking skills—is how the college senior landed a summer internship with HBO Max—a position she hopes helps launch a career in the entertainment industry.

“I want to be in entertainment because I love amplifying the storytellers' voices through strategy and creativity,” said Szabo, who will graduate from the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information in the spring with a degree in strategic communication. “I like talking to people, but I like being behind the scenes as the person who helps people get their stories told.”

Szabo’s own story is both fun and inspiring. The California native grew up surrounded by the sparkle of Hollywood, which extended to the Christmas parties thrown by her uncle—an entertainment industry veteran whose guest lists included publicists, actors and other professionals.

It was at one of those parties that she chatted with family friend Raina Falcon, an HBO executive, who invited the then-first-year public relations student to follow up with her after a bit more schooling.

“Year after year, I would follow up saying, ‘Hi, I’m a sophomore now and I study PR.’ And the next year, ‘I’m a junior; it’s my time. I want to work for you. I want to be in entertainment,’” she said. “So it was leveraging a connection, but also making sure I maintained it.”

Falcon pointed Szabo toward the correct internship application and passed along her resume to the recruiters. Three rounds of interviews, she was accepted, and on the path toward her dream job.

The cast of HBO’s The White Lotus poses at a premier event. Among Szabo’s responsibilities at her internship were tracking press and working red-carpet events. Photo by Leah Szabo.

Behind the silver screen

Once she arrived, it was clear Szabo’s CMDI education had prepared her to succeed on an internship where she was tasked with everything from tracking media mentions to working the red carpet.

“Interns in the entertainment and PR business need to be organized, motivated, good with people and very adaptable,” said Lily Walker, a publicity coordinator for HBO Max. “Leah did a great job of taking on new situations as they came, both at in-person events and online.”

Szabo’s work impressed the HBO team so much that they extended her internship to last through the fall semester as well. Though Walker was not Szabo’s supervisor, the two worked together throughout the internship, including at the I Love LA and Welcome to Derry premieres in October.

She also credited Szabo with bringing fresh perspectives to work, such as ideas to promote shows to younger audiences.

“For instance, on I Love LA, an influencer makes a cameo, and I said, ‘Why haven’t you asked to go on her YouTube? She has a whole segment where she interviews celebrities,’” Szabo said. “It was really cool that they saw value in what I was telling them and applying it.”

Naturally extroverted, Szabo has found her stride within public relations. But she was quick to credit her success to her mentors and past internships. Prior to her role at HBO, she completed two PR internships, one with JKD & Co. and another with SchroderHaus. While at times it was intimidating to represent a global brand, she said, the skills developed at CMDI and during her more community-focused internships applied in every setting, giving her confidence.

Equally as formative has been her leadership experience with the �� Boulder chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America. As president, Szabo serves as a liaison to the university, national organization and members, managing a team, running meetings and working with different personalities.

“PR is basically personality management—how can you satisfy every stakeholder and adjust to different situations,” she said.

Notably, under her leadership, PRSSA has grown significantly. Since August, 99 new members joined—all while Szabo was continuing her HBO internship and maintaining a full course load.

Role model

“Leah, to me, is already a professional in the way she handles herself,” said Jolene Fisher, an associate professor in the college’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design. “She is able to perform in many different capacities beyond what I expect to see from a student level.”

As faculty advisor for PRSSA, Fisher has worked closely with Szabo over the past two years, and said Szabo has grown not only as a leader, but as a model student.

It’s why she invited Szabo to give a guest lecture to first-year students in an introductory PR class, where she shared with her peers what it took to secure her internship and her responsibilities at HBO.

“When we highlight the success of our current students, it really helps inspire our younger ones,” said Fisher, also associate chair of undergraduate studies. “Leah’s going to make things happen because she is a force. I’m excited to see where she goes.”

And Szabo’s success so far made her a natural choice to speak to her peers.

“I have been able to use my CMDI education and apply it to everything from community relations to consumer packaged goods and now entertainment—you can really take any avenue you want with CMDI,” she said.

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

On her dream internship, a CMDI student has done everything from tracking media mentions to working the red carpet.

