College News

Get politics out of sports? It’s in the game

Joe Arney — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 16:12:32 +0000

Get politics out of sports? It’s in the game Joe Arney Tue, 03/03/2026 - 09:12

Joe Arney

Professional sports have always attracted a certain kind of fan for whom the game is an escape from politics and the news of the day.

That fan probably did not have a great Olympics.

If you go

What: CMDI Sports Media Summit

When: Thursday, March 5, through Friday, March 6, Touchdown Club, Folsom Field.

Who: Alumni and industry professionals in sports media share perspectives on the changing industry landscape. Scheduled speakers include the X Games CEO, an executive vice president of Bleacher Report and an executive vice president at Fox Sports. Full lineup →

Why: An under-the-hood look at topics such as NIL, A.I., streaming and career success. Plus, unbeatable networking opportunities.

Whether it was Kash Patel and Donald Trump inserting themselves into the aftermath of Jack Hughes’ golden goal for the U.S. men’s hockey team, or Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych being disqualified for a helmet paying tribute to fellow athletes killed during his country’s invasion by Russia, politics was like an icy layer just beneath the snow at the Milan Cortina Games.

“I think people are paying attention to it more because of the contemporary American political moment, but politics has always been an element of sport,” said Ever Figueroa, an assistant professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “And the Olympics, in particular, have always been a platform for that.”

Figueroa studies how race and gender matter within social and cultural systems, especially the political undertone running through sports. He mentioned 1968, which featured the Black Power salute from Tommie Smith and John Carlos, and the 1980 Miracle on Ice as Olympic moments with strong political subtext that made the events memorable and interesting.

“All forms of art are more interesting when they have something to say,” Figueroa said. “Sports are able to communicate cultural values and reflect back on people. And a lot of people care more about the storylines within sports than maybe the actual competition.

‘Kind of boring’

“It’s kind of boring to want to separate sports and politics. It’s far more interesting when they’re together, and we can unpack all the nuances we see.”

That’s a perspective that comes up with some frequency in the courses he teaches, especially Sports, Media and Society, where students will ask about the cultural issues that play out in sport, especially when it comes to how they’re covered by the media. Figueroa asks students to study, for example, the rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics that dominated the NBA in the 1980s, as well as how the Kansas City Chiefs have gone from hero to villain amid the team’s success.

“In Lakers-Celtics, you had a team from LA and a team from Boston, playing two styles that were different from each other. So, it was not just two teams competing against each other, it was two ideas of America competing against each other,” he said. “I think that greater cultural reflection was what brought so many people to the television set to watch them.”

The Chiefs, meanwhile, are a villain story like any other—they’re so good that the league and officials must be rigging the game to help them win. And despite this one being debunked, “I told my class that sports cultivate myths,” Figueroa said. “Myths are more powerful if they feel real—they don’t need to have been drawn from reality or truth.”

Heroic values, but a villain

Ever Figueroa

What about when the game is scripted? One of Figueroa’s research interests is pro wrestling, which offers a nuanced, complex assessment of societal and political issues in its character development. A recent paper published in Communication & Sport examined World Wrestling Entertainment performer Daniel Bryan, who was the league’s champion from November 2018 through the following April.

Bryan’s character, Figueroa said, was that of an eco-friendly environmentalist who railed against greed, consumerism, capitalism, climate change and animal cruelty—which would seem to make him a champion of a lot of values gaining traction in the United States. But, in fact, he plays a heel—wrestling parlance for an antagonist.

“The reason he worked as a villain is because he violates neoliberal meritocracy. He cheats to win the title and to retain the belt,” Figueroa said. “His character espouses these progressive values, but he’s violating the rules of competition. So it becomes bad to be anti-capitalist, or an environmentalist, because it’s attached to his actions as a wrestler who cheats.”

The paper also looked at the case of Kofi Kingston, a Black wrestler who succeeded Bryan as champion. Both Bryan and then-chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said Kingston was a B-level wrestler “who failed to take the opportunities given to him by WWE’s free market—a common tactic used to discriminate against people of color,” Figueroa said.

“One of the big concepts in our paper was this idea of using neoliberalism and colorblind ideology in tandem to gaslight a Black man who had legitimate grievances that he was being discriminated against because of his race, in order to not make that political subtext visible to the audience.”

Pro wrestling, Figueroa said, is understudied by researchers, which may help explain why certain tropes around the sport—like having a rabidly right-leaning fanbase or repeating the same formulaic story arcs—have persisted. In fact, fans of a competing wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling, started the anti-ICE chants that have become viral moments at its recent matches. AEW storylines also touch on progressive themes that eschew toxic masculinity.

“For decades, WWE has been really effectively appropriating contemporary political moments,” Figueroa said. “I use wrestling as an example to show how political sports really are—the narratives, the construction of heroes and villains, and so on. Those are all things we respond to as a culture and society.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A CMDI expert says without cultural and societal context—which includes politics—sports would be “kind of boring.”

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Nextdoor labor

Joe Arney — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 16:55:45 +0000

Nextdoor labor Joe Arney Mon, 02/23/2026 - 09:55

Joe Arney

If your window to the outdoor world is Nextdoor, you might believe your neighborhood is awash in porch pirates, pooch poop, poor drivers and problematic people.

But as more municipalities find themselves without local journalism outlets, your neighbors might be the best source of community news that you have—which is dangerous, said researchers at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information at �� Boulder.

