Eight is enough: CMDI piles up top paper awards at influential conference
After working as a journalist in Bangladesh for 17 years, Ershad Khan noticed a common theme that continued to drive his work as he entered academia.
Journalism’s most influential theories have been developed through a Western lens. And while these frameworks have shaped decades of research, Khan doesn’t believe they fully capture the reality of journalism in countries with different political systems, languages and cultural settings.
Now, the journalism PhD student in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information is working to broaden perspectives.
Journalism PhD student Ershad Khan, left, won a best student paper award for his work on how A.I. is reshaping the news outside of Western contexts, as well as a research award. Here, he poses with the award alongside Beverly Horvit, of the University of Missouri.
“There’s a tendency to interpret press systems outside of the West as authoritarian, but there are nuances and other factors researchers miss,” Khan said. “I want to make things more inclusive from my own experiences and from my own cultural proximity.”
His paper,Artificial Intelligence and the Journalistic Field: Reconfiguring Capital, Legitimacy and Professional Authority in Bangladesh,examined how artificial intelligence is reshaping journalism in Bangladesh and affecting the workflow of newsrooms and journalists’ perception of their work.
One of the study’s biggest findings was that A.I.’s effectiveness relies heavily on language. English-language news organizations in Bangladesh can more easily integrate A.I. tools because large language models have been trained extensively in English. A lack of training data in Bengali means native-language newsrooms struggle to integrate these tools.
“The language these tools generate in a local language is something similar to seventh graders’ standard when they want to give output for their readers,” Khan said. “So they need to heavily edit those outputs. That’s not efficient for their newsrooms.”
This work earned Khan a first-place student paper award from the international communication division at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, which took place earlier this month in New Orleans.
He was among dozens of CMDI students and faculty to be recognized, bringing home a total of eight top paper awards and contributing 47 peer-reviewed papers. Khan also won a student research grant award for his proposal,Overt and Covert Control: How Competitive Authoritarian Regimes Restrict Journalistic Autonomy. The study aims to understand state mechanisms for controlling the press in the Global South based on data collected from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Uganda.
Founded in 1912, AEJMC is the oldest and largest alliance of journalism and mass communication educators and administrators at the college level. Today, the nonprofit organization includes thousands of educators and students from around the globe.
“It is such an honor for the work of our faculty and students to earn recognition from a prestigious organization like AEJMC,” said Patrick Ferrucci, professor and chair of the journalism department at CMDI. “To see the incredible work coming out of all the schools who attend the conference, and to then watch so much of CMDI’s work be recognized, is incredibly humbling. It’s a testament to all the great work from faculty and grad students in journalism and APRD.”
Angie Chuang, an associate professor of journalism, also received recognition at the conference for her book,American Otherness in Journalism.She was presented with the Frank Luther/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award, given to the best book on journalism and mass communication based on original research. She was also a finalist for the Tankard Book Award.
Angie Chuang, left, with the Frank Luther/Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award she won for her book, American Otherness in Journalism. She is pictured with Raluca Cozma, outgoing Kappa Tau Alpha president and a professor of media and communication at Kansas State University.
Her book examines how the news has historically represented different communities and how political rhetoric has influenced who gets designated, as she said, “American with an asterisk.”
While writing the book, Chuang was surprised by just how quickly political landscapes and conversations about identity can change.
“How did we go from the summer of Black Lives Matter and really examining structural racism to banning DEI and questioning birthright citizenship in just a few years?” Chuang said. “When information is so fast-paced, and you have all of these new ways of communicating, things can change fast.”
Chuang said allowing peopleto limit what it means to be American will create a less-inclusive society. As the news industry evolves through social media, Substack, podcasts and other outlets, she said journalists have a greater responsibility to ensure voices are represented fairly.
“Whoever the news media is going to be, whether it’s traditional journalists or new media journalists, let’s remember what our values are,” Chuang said. “It’s not biased to say we would like to include all Americans’ voices in the news.”
Chuang’s work is defined by her experience working in the newsroom as a reporter, including coverage of issues related to race and ethnicity atThe Oregonian. She called the award especially meaningful because it comes from peers who have also worked in the industry.
“To have journalists-turned-academics say this is a book that feels real, and has potential use in a newsroom today—that is a really nice compliment,” Chuang said.
A full list of CMDI presentations at AEJMC follows. Names in bold are CMDI faculty and students. In addition, many CMCI faculty and students in the journalism, media studies, and advertising, public relations and design departments moderated or served on panels, or led workshops, in addition to serving as heads of different divisions.