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All together now: 2025 at CMDI

Amanda J. McManus — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 02:22:15 +0000

All together now: 2025 at CMDI Amanda J. McManus Mon, 12/15/2025 - 19:22

In a year where the college’s biggest story was its name change—following its integration with the environmental design department—CMDI’s community also found itself at the center of the biggest conversations shaping our time—from sustainability and A.I., to media literacy and the future of journalism.

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Code Reddit: How community guidelines, moderation can impede internet incivility

Joe Arney — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 16:33:37 +0000

Code Reddit: How community guidelines, moderation can impede internet incivility Joe Arney Tue, 12/09/2025 - 09:33

Joe Arney

If you were starting a new social media platform—one that tried to balance civil behavior with strong engagement—and were looking for an example to emulate, Chris Vargo has an unexpected one to offer.

Vargo, an associate professor of advertising at �� Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, has a new paper out in Social Science Computer Review that examines the role moderation and decentralized community rules have played in limiting incivility on Reddit.

“It’s not a moderated world in which we live in online, but I think what’s neat about Reddit is that they have these self-enforcing communities—and they work,” Vargo said.

Content accuracy was once an important plank for social media giants like Meta, which hired moderators to sift through the cesspools and remove false or misleading posts about the pandemic, Jan. 6 insurrection and other controversial topics. Uniquely, Reddit relies on volunteers to police posts that are abusive or inaccurate.

The paper, which Vargo co-authored with Toby Hopp, a fellow associate professor in the college’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Design, used machine learning tools to study 20 of the most popular subreddits—topic-specific communities hosted on the Reddit platform—in news and politics to understand how community rules could shape both engagement and uncivil behavior.

“Each subreddit is a different community, and they all have different rules and different guidelines on what’s acceptable,” Vargo said. Some groups, he said, encourage incivility—like sports subreddits where fans trash on a rival team, as well as some in the political sphere. “But you also have subreddits that don’t allow for that kind of incivility, or the casting of people as being out-group.”

That’s important because social media has empowered anonymous keyboard warriors to toss around death threats, dox opponents and belittle people for their ideas. Those kinds of uncivil behaviors—as opposed to just general vulgarity—were the focus of this research.

“For a democracy to have diverse voices, people need to feel safe posting content online,” Vargo said. “And we know from incivility studies that silencing and marginalizing opponents, telling them their viewpoints don’t matter, is a great way to silence them.”

“We know from incivility studies that silencing and marginalizing opponents, telling them their viewpoints don’t matter, is a great way to silence them.”

Chris Vargo, associate professor, advertising

When it comes to improving civil discourse on social media, the paper found the strength of a community’s moderation policies and enforcement correlated with greater civility among its participants.

“The more rules that are in a community, the better quality of communication in that subreddit,” Vargo said. “That’s important because building community is less about content moderation and more about content contextualization—this idea of sharing the truth when a poster might not be truthful, or saying when someone's misleading in a comment if they are being misleading.”

Changing perspectives on toxicity

The idea that one would consider Reddit a haven from, as opposed to a hotbed of, toxic behavior would have raised more than a few eyebrows in the past. But as major players in artificial intelligence have looked for new content platforms to scrape, Reddit has tried to sanitize its image. Those efforts have included removing problematic communities from the platform as well as putting moderation in the hands of volunteer users. Last year, the platform struck a $60 million deal with Google that allowed the search giant to train its A.I. models on users’ posts.

“We really expected Reddit to be pretty toxic, but I’ve done a couple papers recently that both point to Reddit being fairly safe, with not a lot of threats,” Vargo said. “I would say it is probably more of a model than it is a problem.”

When it comes to advertising and social media, engagement is the name of the game—one reason why name-calling, shaming and starting fights online tends to be rewarded by algorithms, which are designed to keep people on the site, in order to deliver more ads to users. In this study, though, Vargo said, internet indecorousness amounted to “just a tiny bit” of increased engagement.

“I think it’s great to see on a social media platform that those behaviors aren’t driving engagement quite the way we may have thought,” he said. “Because I don’t think it should be so easy to mine us for engagement, and for it to be so closely linked to hate.”

