Andrea Alarcon (Second Year), Soledad Altrudi (Second Year), and Azeb Madebo (Third Year) joined Professor Henry Jenkins in running a civic imagination workshop at Brave New Water: New Media, New Stories, an event hosted by the Ventura Association of Water Agencies in Oxnard, CA.

Leila Bighash (PhD 2018) has accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Arizona, starting Fall 2018.

Thomas J. Billard (Third Year) and Professor Henry Jenkins, with Samantha Close (PhD 2017), Yomna Elsayed (PhD 2018), Michelle C. Forelle (ABD), Rogelio Lopez (ABD), and Emilia Yang, “Participatory Politics,” in Eduardo Navas, Owen Gallagher, and xtine burroughs (Eds.) Keywords in Remix Studies (New York: Routledge, 2018).

Billard assisted Professor Henry Jenkins with a Civic Imagination Workshop for LGBTQ activists in Richmond, Virginia.

Matthew N. Bui (Third Year)

• Named an inaugural Randall Lewis Data Science Fellow
• Awarded the Urban Communication Research Grant by the Urban Communication Foundation and the International Association for Media and Communication Research
• Presented two papers at the All Things in Moderation 2017 Conference at UCLA: “Digital Spaces and Urban Places: Geospatial Applications and the Moderation of Urban Politics” and “Moderation, Ratings and Gentrification: A Yelp Case Study from Los Angeles.”

Nick Busalacchi (ABD), Sonia Jawaid Shaikh (ABD), Professor Francois Bar, & Ann Pendleton-Julian, “Worldbuilding downtown Los Angeles (DTLA): Academic community collaboration and methodology for applied communication research.” In C. George (Ed.), Communication with Power: ICA Theme Book Series, Peter Lang Publication

Lik Sam Chan (PhD 2018)

• "Ambivalence in networked intimacy: Observations from gay men using mobile dating apps," New Media & Society
• His paper, “Cultivation and erosion of creative identity: A Hong Kong advertising agency as case study,” was selected by the Academy of Hong Kong Studies as one of the six outstanding papers among all published papers about Hong Kong in 2016-2017. The paper was published in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies.
• “Liberating or disciplining? A technofeminist analysis of the use of dating apps among women in urban China,” Communication, Culture & Critique (accepted for publication)
• Presented his paper, “Dating potential: The forming of desiring subjects in dating apps in contemporary China,” at the Towards Post-media Studies in Asia international seminar in Tokyo in January.
• With Elija Cassidy, Xu Chen, & Piper Liping Liu, had “Chinese Digital Dating Cultures,” accepted for the 2018 Crossroads for Cultural Studies Conference in Shanghai.
• With Yue Zheng, had “Framing Gay Marriage in Liberal and Conservative U.S. Newspapers from 2004-2016,” accepted for the IAMCR 2018 Eugene Conference.
• Accepted a position as the 2018-2020 George Gerbner Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Professor Ben Carrington and Courtney Cox (ABD) were on the “Taking a knee: Sports and protest” panel with Dave Zirin (The Nation), Jennifer Doyle (UC – Riverside), and Shana L. Redmond (UCLA).

Nathaniel Ming Curran (Second Year) & Sulafa Zidani (Second Year) presented their paper, “Traversing Boundaries: How Korean and Chinese Students in the US Navigate National, Intra-Asian, and Cosmopolitan Identity,” at the Harvard East Asia Society Conference in February.

Stefanie Demetriades (ABD)

• Had her paper, “The Boy in the Ambulance and Cosmopolitan Dimensions of Virality,” recognized as a top student paper in the International and Intercultural Communication Division at the NCA 2017 Conference in Dallas.
• Received a Research Enhancement Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Briana Ellerbe (Second Year) co-authored three chapters in Children and families in the digital age: Learning together in a media saturated culture, Eds. E. Gee, L.M. Takeuchi, & E. Wartella.

Yomna Elsayed (PhD 2018), “At the Intersection of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Movements: The Case of Egypt and the Arab Spring,” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations

Michelle C. Forelle (ABD)

• “’Then you are making riskless money’: A critical discourse analysis of credit default swap coverage in the financial trade press,” Journal of Cultural Economy
• Received a Final Year Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Traci Gillig (ABD)

• With  Erica L. Rosenthal, Professor Sheila Murphy, and Kate Langrall Folb, “More Than a Media Moment: The Influence of Televised Storylines on Viewers’ Attitudes Toward Transgender People and Policies,” Sex Roles 
• Coverage of “More Than a Media Moment” appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, the World Economic Forum, Medium, Pacific Standard, Inverse, Huffington Post, and News Talk 770 Radio.

