May 21, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood For his outstanding career accomplishments and generous monetary support of advertising students, Murray Kalis (BS ’61) was recognized by the College of Media with the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award. Kalis, whose work has taken him across the world and back, heading his own agency, and serving as chair of […]
May 21, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood Stephanie Lulay’s (BS ’08, journalism) start-up venture, Block Club Chicago—whose mission is to deliver reliable, nonpartisan, and essential coverage of Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods—has become a news staple for readers throughout the city since its founding in 2018. Lulay serves as executive editor and co-founder of the award-winning newsroom, which […]
May 14, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood Leon Dash, winner of a Pulitzer Prize and Swanlund Chair Professor of Journalism, sat in his office chair on the third floor of Gregory Hall, appearing calm and collected on his last day of teaching at the College of Media. With 27 years of classroom instruction soon to be […]
May 5, 2025 Tom Burrell, a renowned Black visionary who changed the face of the ad industry for African Americans, will receive an honorary degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign during the university-wide Commencement ceremony on May 17, 2025. The honorary degree award recognizes individuals who have shown exemplary, extraordinary, and distinguished contributions to […]
April 28, 2025 Nancy Benson, professor emerita of journalism, died on April 21, 2025. She was 72 years old. In 1996, she was hired as a visiting professor in the Department of Journalism and became an assistant professor in 1997. She was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2014. Before […]
April 14, 2025 | Ruth Kwak, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Technology Services When the Website Management Center of Expertise collaborated with the College of Media, the College of Law and the School of Social Work to solve the challenges on each unit’s websites, the result was three new websites and a roadmap for […]
April 14, 2025 On February 25, 2025, the Suburban Illini Club hosted the College of Media for “Engaging in a Divided Society: Lessons from Journalism,” a panel discussion on how to engage with others in an age of polarization. Moderated by College of Media Dean Tracy Sulkin, panelists included journalism faculty and alumni: The webinar […]
April 11, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood Netflix director Emma Miller (BS ’08, media studies) says returning to campus to speak at the 2025 College of Media Convocation ceremony feels like a full-circle moment for her. As a Media student at Illinois, she remembers renting DVDs through Netflix’s mail subscription service for her film classes. “I […]
April 11, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood It’s no surprise that renowned media studies scholar and two-time University of Illinois alum Denise Bielby (BS ’71, MA ’72, ACES), Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Emerita, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was interested in fellow alum Roger Ebert’s work and helping preserve his legacy. Bielby, whose research […]
Director Francis Ford Coppola to participate in a virtual Q&AActress Jane Levy and Critics Michael Phillips, Richard Roeper, Matt Zoller-Seitz, Nell Minow, Brian Tallerico, Eric Pierson, Dion Metzger, and Brenda Butler will be attending in person April 1, 2025 CHAMPAIGN, IL (April 1, 2025) — Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, also known as Ebertfest, announced today the […]