“You could say Nextdoor is increasingly serving a need that has been historically served by local news outlets that don’t exist anymore,” said Toby Hopp, an associate professor in the advertising, public relations and design department. “But Nextdoor’s business model is built around retaining audience attention and serving advertisements—it isn’t linked to journalistic norms like balance, fairness and verified reporting.”

In a new paper in New Media & Society, Hopp and Patrick Ferrucci, professor of journalism, found Nextdoor users are more concerned about crime—and more likely to support aggressive policing tactics, even as Americans demonstrate against the methods employed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

The authors—which include Hunter (Reeves) Krajewski, a PhD student in APRD—expected Nextdoor users who were less trustful of their neighbors would be more concerned about crime, but in fact, it was the users with high levels of social trust who had that worry.

“Because those folks trust their neighbors, they’re more likely to take reports of crime seriously, which is associated with enhanced concern and an openness to more aggressive policing,” Hopp said.

Notably, the researchers’ survey did not establish a causal link between people concerned about crime and Nextdoor use, meaning they couldn’t determine whether users signed up for the service because they were fearful of crime. But their work is still illuminating as the national conversation remains fixated on immigration, incarceration and technology.

Losing the context

Major crime in metropolitan areas has been in decline since rising in the early part of the decade. But with neighbors venting every grievance on Nextdoor, “it maybe gives people the idea that stolen packages, or loitering, are far more prevalent, and they’re not put in the context of policing,” Ferrucci said.

A missing Amazon package is not the same as seeing ICE agents execute demonstrators or separate children from their parents. But when we lose the context of understanding crime beyond our block, it becomes easier to imagine that more aggressive law enforcement is an answer. Hopp said he was surprised by respondents’ willingness to consider ideas like stop and frisk, vehicle searches during routine traffic stops, and equipping police with military-grade weapons.

“Each of these questions presents real constitutional concerns,” he said. “And if you think about what you’re willing to accept in your community, are you more willing to support these kinds of things in other communities?”

It’s not just ICE tactics or Fourth Amendment questions that are in the news—it’s the data gathered by companies that sell digitized surveillance. That’s not Nextdoor’s model, but it’s not a leap to see how increased concerns about crime could lead to adoption of camera technologies like Ring or Flock.

A collaboration between the companies—announced in a Super Bowl ad—was called off amid backlash that the new feature would create a dragnet to allow police to search for suspects, immigrants and others, instead of just missing pets.

“I think we’re finding these kinds of services, generally speaking, can’t be trusted,” Ferrucci said. “And there’s no appetite from a regulatory body to intervene and protect consumers, who have been slowly giving away their privacy for decades.”

Hopp and Ferrucci bring different research specialties to the problem, which offers them broader insights on topics like these. That’s a core value of CMDI, which was created to equip students and faculty to seek opportunities in areas where different fields intersect—especially as traditional disciplinary boundaries fall in the workplace.

“I don’t know that it makes sense to silo people as journalism researchers, or advertising researchers, and so on, because all institutions are producing and distributing information in a variety of ways,” Hopp said. “To parcel that off as just journalism, or just advertising, or just public relations, becomes increasingly difficult.

“We need to understand that we are researchers of the media—whatever the media might be at any given moment.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

Does using Nextdoor make you more likely to support aggressive policing tactics? A new paper from two CMDI experts sheds interesting light on the platform.

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Schoolyards rock!

Hannah Stewart — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 20:02:19 +0000

Schoolyards rock! Hannah Stewart Mon, 02/16/2026 - 13:02

Hannah Stewart

When it comes to recess, kids from kindergarten to high school want a space to be creative, use their imagination and connect with friends. But what are the best ways to facilitate that?

For 15 landscape architecture students at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, this challenge was a chance to use their own imaginations to design outdoor recreation spaces at two Boulder schools.

“We really let it be guided by the students and their interests, and then determined what would be realistic to actually create from that,” said Anastasia Neznamova, a junior studying landscape architecture.

The studio course, Green Schoolyards, first launched in 2020 under Emily Greenwood, an associate teaching professor in the environmental design department. In that time, students have partnered with 18 schools on redesign plans.

Really successful landscapes are storytelling.”

Emily Greenwood

“Schoolyards are accidentally set aside as open space, and are full of opportunity. When we're creating learning spaces and ecological services, future generations benefit from that work,” Greenwood said.

She has worked with as many as six schools in one semester, but this year, the studio partnered with two Boulder schools. A teacher at New Vista High School, which recently underwent a massive renovation, is leading a regenerative agriculture program; he and Greenwood were part of a group that decided a collaboration would be a natural next step in the school’s redesign.

Horizons K-8 School, meanwhile, had worked with environmental design students on a nature play area more than a decade ago. This time, they hope to redevelop three separate areas around the campus with nature play opportunities in mind.

“There’s an ongoing effort to create spaces at schools that are sustainable, that really take into consideration a child’s relationship with nature and the ways children play,” said Kristin Hauger, assistant head of school at Horizons. “I love the fact that our students got a chance to work with the �� students, and that they got a chance to come and do some real life, hands-on work in a place where we’re committed to doing these kinds of things.”