Brandon Golob (PhD 2018)

• Accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine, starting Fall 2018.
• Asked to serve on the board of Project Youth OCBF (Orange County Bar Foundation), a nonprofit organization that provides at-risk youth with a range of educational opportunities and other social services.

Christina Hagen (ABD)

• With Professors Patricia Riley and Tom Hollihan and Stefi Demetriades (ABD), presented “Global Argument Networks: The Cases of ISIS and Fake News” on a Spotlight panel at the Alta Conference on Argumentation.
• With Leila Bighash (ABD), Professor Andrea Hollingshead, Sonia Jawaid Shaikh (ABD), & Kristen Steves Alexander (Fifth Year), “Why Are You Watching? Video Surveillance in Organizations,” Corporate Communications: An International Journal 

Tyler Hiebert (Third Year)

• Awarded Top Student Paper in the Race and Ethnicity in Communication division at ICA for his paper, “The Necropolitical Image.”
• Won Top Paper and Top Student Paper for “Protesting Genocide through Debate: The Invincible Debating Society” at the Western States Communication Association conference. He also won Top Student Paper for “Unseen Memories: Public Memory at the Sing Sing Death Chamber.”

David Jeong (PhD 2017) & James Lee (ABD), “Snap back to reality: Examining the cognitive mechanisms underlying Snapchat,” Computers in Human Behavior 

Perry Johnson (ABD)

• Invited to moderate a panel on women in music at the 2018 USC OWN IT summit, featuring Ethiopia Habtermariam, President of Motown Records; Glenne Christiaansen, Head of Music Partnerships at Snap Inc.; Livia Tortella, CEO of BlackBox; and Sue Drew, GM Creative and Acquisitions at Kobalt Music Publishing.
• Received an Annenberg Endowed Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Hye Min Kim (Second Year) & Young Min Baek (Yonsei University), “The Power of Political Talk: How and When It Mobilizes Politically Efficacious Citizens’ Campaign Activity during Elections,” Asian Journal of Communication

Lauren Levitt (Third Year)

• Presented her paper, “American Jewish Holocaust Memory at Lithuanian Holocaust Memorials,” at the Re/Inventions Conference at CSU Long Beach.
• Presented her paper, “Sex Workers’ Networks of Support,” at the Futures of Queer Theory Conference at UC Irvine in May.
• Presented her paper, “Divergent Fan Forums and Political Consciousness Raising,” at the ICA Conference in Prague.
• Had her collage work exhibited at the Deck Our Halls: Student Research Showcase at the USC Graduate School.
• Served as a judge in applied social sciences for USC’s undergraduate symposium in scholarly and creative work.

Nathalie Maréchal (PhD 2018) workshopped her dissertation chapter, “Peeling the Onion: The Political Economy of Tor,” at the Data and Society research institute in New York City.

joan miller (Third Year) moderated “Dreaming Wakanda: Black Panther and Civic Imagination” with Professor David Craig. Speakers included Andrea Alarcon (Second Year), Rogelio Lopez (ABD), Azeb Madebo (Third Year), and Brooklyne Gipson (Second Year).

Kate Miltner (ABD)

• With Tim Highfield (Queensland University of Technology), “Never Gonna GIF You Up: Analyzing the Cultural Significance of the Animated GIF,” Social Media + Society 
• With Nick Robinson (Royal Holloway, University of London),“Sergei Skripal attack: Russian Embassy is fuelling tensions with some very undiplomatic tweets,” The Conversation UK 
• Presented her paper, “An Investment in Knowledge Pays the Best Interest”: The Advanced Liberalism of Computer Science for All, at the Association of Internet Researchers conference in Tartu, Estonia.
• Presented her paper, “Because equality is only true when it is thorough”: The Representational Politics of the “Professions” Emoji, at the Affective Politics of Social Media Symposium in Turku, Finland.
• Was a guest on Al Jazeera’s The Stream, discussing her research about emoji and diversity. 
• Interviewed for WIRED about the role of race and gender in the ‘meme gap’ between left and right wing groups online: “Cosplay Won't Solve the Meme Gap Dooming the #Resistance"
• Interviewed for Motherboard about the enduring popularity of the Toto song “Africa”: “How ‘Africa’ by Toto Became the Internet’s Favorite Song”
• Quoted in The Guardian regarding Twitter’s latest promise to address abuse on its platform.
• Accepted as a Visiting Student Researcher at the Program in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the Office for the History of Science (OHST) at the University of California, Berkeley.
• Appointed as a Special Joint Fellow by the UC Berkeley Center for Technology, Society and Policy and the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity.
• Elected to a two-year term as Graduate Student Representative for the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR).
• Received an Annenberg Endowed Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Rachel Moran (Third Year) received an Oakley Endowed Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year.

