Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University was strongly represented at the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Communication (AEJMC) in San Francisco this August. Tara Pixley, associate professor of journalism, gave a keynote address. Faculty and students led and participated in pre-conference workshops, presented peer-reviewed research and engaged in panel discussions. Recent doctoral alum Kate Dawson, KLN ’24, also received her Dissertation of the Year Award from the Critical and Cultural Studies division.  

Pre-conference workshops and roundtable discussions 

• Engaged journalism exchange 2025: Organizing for care remixing and redesigning curriculum: AEJMC Teaching Academy 
  • Professor Andrew Wenzel 
• The First Amendment takes on state tech laws: How far can the government go in regulating tech and AI? 
  • Professor Jessica Shaw 
• Academic job market readiness workshop 
  • Professor Logan Molyneux 
• Plenary Session Keynote Address: “Transparency, trust and tactics of care: teaching new(s) methods for an evolving public.” 
  • Professor Tara Pixley 

Paper presentations (in order of appearance) 

• “Identity elasticity theory (Iet): A new framework for understanding the dynamics of identity in pressured contexts.” 
  • Media and Communication doctoral student Yusra Alzahrani  
• “Behind the posts: Exploring Chinese youth’s sensitive self-disclosure on social media.” 
  • Media and Communication doctoral student Ziwei Xu  
• “Linguistic politics and the global-local nexus in transnational indigenous African language television.” 
  • Media and Communication doctoral candidate FengYi Yin  
• “Familiarity breeds contempt: “Fake news” and “disinformation” as framing devices.” 
  • Professor Logan Molyneux 
• “The communication and the conveyor of concreteness spillover effects: An exploration in the context of cover crop adoption.” 
  • Professor Meghnaa Tallapragada  
• “‘Living Amoeba of an Organization’: Organizational Bricolage as an Adaptive Strategy in Digital Journalism.” 
  • Professor Nisha Sridharan  
• “Building community in precarious times: An information hub for refugees.” 
  • Professor Andrea Wenzel, Professor Wazhmah Osman, Media and Communication doctoral student Simu Dey and Media and Communication doctoral alum Sezgi Basak Kavakli, with Klein alum and journalist Tahera Rahmani
• “How taste, audience engagement, and a publisher’s hobby facilitated The New York Times’ delayed entry into crosswords.” 
  • Media and Communication doctoral candidate Alexis Haskell 
• “Preserving journalism’s legacy through engaged hashtag activism: The case of #UnlockDCist.” 
  • Professor Nisha Sridharan  
• “Evolving digital discourses: A thematic comparison of undocumented immigration rhetoric in social media news comments across the Trump and Biden administrations.” 
  • Media and Communication doctoral student Madhab Chandra Das 
• “Identifying and developing a research agenda to address structural weaknesses in political socialization research.” 
  • Professor Bruce Hardy  

Panel discussions and other presentations 

• Developing research agendas for advertising and visual communication: Insights from professionals in an ever-changing media landscape 
  • Professor Jennifer Midberry 
• Teaching photojournalism in digital age 
  • Professor Tara Pixley 
• Move with care – Documentation of refugee, and other underrepresented, communities with stronger representational awareness, and respect 
  • Professor Tara Pixley 
• The effectiveness of engaged journalism 
  • Professor Nisha Sridharan 
• Commission on Graduate Education Teaching Showcase: News Literacy Gazette 
  • Media and Communication doctoral candidate Alexis Haskell 
• Essential change: Adding diverse role models to public relations history 
  • Assistant Dean of the Office of Community, Communication and Events David Brown