April 6, 2026 The students were invited to an industry immersion program in New York on March 23-27, where they visited various agencies and brands, saw customized billboards of themselves displayed on Times Square, and networked with countless individuals at some of the top advertising, marketing, and media companies in the country. Before the conference, students […]
March 23, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood Now the executive creative director at the Los Angeles–based ad agency Special U.S., Burke most recently oversaw the 2026 Uber Eats Super Bowl campaign, bringing his total number of Super Bowl commercials created to 18. Although Burke didn’t originally set out to become a leader in Super Bowl advertising, […]
March 16, 2026 Jillian M. Báez (PhD ’09, communications and media, ICR), Diana Leon-Boys (PhD ’20, communications and media, ICR), and Institute of Communications Research Professor Emerita Angharad N. Valdivia (PhD ’91, communications and media, ICR) edited a collection that draws on the expanding field of girlhood studies to examine the increasing visibility of the event and the figure of […]
March 10, 2026 1. What first drew you to filmmaking and production, and how did that evolve into your current role today? My first real appreciation for film and filmmaking began when I was 13. My older siblings, Paulina and Orlando, took me to the theater to see Kill Bill, directed by Quentin Tarantino. I remember […]
March 6, 2026 Mukhopadhyaym will join seven faculty members and six other graduate students who will meet at the Humanities Research Institute throughout the year to address how they are rethinking research paradigms. The theme for this year’s Fellowship is “Up Against Erasure,” which invites researchers to persuade others of the stakes of identifying processes of erasure, of […]
March 6, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood Angela Aguayo, associate professor of media and cinema studies, created the Content Creation Lab to help young teens acquire media production skills. The pilot program, which will be held in new podcasting studios at Illinois Public Media, was awarded a grant from the College of Media and is supported […]
February 17, 2026 This event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media. Attendees may join the event in the Illini Union, Room B, 1401 W. Green, Urbana, or register to join via Zoom. The conversation […]
February 6, 2026 1. What is your current role at Peacock? Currently, I’m the director of web strategy on the growth go-to-market team here at Peacock. I’ve been at the company for six years now and have been one of the key acquisition and experimentation leaders who have helped launch and grow the business. Put […]
January 28, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood As a CAS Associate, Ng will take time off from teaching in Fall 2026 to advance her research on “platform migration,” focusing on how regulatory bans, algorithmic shifts, and geopolitical tensions drive user migration between social media platforms. She argues that these shifts are fueling digital nationalism and reshaping […]
January 22, 2026 | Giuliana Means, Communications Intern The registered student organization began in Spring 2024 to create a supportive space for both amateur and professional documentary filmmakers. They meet weekly in Gregory Hall to discuss and work on current projects, as well as host workshops to enhance their interviewing, filmmaking, and editing skills. “I […]