Deborah Neffa Creech (Third Year)

• Book review, The Media and the Mundane: Communication Across Media in Everyday Life, International Journal of Communication
• With Professors Susan Evans & Peter Clarke, presented “Can Kids Prompt Mothers’ Use of a Nutrition App? Evidence from Low-Income Families” at the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Clare O’Connor (Third Year), “Hearing the Real: Tanya Tagaq and the Cultural Politics of Wish Sounds,” 2017 ICA Themebook, Interventions: Communication Theory and Practice, Ed. D. Travers Scott & Adrienne Shaw.

Sonia Jawaid Shaikh (ABD)

• “Linear regression.” In M. Allen (Ed.), The Sage Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, Sage Publications (online first)
• Received the Best Student Paper Award in the Information Systems Division at ICA San Diego for her paper, “Does ‘easy’ do it? Processing fluency and its effects on liking: A meta-analysis.”

Shabnam Shalizi (PhD 2018)

• Named an Individual Associate of the World Fair Trade Organization, an honor to given to select researchers and specialists in inclusive trade and international development. Shabnam was invited to attend the biennial World Fair Trade Summit in New Delhi, India where she discussed her research and collaborated with leading producers, wholesalers, and retailers to tackle issues of transparency, equity, and sustainability through the integration of fair trade in global value chains.
• Received the Comcast Innovation Award for her dissertation research on how women-owned small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing economies access and enter the value chains of major global firms and multinational corporates. Her work was selected as a featured study for the Innovation Fund.
• Presented her doctoral dissertation research at the 10th Annual GSG Graduate Research Symposium and was named top three in the Social Sciences.

Melina Sherman (ABD)

• "Opiates for the masses: Constructing a market for prescription (pain) killers," Journal of Cultural Economy
• “How to Train Your Opioid Consumer: Branding Painkillers in the Opioid Epidemic,” Communication, Culture & Critique
• Chaired a panel and presented her paper, “Branding Pain Relief: Restoring the Neoliberal Self in the Ongoing Opioid Epidemic,” at the American Anthropological Association (AAA) conference in Washington, D.C.

Prawit Thainiyom (PhD 2018) 

• “Assessing Changes in Attitudes, Awareness, and Behavior in Indonesian Youths,” The Drum Beat
• Submitted a proposal and won a $50,000 research grant from United Nations Development Programme in Asia Pacific to conduct a national survey on attitudes towards sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression in Thailand.

Nathan Walter (PhD 2018)

• With Professors Michael Cody & Sandra Ball-Rokeach, “The Ebb and Flow of Communication Research: Seven Decades of Publication Trends and Research Priorities,” Journal of Communication
• With Christiana Robbins (Fourth Year), Professor Sheila Murphy, & Professor Sandra Ball-Rokeach, “The Weight of Networks: The Role of Social Ties and Ethnic Media in Mitigating Obesity and Hypertension among Latinas,” Ethnicity & Health
• With Stefi Demetriades (Fourth Year) and Professor Sheila Murphy, “Just a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Messages Go Down: Using Stories and Vicarious Self-Affirmation to Reduce E-Cigarette Use,” Health Communication. This work was supported by USC's Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (TCORS). 
• With Professor Michael Cody, Larry Xu (ABD), & Professor Sheila Murphy, “A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Minister Walk into a Bar: A Meta-Analysis of Humor Effects on Persuasion,” Human Communication Research
• With Professor Sheila Murphy, “How to Unring the Bell: A Meta-Analytic Approach to Correction of Misinformation,” Communication Monographs 
• With Professor Sheila Murphy, Jonathan Cohen (University of Haifa), and the Norman Lear Center’s Hollywood, Health and Society, led an ICA 2017 pre-conference, “Narrative Persuasion: From Research to Practice.” The group hosted over 100 participants, 30 academics, and 8 screenwriters who led a writer’s workshop.
• With Professor Sheila Murphy, Lauren Frank, & Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati (USC Keck), awarded the Top Paper in the Health and Ethnicity Division of ICA for “Latinas level of acculturation as a moderator of narrative persuasion and compliance with HPV Vaccination Messages.”
• Awarded a USC PhD Achievement Award from the Graduate School and Provost’s Office, as well as a Students Recognition Award, which “recognizes and honors students for outstanding leadership, scholarship, services, and commitment to the university and community.”
• Accepted an Assistant Professor position at Northwestern University to start in Fall 2018.