So, for both existing and emerging platforms, the idea of user-governed communities is worth consideration.

“I would highly encourage other places, like Facebook groups, to allow for those types of moderators to have that role over removing content and enforcing rules,” Vargo said, noting that his paper collected commonly used rules that keep successful subreddits civil.

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A new paper finds subreddits with clearly defined rules and active volunteer moderators do better at limiting incivility and encouraging engagement.

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Though some of the biggest social media platforms have ended, or drastically scaled back, content moderation, a new paper examines Reddit's volunteer model and finds that the right guidelines can limit incivility.

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Waste not. Want? Yes.

Hannah Stewart — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 21:18:19 +0000

Waste not. Want? Yes. Hannah Stewart Fri, 12/05/2025 - 14:18

Hannah Stewart

The EPOP Shop was a crowd favorite at the Firefly Handmade Market in downtown Boulder. The students sold out of two items in the first two hours of being open; they ultimately sold all their products midway through the second day of the market. Photos by Hannah Howell.

How many students can say one of their first class assignments was to go shopping?

That unusual first assignment is how students in the EPOP Studio course prepare to create sustainably sourced gifts that are sold at a holiday market.

EPOP by the numbers:

39 students

12 unique products

240 items brought to and sold at market

$10,070 sold

For the past five years, environmental design faculty with �� Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information have partnered with the Firefly Handmade holiday market to give students hands-on experience in product design.

The twist for students who participate—all of whom are majoring in environmental products of design—is the requirement that their creations have a strong sustainability component, which becomes part of the story for each product sold. Students who complete the degree go on to careers in virtually every design field.

“We want to be the people who make cool things to sell,” said senior Pilar Agostine, who was part of the team that built the EPOP storefront—itself created from sustainable materials. “We’re designing the everyday products for a home, but in an environmental way.”

The EPOP Studio draws its name from the EPOD major and the annual pop-up shop powered by the students. The goal of the course is to challenge them to think critically about sustainability while developing technical, interpersonal and business skills.

“The theme of the studio is diverting design—they have to identify waste streams, capture material and transform it into a product,” said Jared Arp, an assistant teaching professor of environmental design who teaches the course alongside Melissa Felderman, associate teaching professor.

All products were made with upcycled materials, which many customers felt was both unique and important.

Once students identified a waste stream, they used their experience from observing the market to identify potential products to pitch to classmates. Among this year’s product themes were creative, decorative, fun and—for the first time—masculine.

“Shopping for men, in my opinion, is so hard,” senior John Davis said with a laugh. “When you think about the context of a handmade market, a lot of those things tend to be directed toward feminine audiences.”

Davis and his team had “100-plus ideas” before settling on a set of whiskey glasses made from bottles sourced from Spirit Hound, a distiller in Lyons. Even the glasses’ complementary coasters were made from a mixture of crushed glass, rockite—a fine concrete material—and a cork base. Davis estimated the design is made from about 80% reclaimed material.

“I'm really proud of the fact that we have all consistently shown up and created this product, and of how sustainable we were able to make it,” Davis said. “We were lucky Spirit Hound was willing to give us their bottles for free. That made our story a lot stronger.”

According to Arp, that storytelling is critical to EPOP because it connects customers with the shop’s mission of promoting sustainable design. When the link connecting the waste stream and final product is clear, he said, the audience is more receptive.

As in past years, customers beat a steady path to EPOP’s storefront: Well before the Firefly market closed, the students’ 240 products had sold out. Sales from the weekend amounted to slightly more than $10,000; adjusted for expenses, their gross profit was just shy of $6,100, all of which will support next year’s studio.

A steady flow of customers kept EPOP students busy at the market.

“That’s 240 decisions from shoppers to purchase the students’ work,” Arp said. “There’s no better jury than live people.”

Those live people weren’t just impulse buyers. An hour before the market opened, curious passers-by were watching the shop—partially constructed from reclaimed wood—take form. Within minutes of opening, the first customer bought six sunglasses cases made from reclaimed outdoor gear, like jackets.

Uniquely, the structure included more than just the items for sale. It was outfitted with 12 tablets, which ran looped videos showing the creation process and sustainability story of each product. Buyers also received cards with the product name and a blurb about the item.

