How well does NPR incorporate history into its journalism?

October 23, 2025 | NPR Public Editor When journalists don’t have access to historical tools, and don’t have that impetus to go and check out things, they are presenting news that is really not informing the public. And nobody wants to do that. Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in […]

Media faculty, students present research at 2025 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication annual conference

August 19, 2025 Faculty and graduate students from the College of Media co-presented various topics of research at the 108th annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication on August 7-10, 2025, in San Francisco, California. This year’s conference theme was “Leading in Times of Momentous Change: Individual and Collective Opportunities.” Presenters […]

Our Elders’ Stories Bridge the Past to the Present. This Mother’s Day, Let’s Honor Them by Listening 

May 9, 2025 | Newsweek Stories of the past might be whitewashed, rewritten, or replaced in official spaces, but people’s consciousness of the past can’t be stripped away. Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism In this Newsweek opinion piece, Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June […]

Have newspaper political endorsements outlived their purpose?

November 1, 2024 | Lois Yoksoulian, University of Illinois News Bureau Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, is a journalism historian who studies news as an agent of democracy. University of Illinois News Bureau editor Lois Yoksoulian discussed the history and future of presidential endorsements with Garza in light of recent […]

There are lessons to learn from the news ghosts of journalism’s past

October 27, 2024 | Chicago Tribune As a female journalist of color with 22 years in the industry and now a professor of journalism, I believe that obliviousness to journalism’s trailblazers—both their errors and biases and their accomplishments and innovations—leaves the media professional in a state of historical amnesia. Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom […]

College of Media welcomes Fall 2024 with faculty promotions, new leadership roles, new faculty

August 23, 2024 This fall, seven faculty in the College of Media have been promoted, two faculty have taken on new leadership roles, and three new faculty have been hired. In the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, promotions include Chang-Dae Ham to full professor, Leona Su to associate professor with indefinite tenure, and Dionne Clifton and Marisa Peacock to senior lecturers. Two […]

A One-Man Telemundo on TikTok

July 18, 2024 | New York Times You’re seeing some of the same trends that we see in the English-speaking community, but they’re much more pronounced in the Latino community, especially the immigrant community. Melita Garza, Associate Professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June […]

Melita Garza wins 2024 essay contest sponsored by ‘Journalism History’

Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, won the 2024 essay contest sponsored by AEJMC’s Journalism History. The competition in Journalism History, the academic journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s history division, first began in 2018 and has featured essays around specific themes. This […]

Ebert Symposium 2023 to address documentary, violence, and the media

March 1, 2023 This year’s Chaz and Roger Ebert Symposium will feature a film screening, keynote speaker, and two roundtable discussions that address the theme of “Documentary, Violence, and the Media.” The events, which are free and open to the public, are presented by the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies. Chaz Ebert’s beloved grandson, Joseph London Smith, was […]

New professor Garza connects journalism history to the present

August 22, 2022 | Vivian La, Communications Intern Melita Garza, an award-winning journalist, media historian, and a new associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, sees a reporter as a detective investigating a larger story. And she’s most interested in the stories that haven’t been told. “The idea of trying […]

College of Media
119 Gregory Hall
810 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801
217-333-2350