It was important for the landscape architecture students to get face time with the students they were designing for. In addition to site visits, they went back to the schools mid-term to present their initial proposals for their schoolyard designs. Photos by Jack Moody (StratComm'25)

Getting their hands dirty

As part of the studio, environmental design students learned from landscape architecture professionals and even went on field trips to local parks and schoolyards that already had elements of nature play, as opposed to those set up around prefabricated equipment.

Most importantly, however, they worked directly with their clients.

Over the course of the semester, the environmental design students met their younger counterparts multiple times to get a sense of what they wanted from the designs. One 9-year-old from Horizons, Gretchen, said she wanted to see more nature, “and maybe a water feature.”

Initially hesitant, the high schoolers at New Vista eventually became more engaged once they were encouraged to think outside the box.

“One wild idea was to have a zip line,” Neznamova said, laughing. “Once they were envisioning the space, they got excited. We had to consider what the community told us, then think about how to make something that excites people. That’s the story we’re able to tell through the designs.”

“Working with the Horizon kids was a really cool opportunity to get more imaginative ideas and more creativity for our designs,” said Maddie Veasey, another junior studying landscape architecture.

Presenting new possibilities

After presenting to the schools in late October, the environmental design students had about a month to refine their designs ahead of their final presentations to professionals, including city employees and others in the engineering and architecture industries and get back to the schools to present the design.

Some groups dug in deeper to their designs, like one Horizons group tasked with reenvisioning the field behind the school. They focused their design on "traditional ecological knowledge" and cultivating not only plants, but also community and stewardship of the land.

“We wanted to tell the story of the land: what has been done to it, and what we can do now,” said team member Dylan Dodds, a senior studying landscape architecture. “This project is a story about remembering, reconciling and moving forward with all of this 'traditional ecological knowledge,' the stewardship, these land practices in a way that benefits the environment.”

Community was a key topic for many of the groups, as was honoring the various sites’ history. Dodds’ group at Horizons leaned into both the school’s historical relationship with anthropologist Jane Goodall, who visited Horizons in 2015, as well as the ecological knowledge that can be learned from Indigenous communities.

“We talked about cultivating plants and cultivating stewardship, but we also want to cultivate community and activity,” said junior Ella Seevers, Dodds’ team member. “Part of our concept is tying in that modern use and activity with our other values.”

The students’ thoroughness and thoughtfulness stood out to the professionals at the presentation.

Civil engineer and landscape architect Soozy Zerbe said she was especially impressed by the way the students’ research became part of the story. “That’s one of the most important things as a designer: digging that history up and telling the true story, not just telling the story you want to tell,” said Zerbe, an engineer designer with Alta Planning and Design, of Denver.

The college’s work with New Vista is continuing, with Greenwood and a group of her students collaborating with New Vista on a food cart design-build for its regenerative agriculture program. Hauger said that the Horizon School’s council is enthusiastic about expanding nature play around their campus, and will have to discuss the logistical next steps.

“Our students have the ability to empathize and really understand what kids just one generation below them are really looking for,” Greenwood said. “Really successful landscapes are storytelling. It’s so easy to design literally, but if there’s a thread that binds those elements together, then it’s a stronger design.”

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

Photos by Jack Moody (StratComm'25)

To reimagine play spaces for young students, two Boulder schools enlisted CMDI’s expertise in redesigning their schoolyards.

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Snow news day: The challenge of climate reporting as newsrooms cut back

Joe Arney — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:06:34 +0000

Snow news day: The challenge of climate reporting as newsrooms cut back Joe Arney Wed, 02/11/2026 - 12:06

Joe Arney

The Flatirons, in Boulder, during a more typical winter. CMDI’s Water Desk has been fielding calls throughout the winter drought from resource-starved reporters looking for help covering a warm, extremely dry season. Photo by Joe Arney.

Call it the winter of our discontent: With just 23 inches of snow accumulation since November, Boulder—and Colorado as a whole—is enduring one of the driest winters on record.

And as parts of Colorado and the American West start to look more like deserts, they’re becoming news deserts, as well. Cuts, closures and consolidations are shuttering newsrooms and robbing reporters of resources, making it harder to ensure the public is getting trustworthy, verified information about the scope of this crisis.

It’s a challenge Luke Runyon sees daily as co-director of The Water Desk.

Luke Runyon

“It’s been an extremely dry and extremely warm winter for the southern Rocky Mountains—really, for much of the West,” said Runyon, whose work with a local NPR station won a prestigious Murrow Award in 2024.

“What I’d love to see more of is reporters going into the field and talking to the people on the ground who have to make tough decisions because of a lack of water. But I understand why that doesn’t happen—it’s more expensive to do that kind of reporting, to find the characters who tell that story.”

It’s not that you can’t watch the local news to see reports of just how dry the weather has been. But resource-starved newsrooms have to make hard editorial decisions about which in-depth stories to pursue, and Runyon said environmental reporting struggles to compete with other beats—so it’s often scaled back.

We ignore water coverage at our own peril, Runyon said, especially as climate change stresses ecosystems, upends established norms and ushers in more brutal fire seasons.

“The reason snow gets so much coverage in the winter is because it has all these domino effects that are felt through the rest of the year.”

Luke Runyon, co-director, The Water Desk

“Access to water is the issue affecting the modern West, one that underlies almost every major question we’re talking about,” he said. “It pops up in housing, agriculture and our ability to feed ourselves, recreation and the broader environment. If we’re not talking about water, we’re missing a huge piece of what it means to live in the west.”

