Students participate in research symposium

Eighteen College of Media students participated in the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 21 at the Illini Union. Their work included both individual and team projects.

Three team projects came from a new undergraduate research course led by Advertising Professors Brittany Duff, Patrick Vargas and Kevin Wise. "Providing research experiences to undergraduate students is a vital part of the campus strategic plan,” said Wise. “These experiences transform not just students, but faculty as well. Hopefully we can build off of this momentum and accommodate more students in the future."

One project was the result of course led by Associate Professor of Journalism Eric Meyer. The class consisted of sophomores through graduate students from Journalism, Advertising, Communication and General Studies. “The class, based on advice gleaned from my visiting professorship in social media last summer at the "Dallas Morning News", was designed mainly to give students real-world practice in selecting, writing and formatting content for social media, then seeing how their strategies were received by an actual audience,” Meyer said.

"It was great to see multiple methods and ways of doing research represented among our students,” said Michelle Nelson, associate professor of advertising. “I was so impressed with the students' posters and their ability to articulate the research process and findings." 

Those involved included:

Content Contradictions: How Ad-content Congruity Affects Brand Favorability and Purchase Intention?
Nicolette Highland, Junior, Advertising, COM
Mitchell Kahl, Junior, Advertising, COM
Lauren Cowin, Sophomore, Advertising, COM
Natalie Ang, Sophomore, Advertising, COM

Call for a Systematic Review of Survey Methodologies: Open-Ended vs Close-Ended Research Questions in Analyzing Coursera Respondent Data
Emily Forbes, Junior, Sociology, LAS
Sandra Franco, Senior, Linguistics, LAS
Yixin Zou, Junior, Advertising, COM

The Disney Effect: Parents’ Ambivalence Toward Commercialization in Children’s Books
Simran Devidasani, Junior, Advertising, COM

How Message and Music Mood Affects Memorability in Advertising
Annie Keller, Junior, Advertising, COM
Parichay Swarup, Junior, Advertising, COM
Simran Devidasani, Junior, Advertising, COM
Alexander Studer, Junior, Advertising, COM
Connor Goetten, Sophomore, Advertising, COM

How Expatriate Students (Non-native English Speakers) Respond to Rational and Emotional Advertisements Relative to Native English-speaking Americans
Apshara Islam, Sophomore, Advertising, COM
Manisha Venkat, Sophomore, Advertising, COM
Austin Herr, Senior, Advertising, COM
Beth Lee, Junior, Advertising, COM
Marissa Miller, Senior, Advertising, COM

Rising Above The ’Nois: Identifying Effective Practices in Social Media
Masic Chen, Sophomore, Undeclared, DGS
Ruoxi Su, Senior, Communication, LAS
Aliaputri Kamal, Junior, Advertising, COM

When Does a Message Source’s Race Impact How that Message is Received – Racial and Social Justice Knowledge, Prejudice, and the Belief in Racism as a Zero-sum Game
Daniel Duan, Senior, Advertising, COM

Newman: Faith as a Root in Community
Ariel Majewski, Freshman, Journalism, COM

Understanding the Media Journey of Local Issues: The Case of the Flint Water Crisis
Wes Bremme, Senior, Media & Cinema Studies, COM

View photos from the event here.