“Foot traffic is really important for markets, and I think the shop itself is incredible—it stands out,” said Chrissy Howell, a yarn artisan who frequently participates in markets like Firefly. She and her husband—the parents of a CMDI student—picked up a number of items for their holiday shopping.

Another customer, Jean, stumbled upon the market while visiting Boulder from Frisco. She, like Howell, thought EPOP was perfect for picking up a unique gift—she purchased the Waste Knot for her daughter—while being environmentally conscious. She said the students’ mission really spoke to her.

“This is the culmination of their whole semester, and it makes me really happy for them that they get this opportunity to be out in public to get feedback about their work and ideas,” said Mary Kay Cunningham, another holiday shopper and parent to an EPOP student.

For the students, it’s more than just holiday gifts. In addition to learning to tell a story that resonates with potential customers, the class challenged their technical and teamwork skills, teaching them creativity and resilience as they brought their ideas to market.

The Waste Knot yarn bowls, Respirited whiskey glasses and other items made by EPOP students.

“They warned us at the beginning that we could use software to generate a concept of a final product, but it will dampen your creative experience,’” said Elliette Igel-Manvitz, a junior on the Waste Knot team.

Felderman said that’s an important lesson for students in the studio class. While many CMDI classes challenge students to find useful, ethical and responsible ways to use generative artificial intelligence as part of assignments and projects, she asked them not to do so in the early stages.

Doing so “stymies their creative process and pigeonholes them,” Felderman said. “We offer guidance to our students both on when and how to use A.I. in the design process, so that it can act as a tool, as opposed to a hindrance.”

Students said working through the front-end creative challenges of their projects furthered their learning.

“I’ve definitely become more adaptive,” Igel-Manvitz said. “When we realized we’d have to change our materials because of resource availability, we learned from other teams.

“After working on it for so many months and not really seeing the final product until the very end, it feels unreal.”

Even the storefront was made by students, using both new and reclaimed wood. Students also created all the signs for the shop.

November's Firefly Handmade Holiday Market was packed. Customers frequently visited the EPOP shop, some of them even lining up to check out the products before the official start time. They quickly sold out of items.

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

Photographer Hannah Howell is studying media production at CMDI.

At an annual holiday market, CMDI students again sold handmade, sustainably sourced gifts—along with the stories of how the materials were rescued from waste streams.

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Goal oriented: Soccer standout is CMDI’s top December graduate

Joe Arney — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 17:19:17 +0000

Goal oriented: Soccer standout is CMDI’s top December graduate Joe Arney Fri, 12/05/2025 - 10:19

Allyson Maturey

She wasn't just a star on the pitch—Lola Stanley graduates in December at the top of her class for the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. Photo courtesy Colorado Athletics.

By the time Lola Stanley graduates this December, she’ll be carrying more than recognition as the college’s William W. White Outstanding Graduate. She’ll be carrying the lessons, relationships and personal growth that shaped her at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information—experiences she said will guide her long after graduation.

For Stanley, a communication major and sports media minor who transferred to �� Boulder from the University of Texas at Austin, the journey to graduation has been marked by balance, focus and a commitment to showing up—both in the classroom and on the soccer field. Her college experiences have given her a better understanding of the power of setting goals and achieving them.

“Working hard to graduate with a 4.0 GPA while being a student-athlete has taught me that I am in control of the goals I want to achieve,” Stanley said. “It’s truly based on how I show up.”

The White award, presented to the graduating senior with the highest GPA in the college, is not the only honor Stanley has achieved as a student. In 2024, she was recognized with the Herbst Academic Award, which celebrates a student-athlete for her classroom accomplishments.

Graduation represents far more than a personal achievement for Stanley: “Above all, my degree represents the generosity, sacrifice and support that I have received from my parents.”

In a way, her diploma is part gratitude and part gateway. It’s the culmination of years of effort and the beginning of countless opportunities ahead.

More than just a degree

Among her most significant areas of growth, Stanley highlights one skill: communication. She didn’t just refine it at CMDI, she came to understand its transformative power. Whether with teammates, professors, coaches or peers, she found clear communication fosters trust while minimizing misunderstandings.