Beyond just financial support

At The Water Desk, Runyon works directly with the journalists trying to tell those stories. Its work has evolved as the needs of journalists have changed. The team used to exclusively provide financial support through small grants; today, it also offers assistance with data visualization and mapping on big stories, even direct editing support from Runyon, who’s covered Colorado River issues for nearly a decade. The Water Desk, which is housed out of the Center for Environmental Journalism at �� Boulder’s College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, also contributes original reporting on timely issues.

That’s important because while there are good reporters covering water issues, it’s been a hard time to be a journalist—especially one covering a highly complex issue like water, “because it isn’t easy to understand the crazy infrastructure, the complicated legal mechanisms in place to manage water,” he said.

A major story right now that is getting national attention is the need for an updated management proposal for the Colorado River, which supplies water to seven Western U.S. states and Mexico. The states, which disagree on how to manage a shrinking supply of water, missed a fall deadline to submit a plan to the federal government; the new deadline is Saturday.

“The timing of this very dry year comes at a critical moment for the river itself,” Runyon said. “I think you’ll see more being written on this leading up to the 14th.”

Most of the stories Runyon is fielding calls about right now concern poor skiing conditions and the economic impact on resorts and mountain towns. He expects the cycle to turn to agriculture in the spring—especially how farmers will adjust plantings in the face of shortages—and to recreation and ecology in the summer.

“The reason snow gets so much coverage in the winter is because it has all these domino effects that are felt through the rest of the year,” Runyon said.

Finding ways to help a dwindling cast of media to tell deeper and more impactful stories remains his greatest challenge, but Runyon does see opportunities for people looking to break into journalism, especially as new platforms allow reporters to offer their audience deep dives on important topics like climate and water.

“There are a lot of cool, innovative startups out there,” he said. “And there is a much broader definition of who gets to call themselves a journalist. You can be an expert with a Substack newsletter, and you’re basically running your own small business. Hopefully, there’s more of that to come.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

CMDI’s Water Desk has expanded the services it offers to resource-starved reporters who need help covering complex stories around the Colorado River and climate change.

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Heated Rivalry is melting the ice—and tropes around sexuality and sports

Joe Arney — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 19:33:14 +0000

Heated Rivalry is melting the ice—and tropes around sexuality and sports Joe Arney Thu, 02/05/2026 - 12:33

Iris Serrano

A CMDI professor praised Heated Rivalry for its willingness to defy the tropes associated with gay male characters, especially in a professional sports setting. Photo courtesy HBO.

Weeks after the release of its season finale, audiences are still going wild for Heated Rivalry. And while fans have been closely tracking the on-screen romance between the two leads—professional hockey players on opposing teams—Jamie Skerski is watching that relationship from a more critical perspective.

Skerski, who studies how narratives are shaped and mediated by institutions, audiences and cultural norms, said the show’s popularity points to “the complete lack of nuanced gay representation” in mass media.

“The show defies the stereotypical ‘gay man as feminine sidekick’ trope, and depicts masculinity as simultaneously strong/athletic and vulnerable,” said Skerski, teaching professor of communication at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

While queer representation is more visible in the media than ever, Skerski said the show’s popularity points to what’s missing in that changing conversation. Of particular note, she said, is its setting against the hypermasculine culture of professional sports.

“The series destroys the logic of the hegemonic masculinity that says a real man is masculine, strong and heterosexual,” she said. “Here, we have strong, successful men who are clearly masculine despite their sexuality.”

A hot storyline ahead of Olympics

Jamie Skerski, right, says her students understand that representation in mass media is important—but so is the quality of what’s portrayed. Photo by Kimberly Coffin.

The story focuses on two professional hockey players on opposing teams whose relationship appears like a rivalry to fans, but is much more intimate behind closed doors. The show has generated fan edits on social media, its stars were chosen to be torch bearers for the 2026 Winter Olympics and NHL teams are selling merchandise featuring the characters.

While Heated Rivalry is upending traditional portrayals of masculinity, the show is doing so against one of the last places where homophobia is seen as acceptable—in the locker rooms and on the fields. Despite there being many women in major sports who have come out, the audience finds it intriguing to see a different narrative.

“Representation that falls into tired tropes and stereotypes doesn’t do anything to challenge the underlying value systems that benefit from the perpetuation of those stereotypes.”

Jamie Skerski, teaching professor, communication

Something Skerski especially appreciated about the series is how it portrayed coming out as a complex process, instead of a linear one. Over the course of the show, both male leads struggle to come out over fears of ruining their careers and public images. Still, they are visibly tired of keeping up the facade.

“The nuance and thoughtfulness of that story arc are quite impressive,” she said. “The characters are in a constant state of managing identity, relationships and disclosure. The series portrays that tension with care and tenderness.”

The conversations about the show have even been had in the classroom, where students are thinking about thoughtful storytelling in the media.

The story, and popularity, of Heated Rivalry have come up in the conversations Skerski leads in her Communication, Culture and Sport class, which challenges students to think critically about the communicative, historical and cultural aspects of sports society, including the intersections of power, gender and sexuality, race, and class.

“Students generally understand that representation matters—but this is a good lesson on the quality of that representation,” Skerski said. “Representation that falls into tired tropes and stereotypes doesn’t do anything to challenge the underlying value systems that benefit from the perpetuation of those stereotypes.”

