Associate Professor Teri Finneman is the 2021-2022 recipient of the Budig Teaching Professorship of Writing. The fund provides a one-time stipend for a School of Journalism and Mass Communications faculty member who has demonstrated a commitment to excellence in the teaching of writing. Finneman will present a lecture on the importance of teaching writing in the spring.

Associate Professor Yvonnes Chen was a featured guest on KU’s “When Experts Attack” podcast along with School of Business student Cole Hansen. They discussed their research on meditation, mindfulness and how the practices are portrayed in media.

Steve Rottinghaus, career and outreach coordinator, was quoted in the Muse, a New York City-based online career platform, on the transferable skills journalism graduates develop.

Local news is in crisis, but a growing number of journalism schools are helping to fill the information void by launching community news organizations. Associate Professor Teri Finneman is one of three AEJMC members who will host a webinar from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 4, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of starting news desert publications. Register here.

Congratulations to the fall bachelor of science in journalism and mass communications graduates of the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications. See the list here. Graduates are invited to send senior reflections to [email protected]. Reflections will be posted on the J-School website.

David Johnston’s Strategic Campaigns students worked with a California-based company, rabbit, co-founded in 2016 by KU alumna Monica DeVreese. In its first five years, rabbit has gained a strong following among runners and outdoor enthusiasts, with products sold online, in specialty retail running stores and at outdoor events and races. The students’ challenge was to build, connect and empower a community of runners by providing more perfect athletic apparel that tells a story and makes a statement. Students presented Dec. 8 in the Kansas Union to the client, who participated from Santa Barbara, California, via Zoom. Watch Johnston’s welcome video here.

Justin Henning’s Strategic Campaigns class worked with a local baker, Paul Harper of Paul's Better Bakery. The students created social media calendar templates and proposed posts; updated logo and iconography; estimated costs for direct to consumer and wholesale sales; identified additional retail partners; and built a fully functional staging site to demonstrate UX concepts for the current e-commerce site. They presented to their client Dec. 7.

Lisa Loewen’s Strategic Campaigns students presented to their client, the Kansas Sunshine Coalition for Open Government, on Dec. 7. The client’s primary goals were to raise awareness, create funding opportunities and build relationships with government officials. Students conducted extensive secondary and primary research including interviews, surveys and focus groups. From this research they provided the following: A complete rebrand including renaming the organization, new logo, brand colors, brand personality and voice book; a comprehensive social media plan; an awareness campaign using traditional media, direct mail and email marketing; and detailed data regarding other state FOIA organizations.

Assistant Professor Rebekka Schlichting and her J636 students screened their semester-long project, "Liberate LFK: The Past, Present and Future of LGBTQ+ Activism at KU,” on Dec. 9 at the Lawrence Public Library. Producers Stephanie Morales Marcedo and Lauren Hugo gave out "Rebekka Awards" to everyone in the group to celebrate each person's individual talents during the making of the film. Watch the film on YouTube.

University Daily Kansan Editor Stef Manchen was interviewed by WIBW about the Kansan's special section this fall on former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Watch here. Get a copy of the printed special section in the J-School online store.

The University Daily Kansan is looking for hardworking students who want to get involved and join the staff this spring. There are many ways to get involved, and students can write for any of the sections: news, arts and culture, sports, opinion or CHALK. Other openings are for designers, copy editors, photographers, a community editor and social media teams. Applications should include a bulleted list of your plans for your desired position (one-two pages), one writing sample and your resume. To be considered for leadership roles this spring, please submit applications to [email protected] by 11:59 p.m. Dec. 19. Include the position and academic term for which you are applying and your name in the subject line of the email. Example: Jane Doe, UDK News Editor Spring 2021. Interviews will happen on a rolling basis as applications are submitted. Send questions to Editor-in-Chief Paul Samberg. Learn more here.

Students in Gerri Berendzen’s Digital Media Tools class completed their semester-long projects last week by presenting their work or research. Editors from the University Daily Kansan and Eudora Times joined the class for presentations on website analytics done by Shayla Gaulding, Wes Lance, Erin McCarthy and Sara Moore. The Eudora Times report was a first since the publication was added to the Parse.ly analytics dashboard this fall through Parse.ly’s university partnership. Each fall, Digital Media Tools students do full-semester projects for a publication, company or organization and present best practices reports to the partner organizations. Projects also included Jasper Hawkins launching a TikTok channel through KU Athletics for KU women’s basketball and Paul Samberg starting a weekly opinion newsletter for the Kansan. 

Students in the J215 Tech Tools: Web Coding class showcased their new HTML and CSS skills this semester on the J215 class blog. As an final project in each five-week session, the students had to create an enhanced bio page where they did all of the HTML and CSS coding work in the bio portion of the page. Anyone interested in the class can check out the students’ work or some of the lessons on the blog.