“I’ve learned that being direct, transparent and intentional strengthens every relationship,” she said. “Recognizing its impact across every area of my life is one of the most valuable takeaways that I will bring with me into my next chapter.”

Stanley has many memorable experiences she’ll hold onto, but there’s one class that stands out the most: an American Sign Language course with Paige Hawkins, assistant teaching professor from Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences.

Hawkins, she said, brought joy and care into the classroom, opening Stanley’s eyes to the richness of learning a new language. The experience fostered a deep sense of gratitude and broadened her awareness of the things people often take for granted.

“She truly impacted my life in ways that I did not expect when signing up for the course,” she said. “I want to thank her for the time, effort when showing up to teach my class and me every day.”

Congratulations, December graduates!

CMDI is proud to recognize our new 2025 Forever Buffs.

View a full list of graduates →

Allyson Maturey is a communications project manager for CMDI.

The William W. White Outstanding Graduate this December is Lola Stanley, who carries with her the resilience of an athlete, the curiosity of a scholar and the clarity of a communicator.

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John Oliver segment on public media gets major assist from CMDI

Joe Arney — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 18:13:50 +0000

John Oliver segment on public media gets major assist from CMDI Joe Arney Tue, 11/18/2025 - 11:13

Joe Arney

Host John Oliver introduces his show while the cover of Josh Shepperd's book is shown onscreen. Shepperd's work on the history of public media helped inform an episode on the federal government's dramatic cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Photo courtesy HBO.

When Josh Shepperd first discovered his research interest—the historical connection between the origins of communications research and public broadcasting—he was a University of Wisconsin graduate student eager to find his voice in the academic community

Today, that voice is carrying in directions he never could have imagined, with his work prominently featured in the season finale of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, on Sunday night.

“My work is explicitly focused on democracy and media,” said Shepperd, associate professor of media studies at �� Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “The idea that there is interest in preserving the different types of ways that institutions, agencies and people try to build and maintain infrastructure for access and recognition is core to my research.”

As far as late-night comedies go, Oliver’s show consistently scores high marks from critics for its humor, as well as the deep dives it does on controversial topics, which this season included sports betting, presidential libraries, A.I. slop and deportations.

Shepperd consulted with the Last Week Tonight team over the course of two months, culminating in a timely episode about the federal government’s drastic cuts to public media.

“You put in these long hours in the archives with the hope that people will consider the historical context of what you’re saying, and use that context to inform the decisions we make today.”

Josh Shepperd, associate professor, media studies

Oliver’s monologue was a thorough overview of topics raised by Shepperd’s work; the producers even used the cover of his book, Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting, as an on-screen graphic during the show.

“I think Oliver and his group learned about the book through the press I’ve been doing for the book, because a lot of folks at the show have close ties and sympathies with the public media sector,” Shepperd said.

Shadow of the New Deal is notable as the first academic attempt to present communication studies and public broadcasting as historically connected media reform enterprises. It was published in 2023, at a time when uncertainty about public media’s future—not to mention poisonous criticism of journalism in general—was growing. Shadow has since won the Book Award from the Broadcast Education Association and has been a finalist or runner up for prizes from four other organizations, including the American Journalism Historians Association and Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

The book led to press at close to 50 media outlets, including an interview with the influential NPR show On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti, a Q&A with The Chicago Tribune, as well as a feature by Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab over the past several months.

“What I like about the book being continually recognized is that it gives this research the opportunity to resonate beyond historians,” Shepperd said. “You put in these long hours in the archives with the hope that people will consider the historical context of what you’re saying, and use that context to inform the decisions we make today.”

Since he provided so much context for the show’s team, Shepperd was asked to recommend the names of other influential voices working in this space. Among those he listed was Willard Rowland, dean emeritus of the former School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which became CMDI a decade ago.

“I appreciate that CMDI is willing to steward humanistic work that explores democracy and media questions from a historical lens,” he said. “Historical research reveals a lot—but it takes a lot of time to do, and few communication schools have historians who ask these questions from that perspective.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

When Last Week Tonight wanted to talk about cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, its researchers called communication historian Josh Shepperd.