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

The hit HBO show has captivated audiences by challenging traditional tropes often seen in mass media.

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Playbook for a winning Super Bowl ad: Embrace risk, seek emotion

Joe Arney — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:19:23 +0000

Playbook for a winning Super Bowl ad: Embrace risk, seek emotion Joe Arney Fri, 01/30/2026 - 09:19

Ryan Huff

On Super Bowl Sunday, playing it safe is a guaranteed fumble.

At least when it comes to the commercials.

Courtesy Coca-Cola

“If you show up at the Super Bowl and your ad is just OK and nobody talks about you, you've wasted millions of dollars,” said Jeff Gillette, an assistant teaching professor of advertising at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “If people are divided about whether they love you or hate you and they're talking about you, that's a big win.”

Gillette, a former creative director with 20 years in the advertising business, knows how nerve-wracking it can be to view the commercials and hope for the best as public reaction unfolds. He helped create Coca-Cola spots for six Super Bowls at renowned ad agency Wieden+Kennedy.

Coke’s 2014 Super Bowl ad was particularly memorable for Gillette. The 60-second spot featured young American women signing “America the Beautiful” in a blend of English and their native tongues—including Hebrew, Spanish and a Native American dialect—to celebrate the nation’s diversity.

The scrutiny started immediately, with the ad content debated for days on Facebook feeds and morning news shows.

“We told the Coca-Cola marketing team beforehand, ‘You are going to get backlash, and we need you to back it up,’” Gillette said. And in doing so, they were rewarded: “After it aired, they saw a dip in consumer sentiment for maybe a minute, but then it spiked afterward. There were significantly more people who defended that spot than tried to tear it down.”

Jeff Gillette

Gillette is now co-director of the strategic communication design master’s program, popularly known as The Brand Studios. As he tells his students, airing Super Bowl commercials isn’t for every client. To ensure that today’s going rate of $8 million for 30 seconds of airtime is money well-spent, companies need to have broad appeal to the 125 million people watching.

“If you're in a space that has a lot of competition—like beer, soda, cars—it’s a great opportunity,” he said. “The purpose of Super Bowl marketing is for an established company to persuade you with brand affection and brand emotion. It works when it’s either funny or pulls on your emotional heart strings. It needs to be big and bold, and not trying to sell you something. It’s about communicating on an emotional level.”

Gillette has also seen plenty of flops in his day, too. One that sticks out for him was Mountain Dew’s “Puppy Monkey Baby” campaign during the Denver Broncos’ win in 2016. The spot features a diaper-clad, pug-faced, dancing monkey handing out beverages to three young men on a couch.

“Somebody brainstormed that puppies, monkeys and babies all do well for the Super Bowl. So, what if we mixed them all together?” Gillette said. “You want to be out there and memorable. But you can't just be weird without any kind of a message. Even though some people liked the ad, it didn’t connect with me emotionally.”

Others, though, did make the connection—some critics called it that year’s best ad while others labeled it the worst, creating the divisive buzz Gillette said can lead to consumer attention.

While some companies’ ad concepts only get one Super Bowl in the spotlight, others continue to feature their stable of mainstays. Budweiser has their Clydesdales. Doritos loves user-generated content. And Coca-Cola’s polar bears—icons that began with 1920s French print ads—made a comeback during the 2012 Super Bowl.

Gillette and fellow creative director Hal Curtis dreamed up a fresh angle for those fluffy carnivores beyond the standard in-game advertisement. Would the audience watch a livestream of the bears watching the game?

The creative team used Xbox controllers—this was 2012, after all—to puppet the computer-generated imagery with prepared actions. This enabled the bears—one a Patriots fan, the other a Giants fan—to react with cheers and disgust to the game, halftime show and commercials in real time.

The risk paid off. Nine million people tuned in on phones and laptops for an average of 28 minutes.

“You never get that length of time for somebody to engage with your brand,” Gillette said. “At no time were we like, ‘Hey, go have a Coca-Cola.’ It wasn’t a hard pitch. It was just a brand experience that people seemed to like, because people love the polar bears.”

And apparently, on the eve of this year’s Super Bowl, Pepsi now loves the polar bears, too. More than a week before the big game, Pepsi rolled out a playful twist where a polar bear unexpectedly prefers Pepsi over Coke in a blind taste test of its zero-sugar sodas.

Game on. What’s Coke’s next play?

“If I were Coke, I’d ignore it and concentrate on making better advertising,” Gillette said. “What they shouldn't do is react. If they do, Pepsi gets what they were after: some much-needed attention as the No. 2.

“I don’t blame them, though. Pepsi has always been the challenger brand—and when you’re in that spot, you got to poke, you know, the bear.”

Ryan Huff is the assistant dean of communications and engagement at CMDI.

An advertising professor who’s produced Super spots for Coca-Cola shares what makes a commercial memorable during the big game.

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Announcing the fall 2025 dean's list

Ellie Chase — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 22:57:57 +0000

Announcing the fall 2025 dean's list Ellie Chase Wed, 01/28/2026 - 15:57

More than 800 CMDI students were named to the dean's list for the fall semester. To qualify, students must complete at least 12 credit hours of �� Boulder coursework for a letter grade and achieve a term grade point average of 3.75 or better. Each receives a notation on their transcripts and a letter from the dean. Congratulations to all honorees!

