Grady College faculty and graduate students showcase their research at 2025 AEJMC Colloquium

Faculty and graduate students from Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication will present research and network with other educators at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Colloquium.

Grady College faculty and graduate students showcase their research at 2025 AEJMC Colloquium

March 12, 2025

Faculty and graduate students from Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication will present research and network with other educators at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Colloquium. The 2025 Colloquium takes place in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 13 – 15, 2025.

Moses Okocha, Ph.D. student, and Karin Assmann, assistant professor, will be presenting “AI in Rural Nonprofit News: Navigating the Balance Between Mission, Transparency, Public Interest and Funding.” This study explores how rural nonprofit news organizations integrate AI into their news gathering and production processes and investigates internal discussions about AI adoption, especially in relation to funders’ decisions and its impact on their mission.

Karin Assmann will present “Reporters for Democracy: Covering the Democracy Beat for Local Non-profits,” in the Newspaper and Online News Division. This study aims to understand how editors and reporters in local non-profit newsrooms who are assigned to the democracy beat operationalize their roles. Factors include how journalism’s role in a democracy is defined by editors and their interaction with sources.

Brittany N. Shivers, Ph.D. student, will present her paper, “The Disjointed Fight Against Mis(Dis)information: Medical ‘Infodemic’ Dissociated from the Complex Social Process of Communication.” This paper critiques the conceptual gaps of infodemic, or having too much information, as it relates to communication as a ritualistic and interactive process.

Roberta Fiorito, Ph.D. student, will present her research, “What Comes after News Deserts? : Identifying the Markers of the Potential ‘News Oasis’,” in the Community Journalism Division.  She will also present “Financing the Fourth Estate: The Impact of Local Newspaper Ownership Type on Self-Reported Civic Engagement.” This research builds on existing news desert research to define a “news oasis” as a community where new forms of local news media flourish.

Author: Lauren A. Pike, lauren.pike@uga.edu