Three graduate students from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication brought home top research paper awards from the annual Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) conference. The conference, which was in its 106th year, was hosted at the Marriott Marquis Washington, D.C., on Aug. 7-10.
The student winners joined more than a dozen other Gaylord graduate students and faculty members to travel to the nation’s capital to present original research and participate in or moderate panel sessions.
Doctoral candidate Ahmed Shatil Alam was honored with the top student paper award from the Media Ethics Division for his paper titled “A synthesis of Islamic and fact-checking ethics." Alam, who begins his fourth year in the program, was also accepted to present three other co-authored papers at the conference with other Gaylord or OU graduate students.
Second-year doctoral student Emily Guajardo won the first-place faculty paper award for her co-authored study, “Gender, Ethnic/Racial Representation in AEJMC Demographics, Research and Leadership: How Much and What Type of Progress?” in the Minorities and Communication Division. Guajardo also presented a solo-authored paper at the conference.
Amanda Siew, a second-year master’s student, received the third-place student paper award for her solo-authored study from the Broadcast and Mobile Journalism Division. Her study was titled “Gen Z TV Journalists: How Burnout Plagues the Industry’s Youngest."
Students and faculty were also reunited with eight Gaylord alumni attending the AEJMC conference at the second annual Gaylord Alumni dinner. Among those attending Aug. 8 were two former deans, Ed Kelley, who retired June 30, and Dr. Charles Self, the first dean of Gaylord College.
Gaylord College will host the AEJMC Midwinter Conference in Norman in March of 2024. This will mark the 16th consecutive year that the college has hosted the regional conference.
According to data published by AEJMC, the overall paper competition acceptance rates for its last three annual conferences have been below 50 percent.
Congratulations to everyone!