Alejandro Abarca
Matt Abatangle
Saroon Abayenh
Marlo Abrahamson
Shea Ackman
Emilio Adams
Phillip Adams
Tassilo Adams
Quinn Ahrens
Lucy Alagna
Maria Alali
Rosie Aldridge
Caitlin Alexander
Kenzi Alipit
Sophie Allaway
Anthony Allen
Trinity Alvord
Saleh Alzamil
Alexandra Anaya
Bridgette Anderson
Molly Anderson
Lila Angelopoulos
Sierra Anguiano
Jaxon Archer
Mia Archuleta
Jazmin Armijo
Remy Arnold
Sydney Arnold
Natasha Arzt
Kaylee Austin
Niles Ayer
Ben Babson
Roxanne Bachana
Alexia Bailey
Owen Balboa
Austin Balconi
Tyler Bales
Cadyn Banerian
Jose Banuelos
Katie Barcroft
Evan Bardinelli
Caleigh Barletta
Julia Barlow
Thomas Barrett
Marina Barretto
Tomas Barrientos
Maddy Barth
Owen Barton
Kate Bashore
Mekdes Bass
Ellena Bassoukos
Leah Baumann
Klaire Bautz
Katie Baxter
Juliana Beans
Lily Becker
Savy Behr
Johnna Belveal
Jane Bengston
Tess Betman
Eliot Bevier Dill
Charlie Bickham
Jack Bigelow
Ezra Billig
Teagan Bischoff
Korinne Bishop
Katie Bixler
Mary Black
Miley Black
Kenna Blank
Sam Blatt
Miranda Bleau
Riley Blomstrand
Sophia Bobier
Sophia Bolich
Piper Bolin
Anvitha Bompalli
Matthew Boothroyd
Carmen Boyle
Reed Bracero
Anna Bradburn
Norah Brady
Kate Branscomb
Antonio Bravo
Elizabeth Brechtel
Olivia Brehm
Keeley Brei
Hannah Brennan
Adeline Briggs
Erin Brinkman
Jack Bronchetti
Elly Brooks
Mia Brosterhous
Samantha Brouhard
Addison Brower
Olivia Brown
Chase Browne
Lili Brownell
Callie Browning
Emma Browning
Eva Bruce
Tessa Buchanan
Tyler Buchanan
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Connor Chase
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Daniel Sher
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Zoe Showalter-Flowers
Rainna Shrull
Aaron Siegel
Matthew Silver
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Ella Skoloda
Mac Skudlarczyk
Cj Slattery
Moe Slintak
Marie Slotnick
Ella Smith
Matthew Smith
Ryan Smith
Jack Snyder
Eli Sobel
Edgar Soberon Munoz
Sevi Solari
Ewan Sookswat
Noel Sookswat
Madelyn Speights
Sophia Spheeris
Simon Spillane
Matthew Spivack
Samantha Spiwak
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Kaeden Stander
Brady Stark
Kate Starke
Ashlin Stasswender Swasey
Trent Steffen
Alexander Stein
Zachary Steiner
Evan Stellino
Cole Stephan
Ariele Stern
Sarah Stern
Samuel Stevens
Jordyn Stewart
Braden Stirrett
Stella Stone
Anna Stout
Mary Strasser
Ava Strauss
Xander Sucich
Elizabeth Suffian
Luke Suitts
Lucy Suja
Aoife Sullivan
Clara Sullivan
Olivia Sullivan
Taylor Sutton
Dennis Swanson
Jackson Swartzendruber
Leah Szabo
Willow Tachna
Harper Tagg
Emi Takaoka
Nano Takeda
Mira Talusani
Sophia Tambascio
Jack Tannenbaum
Annie Tanner
Natalie Tapia
Raquel Tapia
Tyler Tatman
Hailey Taylor
Sarah Taylor
Skylar Taylor
Cecelia Tecu
Jordan Teicher
Josie Terry-Lloyd
Annabelle Thomas
Sage Thompson
Channing Thomson
Sol Tirado - Jensen
Brooks Tolany
Grace Toomey
Zohair Toor
Annabelle Torgove
Clio Torrance
Alexa Tovar
Hendley Tracy
Eduardo Trejo Trinidad
Carly Tremaine
Ricky Tuka
Jazzy Tung
Audrey Turley
Braden Turner
Caroline Valdes
Christian Valentino
Ann Vanderveen
Maya Vanvleet
Celia Vargas
Maddie Veasey
Sydney Venetsanopoulos
Bella Vetta
Holden Vincent
Andrew Vogt
Saanvi Vookanti
August Vrielink
Fiona Wachter
Ashtyn Waddle
Chloe Walsh
Catherine Ward
Lauren Ward
Kieran Warger
Evie Warner
Kadyn Warner
Valerie Warszawski
Ryder Watkins
Kylee Watrous
Leila Watters
Liam Watters
Jordan Watts
Greta Wattson
Taylor Weatherwax
Jenna Weil
Kennedy Weiss
Erin Wheeler
Kennah White
Ella Whittall
Abigail Williams
Jackson Williams
Ranney Willis
Piper Wills
Holly Wininger
Emma Winkelbauer
Amanda Winslow
Mia Winstead
Trent Wobschall
Zachary Woodbury
Alexandra Woodland
Lily Wright
Owen Wright
Jackie Wynne
Maggie Yalmokas
Gabrielle Yates
Savannah Yates
Nate Yearous
Hannah Young
Elsie Zerega
Emily Zhou
Matt Zimmermann

More than 800 CMDI students were named to the dean's list for the fall semester.

