July 17, 2025 En Vivo Contigo, the first all-Spanish news broadcast on the student-run UI7 Newsroom, won first place for the Ñ Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists in the category of Student Broadcast Journalism. The award-winning segment featured an interview conducted by Emilio Reyes (BS ’25, journalism) with Salvatore Callesano, assistant professor […]
July 16, 2025 Sean Evans (BS ’08, journalism) was featured in the inaugural TIME100 Creators list: The Most Influential Digital Voices of 2025. Evans is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated Hot Ones, the YouTube series launched in 2015 in which celebrities are interviewed while eating progressively spicy chicken wings. The show, which is most known for […]
May 20, 2025 A group of University of Illinois students have been recognized for their outstanding work in the 2024-25 Hearst Journalism Awards Program. Update June 12, 2025: Congratulations to two journalism students for their outstanding accomplishments at the Hearst National Championships! Layli Nazarova won first place and a $10,000 scholarship award in Hearst’s National […]
June 5, 2025 Will Leitch (BS ’98, journalism), author, sportswriter, contributing editor for New York magazine, and podcast co-host, will serve as an executive producer of the movie adaptation of his latest novel Lloyd McNeil’s Last Ride. Lionsgate purchased the rights to the novel, published by Harper in May, which focuses on Lloyd McNeil, a beat cop in […]
June 4, 2025 | Liz Westfield and Kelly Youngblood Students took their classwork to broadcast television with the opportunity to create documentaries this spring for Prairie Fire, WILL-TV’s magazine program offering cinematic documentaries, profiles, and performances from downstate Illinois. “It was so cool to see something we made [included] on a professional show,” said Adrien […]
June 2, 2025 Illinois Student Newsroom at Illinois Public Media members and journalism students Madison Holcomb and Layli Nazarova were named 2024 Mark of Excellence Awards winners in the audio category in their region by the Society of Professional Journalists. SPJ’s Region 5 comprises collegiate journalists within Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. Holcomb, a senior, was […]
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 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 […]
Associate Professor Emeritus of Journalism Education Course Specialties Background Former Page 1 and planning editor for Milwaukee Journal, creator and publisher of American Journalism Review / NewsLink website and independent strategic planning consultant to more than 350 news organizations worldwide. Current editor and publisher of three weekly newspapers in Kansas, including Marion County Record, which […]