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‘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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At this holiday market, repurposing is the new regifting

Hannah Stewart — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 16:02:52 +0000

At this holiday market, repurposing is the new regifting Hannah Stewart Fri, 11/07/2025 - 09:02

Hannah Stewart

A student applies a decal to a finished whiskey glass while another student records the process in the EPOP studio course. This class challenges students studying environmental products of design to make gifts from diverted materials that are listed for sale at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market. Photos by Hannah Howell.

John Davis developed a love of product design through a furniture building studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. So taking the EPOP studio course offered through the environmental design department was a no-brainer.

If you go

What: Students will be at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market all weekend selling 12 hand-designed and manufactured products.

Where: Pearl Street Mall, 1303 Pearl St., Boulder.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 15 and 16. Historically, they’ve sold out quickly, so stop by early.

Learn more

“I initially wanted to do architecture, but found that product design has much more tangible results a lot faster, which is rewarding,” Davis said. “And this studio is such a good opportunity for students like me. I don't think a lot of people get the chance to actually design a product and take it to market during their education.”

EPOP students have one seemingly simple task: Design, produce and sell an item at market. But there’s a catch: All products—as well as the storefront—must be made sustainably, with at least 50% of each item made from diverted materials.

The course name comes from the environmental products of design, or EPOD, major at �� Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, and the pop-up shop at which the final goods are sold each year.

In teams of three, the students identified a waste stream—plastic from holiday string lights, used outdoor gear or, in Davis’ case, used whiskey bottles—and created both a story and a product from it.

Davis and his team realized many holiday markets have artisan wine glasses, but rarely did they see similar drinkware for hard liquor. They settled on a whiskey glass and companion coaster, and after learning skills like sandblasting and 3D modeling, were able to create 15 two-glass sets to sell at the Firefly Handmade Holiday Market later this month.

Both the glasses and coasters were made of reclaimed whiskey bottles from Spirit Hound, in Lyons, which donated the raw materials to the team.

“That just made our sustainability story a lot stronger,” Davis said. “I am really proud of how sustainable we were able to make our product. It’s made from something like 80% diverted material.”

This is the fifth year the students have collaborated with Firefly, and the fourth time they'll sell their goods at the annual holiday market on the Pearl Street Mall. And each year, the studio—and market storefront—has grown. Unlike the 10-foot-by-10-foot tents most vendors use, the students are building a 10-foot-by-20-foot storefront, complete with cash wrap and mounts so that market-goers can watch each product’s process videos, created by the students over the course of the semester.

Most years, their inventory quickly sells out.

“It’s really affirming for the students and builds their creative confidence,” said Jared Arp, an assistant teaching professor co-leading the class alongside Melissa Felderman, an associate teaching professor.

“This studio is like a right of passage. When the market happens, former students come back to see what the next class has done, so it’s become a touchpoint for our alumni and a great way to engage the community,” Arp said.

Students learned various technical skills like sandblasting, 3D modeling and more throughout the course of the EPOP Studio.

From concept to creation, all products (and the storefront itself) are all made by the students.

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

Photographer Hannah Howell is studying media production at CMDI.

CMDI students will showcase, and sell, their sustainable products at the annual Firefly Handmade Holiday Market in November.

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Deer in the spotlights: What Bambi tells us about animation and death

Joe Arney — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 15:45:51 +0000

Deer in the spotlights: What Bambi tells us about animation and death Joe Arney Thu, 11/06/2025 - 08:45

Joe Arney

When she asks her classes who remembers this scene from Bambi, Marissa Lammon says everyone's hand goes up. But while you probably can also recall this image, this isn't a scene from Bambi—it never appeared onscreen. A new paper from Lammon studies what this recollection teaches us about how we encounter and interpret violence and death as children.

You know that heartbreaking scene in Disney’s Bambi, in which the title character cuddles up to his mother’s lifeless body after she’s been shot by a hunter?

No, you don’t. It never happened.

“I show this image to my students all the time in class, and ask who remembers this scene,” said Marissa Lammon, a lecturer in the communication department at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at �� Boulder. “And everyone raises their hand, even though this is never shown onscreen.”