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When retreat trumps the rise of global free markets

Joe Arney — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 19:34:07 +0000

When retreat trumps the rise of global free markets Joe Arney Wed, 01/28/2026 - 12:34

Joe Arney

For Colette Perold, seeing an imperial power throw its weight around in Latin America isn’t news—she’s an expert on how multinational IT companies have exerted influence in this part of the world.

What she finds curious about Donald Trump’s approach to diplomacy is how out of step it is with the desires of many businesses.

Colette Perold

While the interests of the state and corporations don’t always align, “what’s fascinating about the second Trump administration is that much of its foreign policy appears to undermine the liberalized overseas markets that allowed U.S.-based multinationals to become dominant,” she said. “For that to be replaced by this scattershot, unpredictable type of foreign policy execution is new terrain for them.”

Perold, an assistant professor of media studies at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information, researches the relationship between media technologies, labor and foreign policy. It’s work she became interested in following her work as a labor organizer and an editor for NACLA Report on the Americas, a quarterly journal on Latin American politics and social movements.

In her best-known work, Perold traces IBM’s investment in Brazil—the company was a dominant force in the country from the 1930s into the late 1970s, and was effectively a monopoly in the region for decades—including how the company contended with, and overcame, labor movements and domestic pressure for economic autonomy. That research is the subject of a forthcoming book, which was supported by the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.

The rise of IBM

IBM’s priorities largely reflected those of the U.S. government, which was eager to build a liberal international order as it expanded its influence and economic might in the post-World War II era. By kidnapping a foreign head of state and exhorting American oil companies to reinvest in Venezuela, Trump has signaled a return to a time when the nation’s interests were less global in scope.

How we got here

Seeing the Monroe Doctrine in the headlines was probably the first time most Americans thought of it since high-school history class. The doctrine was an early foreign policy declaration that established the United States’ opposition to European intervention in the hemisphere.

In reasserting the Monroe Doctrine, Donald Trump is returning to a period when U.S. intervention in Latin America was not just the practice, but the stated policy. That changed in the Good Neighbor days, but during the Cold War, the United States reasserted its interventionism in Latin America.

The 1990s marked a return to economics as the primary form of domination; today, “it looks like military intervention and other forms of ‘extra-economic’ coercion are becoming both practice and stated policy again,” Colette Perold said.

When Franklin Roosevelt introduced the Good Neighbor Policy, committing the United States to nonintervention in Latin American affairs, “that became the starting point for building a liberal hemispheric and international trade order, to remove barriers to trade and open markets,” Perold said. “Trump is retreating from all of that through his ‘America First’ diplomacy.”

IBM, she said, is a perfect example of how companies benefited from that liberal order. When the company arrived in Brazil in 1917, the tech industry looked nothing like it does today, but as it went from tabulating machines to mainframe computers, IBM was increasingly able to benefit from changing legal obligations, new regulations and shifts in labor markets.

“My interest here is understanding the technological changes alongside the political and economic changes, and how those feed each other,” she said. “By looking at these different players—the IT companies, the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, labor—we can understand, strategically, how we got to where we are today.”

The United States’ decades of commitment to that international order allowed it to stifle political movements in Latin America, most visibly to the benefit of companies like United Fruit, or industries like mining, Perold said. “But while no one really thinks about the unbelievable amount of political power IBM exerted in Brazil, it was very much part of building a liberal international order from the 1930s until its influence started to wane in the late 1970s.”

Signals in foreign policy noise

In examining the White House’s national security strategy, released late last year, she has found some potential signals in Trump’s noisy foreign policy execution.

“It seems like a lot of this strategy is motivated by the last two decades of increasing Chinese investment in Latin America,” she said. U.S. strategy, she said, is about expelling foreign powers, including a return to military force. China, Perold added, “is the subtext throughout the section of the document on the Western Hemisphere.”

“From the Trump administration’s perspective, the liberal trade order that gave us the rise of China is what’s hurting U.S. interests in Latin America. In other words, liberal internationalism was working for American interests in Latin America until it wasn’t—so now, our foreign policy is to directly dominate a sphere of influence, rather than manage it through markets.”

“By looking at these different players—the IT companies, the U.S. foreign policy apparatus, labor—we can understand, strategically, how we got to where we are today.”

Colette Perold, assistant professor, media studies

One of her favorite things about teaching this research, Perold said, is that few students are aware of the history at a time of both fast-moving foreign policy and rapid change driven by the tech industry. When she teaches students about the rise of Japan as a semiconductor giant in the 1980s, many are surprised to see, in U.S. media, the same language and signals aimed at China today.

“Two of the most influential of the so-called Atari Democrats,” who guided their party from organized labor to the largely nonunion information economy, “were senators from Colorado, and we have their papers right here at Norlin Library,” she said. “So, my students were looking at these documents about the supposed threat of Japan—and the real threats to organized labor—and going, wow, this is so similar to how politicians talk about China today.

“The beauty of teaching history classes about media and computing is seeing students get that shock, that this isn’t all new. It’s such a cool experience to watch them recognize that there is precedence to the cultural and technological phenomena they are steeped in every day.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

A historian and labor expert says companies like IBM typified how the U.S. dominated the post-World War II global order. Trump’s retreat from that stage “undermines the free markets corporations want.”