Designing LLM Chatbots to Drive Webtoon Engagement: From Attention to Retention. Won-Ki Moon (University of Florida) andSangwook Lee (assistant professor, APRD).
Gatekeeping in Mobile Journalism: A Comparative Framework for Autonomous and Constrained Media Environments.Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).
Journalistic Authority as Epistemic Power: Framing and Ideology in Partisan News Talk.Manwar Hossain (PhD student, journalism).
Making Asynchronous as Synchronous as Possible: Designing an Isolated Website for Summer Semester Online Journalism Course Engagement.Carl Knauf (PhD student, journalism).
Realities, Challenges, and Hopes in Career Building Toward Academia, Communication, and Journalism:Insights from Faculty and Graduate Student Perspectives.Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).
The Professional Backstaging of LGBTQ+ Identity in Sports Journalism. Ashley Carter (assistant teaching professor, journalism).Top faculty paper, third place.
Journalistic Objectivity, Epistemic Contests, and American (U.S.) Journalism: Audience Metajournalistic Discourse in Post-George Floyd Racial Reckoning.Dennis Okeke (PhD student, journalism). Top student paper, first place.
I'm Worried ĢӰ Sexual Assault. I'm Worried ĢӰ Dying’: An Intersectional Analysis of How US Women Photojournalists Experience Occupational Safety Threats.Dinfin Mulupi (assistant professor, journalism).
Intersectional Analysis of Global Menstrual Leave News for Informal Labor. Shreyoshi Ghosh (PhD student, journalism).
Message Format and Influencer Roles in Sustainability Persuasion: Evidence for Format-Source Alignment in Climate Communication on Social Media. Vaibhav Diwanji (University of Kansas),Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism), Nhung Nguyen (University of South Alabama) and Nazra Izhar (University of Kansas).
We’re Leading the Transition: How Oil Companies Use Climate-Delay Discourses to Frame Their Responsibility on Social Media. Dien Luong (University of Michigan), (Frank) Hechen Ding (University of Kansas) andHong Vu (associate professor, journalism).
Assessing Relationships between Higher Education Institutions and the Public on Social Media: A Quantitative Content Analysis.Bachchu Shekh (PhD student, APRD).
Exploring How A.I. Technology Impacts Students’ Learning Outcomes and Self-Efficacy. Md Sazzad Hossain (University of Iowa), Shah Jahan Shuvo (University of Alabama),Bachchu Shekh (PhD student, APRD) and Jamil Marques (University of Iowa).
Vanishing Voices: Policy Failure and the Decline of Diaspora Journalism. Manwar Hossain(PhD student, journalism).Top student paper, first place.
At Least It Will Be 24 Hours Without Fake News’: A Thematic Analysis of Online Comments on Newsroom Strikes.Qiongye Chen (PhD student, journalism)andEver Figueroa (assistant professor, journalism).
Journalism at the Crossroads of Culture and Climate: Journalists and Indigenous Perspectives on Environmental Reporting. Shitemi Khamadi (University of Indiana) andDinfin Mulufi (assistant professor, journalism).
Navigating Hierarchies in Communication Journal Publishing: African Scholars’ Experiences and Strategies. Success Osayi (PhD student, journalism).
The Public Investment Fund and Saudi Sports Investment: Western Media and the Struggle for Legitimacy. Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism)andHuda Asiri (PhD student, journalism).
Racialized Stigma as Preoccupation or Site of Resistance: Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis of Mainstream and Chinese-Language News Media Coverage of the Atlanta Spa Shootings.Wen Lei (PhD student, journalism), Angie Chuang (associate professor, journalism) andShreyoshi Ghosh (PhD student, journalism).
Risk Without Recognition: Power, Labor and Safety in Global Conflict Reporting.Mushfique Wadud (PhD student, journalism).
Artificial Intelligence and the Journalistic Field: Reconfiguring Capital, Legitimacy and Professional Authority in Bangladesh.Ershad Khan (PhD student, journalism). Top student paper, first place.
Beyond the Threat-Efficacy Gap: A Longitudinal EPPM Analysis of Climate Journalism in Bangladesh Across Crisis Events (2020–2024).Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).
Climate Change Frame-setting on Audience Emotions and Engagement: A Comparative Study of Vietnam, the Philippines and Singapore’s News Media. Hong Vu (associate professor, journalism), Le Thanh Trieu (Vietnam National University), Thin Van Dang (Vietnam National University) and Tham Thi Nguyen (RMIT Vietnam).
