Baylor Faculty, Graduate Students, and Alums Explore Emerging Trends in Communication Research at the 2024 AEJMC Conference

Baylor Journalism, Public Relations & New Media faculty, graduate students and recent alums will participate in various panel discussions, posters, and research presentations at the 2024 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Conference in Philadelphia.

Among the many accolades the department is blessed to celebrate at this year’s AEJMC conference, Baylor JPR&NM Professor and Chair Mia Moody-Ramirez, Ph.D. was elected Vice President of AEJMC, a nonprofit educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students, and media professionals. As vice president-elect, she will become president of the organization in 2026.

Marlene Neill, Ph.D., Baylor JPR&NM Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director, is one of eight AEJMC members selected as a 2024-25 Jennifer McGill Fellow for AEJMC's Institute for Diverse Leadership in Journalism and Communication (IDL). Assistant Professor Rosalynn Vasquez was selected as a Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Fellow (2024).

The conference will cover topics ranging from social media to artificial intelligence teaching practices, providing a platform for scholars to delve into pressing issues and cutting-edge developments shaping the communication landscape. Research presentations and panels accepted for presentation are listed below (Baylor graduate students and faculty are in bold).

• Graduate students Lauren Combs, Raphael Roker, Lia Hood, and undergraduate student McKenna Joyce will present “Practice Analysis 2024: Essential Technology and AI Competencies in Public Relations.” The paper will be presented as part of the top paper session for the Commission on Graduate Education. Led by Dr. Marlene Neill, the students completed the research for the Universal Accreditation Board, which oversees the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR credential). 
• Moody-Ramirez and alumni Maddie Walkes and Samira Alam will present “Blackface to TikTok: An Examination of Humor and the Evolution of Blackface.”
• Graduate students Lauren Combs and Lia Hood will present a research poster titled "The Use of Framing Theory to Decode Feminism Principles, Goals, and Perceptions in Memes." The paper, written in Moody-Ramirez’s gender, race and media course, examines the intersection of framing theory and feminist discourse in social media and offers valuable insights into how memes communicate and perpetuate feminist ideologies.
• Moody-Ramirez, Hazel Cole (West Georgia), and Dorothy Bland (North Texas) will present “An Intersectional Approach to Examining TikTok Users’ Framing of Sha’Carri Richardson and Brittney Griner.”
• Dr. Alec Tefertiller, assistant professor, will examine social media trends in a presentation titled “Social Media Platforms, Emotional Regulation, Emotional Intelligence, Social Capital and Life Outcomes.”
• Krishna, Cummings, Ji, Su, Vasquez, and Michelle Amazeen (Boston) will present “Predicting Health Misperceptions: The Role of eHealth Literacy and Situational Perceptions.” 
• Lindsey Maxwell (Southern Mississippi), Tefertiller, and Caroline Neese (Southern Mississippi) will present their paper titled, “It’s You and Me, There’s Nothing Like This: Parasocial Relationships, Fear of Missing Out and How Fans Consume the Products in Taylor Swift’s Media Empire," which won the top faculty paper award in the Entertainment Studies interest group.
• Lindsey Maxwell (Southern Mississippi), Tefertiller, and David Morris (South Carolina-Aiken) will present "The Structured Experience of The Eras Tour Concerts and Movie."
• Tefertiller, Vasquez, and Matthew Brammer, lecturer, will present "The Kids Are Alright: Examining How U.S. Public Relations Students Ethically Navigate Artificial Intelligence." This paper won the second-place teaching paper award in the Public Relations Division.

Panels include: 

• In recognition of the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (JMCQ) 100th anniversary, Moody-Ramirez will serve on a panel where scholars will reflect on journalism, media effects, political communication, advertising, PR, and diversity representations. 
• Moody-Ramirez will serve on a panel examining mentoring practices in academia and the professional sphere titled "Mentoring Across Differences: Best Practices in Mentoring a Diverse Pool of Future Professionals and Academics.”
• Moody-Ramirez will participate on a panel titled “Active Learning Strategies for the Next Generation,” with Gabriel Tait, Ball State, sponsored by the Standing Committee on Teaching, during the session “Teaching Experts Are in Preparing Educators for Teaching the Next Generation.” 
• Vasquez will participate in a panel session on "Teaching Authenticity and Transparency in the Era of Generative AI."

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) is a nonprofit educational association of journalism and mass communication educators, students, and media professionals. The Association’s mission is to promote the highest possible standards for journalism and mass communication education, to cultivate the broadest possible range of communication research, to encourage the implementation of a multicultural society in the classroom and curriculum, and to defend and maintain freedom of communication to achieve better professional practice and a better-informed public.