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Want to keep your news local? It’s up to viewers like you

Joe Arney — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 17:27:11 +0000

Want to keep your news local? It’s up to viewers like you Joe Arney Tue, 01/20/2026 - 10:27

Joe Arney

Denver’s news landscape has been abuzz with the potential takeover of existing stations by Nexstar and Sinclair. An expert on local journalism says the laissez faire attitude of regulators means it’s up to viewers to make their voices heard on station content.

Last year, Denver’s broadcast news market was shaken as Nexstar and Sinclair—the two largest owners of television stations in the country—made moves to enter Colorado by acquiring the parent companies of 9News and Denver7.

Neither is yet a done deal. The Federal Communications Commission would have to approve the sale of Tegna, which owns 9News, to Nexstar; meanwhile, Denver7 owner Scripps rejected Sinclair’s takeover bid late last month. But relying on regulators or corporations to protect Colorado journalism is a poor strategy, said an expert on local news.

“The community needs to step in—that’s the only thing that can prevent these economic and social missteps,” said Angelica Kalika (PhDMediaSt’19), an assistant teaching professor of journalism at the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information. “When the community says, ‘we’re not going to watch this kind of content, this isn’t what we want’—if you are profit driven, you should listen to your audience, right?”

For that audience, Kalika said, takeovers represent a case of less choice means less voice. Consolidations typically mean fewer reporters to provide local coverage, encouraging stations to carry more national content. And the conservatism championed by both Nexstar and Sinclair would not reflect the progressive attitudes of viewers in the Denver metro market, while also encouraging the formation of a news desert. Kalika, who studies hyper-local news, said when the same people and companies own all the outlets, it means fewer editorial voices to watch town halls, board meetings and other news that’s ignored by larger, national players.

“Look at 9News—it’s iconic, it has a very clear brand,” Kalika said. “Is the community going to stand up to the corporations and make their voice heard?”

It’s something that worked, she said, when the Walt Disney Co. pulled Jimmy Kimmel off the air “and people screamed.” Search traffic on how to cancel Disney+ spiked as influential voices condemned the decision to suspend Kimmel.

“And Disney responded right away, because at the end of the day, it’s about the money. If you find organized ways to uplift community voices while hurting someone’s bottom line, you can have more control over your local media.”

A history of consolidation

Angelica Kalika

That public pressure will be required to counter an FCC that has enthusiastically embraced deregulation—not just in journalism, but across media in general. Last month, an $83 billion bid by Netflix to acquire WB stunned a legacy media industry already reeling from the tech industry’s continued incursions into their business—first by converting cable customers into streaming subscribers, and more recently by acquiring reliable revenue-generating intellectual property; the James Bond franchise, for instance, was sold to Amazon for $20 million last winter. The WB deal, which features a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, is the latest in the trend toward consolidation, which has seen takeovers by Xfinity, Disney, Amazon and others.

“The big tech companies have their eyes on local media and entertainment, because ultimately their goal is control of information and access to information,” Kalika said. “It’s worth analyzing the minutia of these deals and the climate at the FCC because the more omnipresent tech becomes here, the more we end up in bubbles of information—where we don’t know what’s real.”

Kalika knows what she’s talking about. She teaches a popular CMDI course on media and technology and has published several papers on the fall of legacy media gatekeepers—especially through the lens of TMZ, which in its pursuit of scoops has sometimes crossed lines that journalists will not. A paper she presented at the National Communication Association’s annual convention looks at TMZ’s decision to publish photos of the body of One Direction singer Liam Payne after he fell to his death; editors then removed the post without explanation amid public outcry.

‘No more adults in the room’

“If you find organized ways to uplift community voices while hurting someone’s bottom line, you can have more control over your local media.”

Angelica Kalika (PhDMediaSt’19), assistant teaching professor, journalism

“We’ve lost the social rail guards of what media is legitimate and what is not, what is trustworthy and what is not,” she said. While Kalika said there are trusted, verified sources in social media, those standards aren’t as visible as they were when most Americans got their news from local newspapers and network television. So, it’s harder to detect mis- and disinformation—especially as the algorithms populating news feeds are focused on engagement.

“There are no more adults in the room,” she said. “Everyone is now fighting for attention. They didn’t have to before.”

With the adults out, the natural place to look is at the kids. Kalika said legacy media’s inability to create authentic content for Gen Z—or to nurture them as an audience, the way Viacom did through properties like Nickelodeon, MTV and VH1—is a troubling indicator for the future, especially as many turn to YouTube, TikTok and others for news and entertainment.

“I can’t predict what they’re going to do, but I know they’re aware and trying to make changes in real time to the media and political environment that’s being presented to them,” she said. “I think they are going to use their money and who they’re signing up for streaming in order to get their voice and values heard and reflected in brands.”

That kind of pressure is going to require news organizations to be creative in order to maintain and grow their local audiences—something we might see in Denver as threats of consolidation loom.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing some kind of profit-sharing business models, or people who provide direct financial support to a station in return for, say, a meet-and-greet event with reporters,” Kalika said. “I think we’re going to start seeing a growth in experimental business models.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.

An expert on local journalism says community pressure is key as consolidation changes Colorado’s media landscape—because when it comes to regulation, “there are no more adults in the room.”

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‘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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