Competing Threats, Competing Enemies: Gulf and Egyptian Elite Discourse, Blame Attribution, and the Politics of Meaning in the 2026 Gulf Escalation.Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).
Media Sources and Public Perceptions: Survey from High-Risk Areas in Peshawar.Hina Ali (PhD student, journalism).
Outward-Facing Legitimacy in Saudi English-Language News: Narrating Sport Diplomacy and Managing Sportswashing Critique After the FIFA 2034 Decision.Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).
Power, Profit and the Press: A Comparative Political Economy of Media Ownership and Advertising Influence in Pakistan and Bangladesh.Muhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism)andErshad Khan (PhD student, journalism).
Role Conceptions of Journalists and NGO Practitioners: Perspectives on Covering Humanitarian News in Crisis and Disaster Zones.Rania Al Namara (postdoctoral researcher, media studies).
Framing Dissent in South Asia: A Thematic and Discourse Analysis of Al Jazeera’s Coverage of Youth-Led Movements in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism) and Md. Sajedul Islam (Southern Mississippi).
Seeing and Not Seeing: Gen A.I., Professional Identity and Moral Perception Among Advertising Creatives.Jianhua Lu (PhD student, APRD). Top student paper, second place.
Paradigm Destruction: How Journalism Casually Contributes to Its Own Credibility Debacle:Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism).
Beyond the Headlines: Arab Students’ Perceived Social and Personal Effects of U.S. Press Coverage of Gaza.Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).
Introducing Racialized Metajournalistic Discourse: American Journalism and Racialized Violence in Digitized Metajournalistic Discursive Sites:Dennis Okeke (PhD student, journalism).
Disseminator or Advocate? Role-Toggling in Professional Practices Among Environmental Journalists.Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism) andHong Vu (associate professor, journalism).
Evaluating Texting as a Strategy for Audience Engagement: A Chicago Sun-Times Case Study.Meagan Doll (assistant professor, journalism) and Benjamin Toff (University of Minnesota).
Revisiting the Protest Paradigm: Thematic Framing and Protest Legitimacy Across Liberal and Semi-Authoritarian Media Systems.Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).
Telling The Story of a Newsroom: Organizational Narrative and The Field of Journalism.Patrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism).
Examining Volunteer-Newsroom Collaboration in Community Radio: A Case Study on Community Radio in the Boulder and Denver Areas.Rania Al Namara (postdoctoral researcher, media studies) andPatrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism). Top faculty paper, first place.
Disrupting the Profession: Participatory Journalism and the Audience Turn: Fahad Humayun (Ball State University) andMuhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism).
Framing Democracy After Authoritarianism: How Bangladesh’s Media Covers Established vs. Uprising-Born Parties in the 2026 Election.Mamunor Rashid (PhD student, journalism).
Qatar’s Mediation Role Under Pressure: Comparative Framing and Strategic Narratives in U.S. and Qatari Coverage of the 2025 Doha Strike.Mohammed Abu Alqas (PhD student, journalism).
Religion as a Connective Communicative Social Technology: A Theoretical Framework.Lorcan Neill (University of North Carolina), Daniel Kreiss (University of North Carolina) andJordan Morehouse (assistant professor, APRD).
Voices Unsilenced: A.I.-Generated Political Communication in Constrained Democracies.Muhammad Ali (PhD student, journalism) andHina Ali (PhD student, journalism).
To DEI or Not To DEI: A Multi-Source Analysis of Corporate Social Advocacy. Teresa Tackett (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville), Andrea Lorenz (Kent State University) andBridget Barrett (assistant professor, APRD). Top faculty paper, third place.
The Dialectical Tensions of Neoliberal Narratives and Field Logic in Public Relations AI Practices:Kyle Harris (PhD student, APRD).
Peripheral Mending at the Edges of Sports Journalism: Metajournalistic Discourse of the Terry Rozier Sports Gambling Scandal.Ever Figueroa (assistant professor, journalism)andPatrick Ferrucci (professor, journalism)
Violence, Suffering and Courage: Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographs, 2003 to 2025: Lisa Krantz (University of Missouri) andRoss Taylor (associate professor, journalism). Top faculty paper, third place.
Iris Serrano graduated from CMDI in 2026 with degrees in Journalism and Strategic Communication. She covers student news and events for the college.