Lammon (PhDMediaSt’24) is an expert in popular culture and children’s media, especially as they relate to death. And, she said, the widespread misremembering of how Bambi’s mother dies is a testament to the impact her death has on audiences.

“The image represents collective trauma, and how the vast majority of people interpreted this death as traumatic,” Lammon said. “We talk about animated deaths that really stick with us, and Bambi’s mother is the one. And it actually changes the way we remember the film.”

In a new paper in Omega, Lammon looks at the story of Bambi’s mother dying and what it says about Western culture, which has made death taboo, and how children interpret the media they absorb.

“We tend to think about children as passive, blank slates,” she said. “My work suggests children are active agents who are creating and negotiating meaning from what they see and hear. And what’s fascinating is that, as a culture, we don’t talk about death, but we show it profusely in media.”

How children create meaning from media

“Children are active agents who are creating and negotiating meaning from what they see and hear.”

Marissa Lammon (PhDMediaSt’24), instructor, communication

Lammon’s interest in mediated death started while she was studying psychology as an undergraduate at UCCS, and evolved while she was doing her master’s work there.

“Children create meaning in ways different from how we do, but they’re still very social,” she said. “I wanted to bridge this gap between psychology and media and cultural studies to understand how children use media to reinforce or challenge ideology in ways that are significant to their development.”

It’s particularly important work at a time when our environment is becoming even more hypermediated.

“If we, as adults, are struggling to discern what is factual information and what is ‘fake news,’ then it’s more crucial than ever to encourage media literacy, critical thinking and reflection with children, so they can develop those skills,” she said.

CMDI advisory board member Christopher Bell (PhDMediaSt’09) advised Lammon’s master’s work, and gave her opportunities to consult in the industry. They have become close collaborators on researching popular culture.

“Marissa has fully embraced the idea of public scholarship—the idea that the knowledge generated at the academic level should belong to the public,” said Bell, president of Creativity Partners and a longtime consultant in animation. “When she goes to Pixar or Skydance and presents her work to people who make things, it changes how these companies produce media for children. It literally changes the world.”

That’s something she’s trying to do with Bemoaning Bambi: Visual Communication of Trauma From Witnessing One of Disney’s Saddest Character Deaths.

Marissa Lammon, right, presents work on animation and death at Fan Expo Denver. ‘Children’s media actually are the most violent out there, but when we think about animation, we tell ourselves it’s just fantasy, it’s just fun, it’s not actually harmful,’ she says. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

“Children’s media actually are the most violent out there, but when we think about animation, we tell ourselves it’s just fantasy, it’s just fun, it’s not actually harmful,” Lammon said, adding that our culture uses violence to teach moral lessons. “In the case of Bambi’s mother, her death embodies traumatic frames in ways that make it so salient in our recollections of animated death.”

Those frames, she said, are homicide, gender coding—especially the theme of maternal sacrifice—and character development after the act of violence.

‘Completely shattered’

While most of us remember Bambi’s mother being shot in the early stages of the movie, “in fact, it happens about 40 minutes in,” Lammon said. “So for 40 minutes, you see this loving and nurturing relationship develop, and then Bambi’s world is completely shattered.”

That trauma changes how Bambi develops, “leaving you, as an audience member, thinking about how he has to completely change the way he exists,” she said.

And that goes for the children in the audience, as well.

“The conversations I have with children are so deep and intellectual,” she said. “If parents really talked with their children about what they’re seeing and how they’re interpreting it, they would be so surprised with what they’re picking up on and how they reflect on it.”

Lammon’s hope is that her findings change both how the industry communicates themes around death and how parents and caregivers have conversations about what their children absorb.

“There is a lot that the industry is doing well, but we need to change media texts to include death that is natural, not just murder, so we can prepare them for what bereavement will look like in their own lives,” she said. “Meanwhile, we need to make parents more comfortable about having these conversations with their children, instead of just ignoring what they’ve watched or prevent them from seeing it.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Children aren’t just blank slates—they create meaning from the media they experience. An expert says that’s a reason to think about how we show themes like violence and death.

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