Professor Lynn Miller, Liyuan Wang (Second Year), David Jeong (PhD 2017), & Traci Gillig (ABD). (in press). Bringing the “Real World” into the Experimental Lab: Technology-enabling Transformative Designs.  In P. Davis, A. O’Mahony, & J. Pfautz (Eds.) Social Behavioral Science Modeling.  Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. 

Grace Yuehan Wang (Third Year)

• Review, The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age by Sonia Livingstone and Julian Sefton-Green and The War on Learning Gaining Ground in the Digital University by Elizabeth Losh, International Journal of Communication
• In collaboration with a research group from Shenzhen University, published Nonprofit Report: China Philanthropic Film Festival Research Report.
• Received a 2018 Graduate School Summer Grant, to be used for research and writing.

Xin Wang (ABD) received a 2018 Graduate School Summer Grant, to be used for research and writing.

Sarah Myers West (PhD 2018)

• "Raging Against the Machine: Network Gatekeeping and Collective Action on Social Media Platforms," Media and Communication 
• With Nicolas Suzor & Tess Van Geelen, “Evaluating the Legitimacy of Platform Governance: A Review of Research and a Shared Research Agenda,” International Communication Gazette
• With Nicolas Suzor & Jillian C. York, “How Facebook Can Prove It Doesn’t Discriminate Against Conservatives,” Slate
• “Censored, Suspended, Shadowbanned: User Interpretations of Content Moderation on Social Media Platforms,” New Media & Society 
• Presented her paper "Ambivalence in the (Private) Public Sphere: How Global Digital Activists Navigate Risk" at the 7th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet in Vancouver.
• Presented her paper "Cypherpunks Write Code”: Privacy, Crypto-Anarchy and the Interpretative Flexibility of Encryption" at the Society for the Social Study of Science conference in Boston.
• With Michelle C. Forelle (ABD) co-organized a half-day preconference titled “Academic Freedom 2.0: Thinking Through and Learning to Protect Digital Privacy” for the Association of Internet Researchers annual conference in Tartu, Estonia.
• With Professors Mike Ananny and Colin Maclay and the Annenberg Innovation Lab (AnnLab), hosted a visit by Nicolas Suzor, Associate Professor of Law at Queensland University of Technology
• With Professor Mike Ananny, presented “The Emergence of Journalistic Security: A history of risk in early-internet reporting cultures” as part of the panel they co-organized at ICA, “Journalistic Security and Networked Press Freedom: Historical, regional, and organizational perspectives.”
• Asked to serve on the Program Committee for the 8th USENIX Workshop on Free and Open Communications on the Internet (FOCI ’18).
• Accepted a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the AI Now Institute at New York University.

Yu Xu (ABD)

• “The Ecological Dynamics of Organizational Change: Density Dependence in the Rate of Weibo Adoption by Populations of News Organizations,” International Journal of Communication
• With Yao Sun (ABD) and Ignacio Cruz (Third Year), received Top Student Paper Award from the ICA Information System Division for “Finding the Path to Success: An Examination of Expertise, Exploration and Exploitation, and Creativity Performance in a Crowdsourcing Platform”

Larry Zhiming Xu (ABD), “Will a digital camera cure your sick puppy? Modality and category effects in donation-based crowdfunding,” Telematics and Informatics

Bei Yan (PhD 2018) & Professor Lian Jian, “Beyond reciprocity: The bystander effect of knowledge response in online knowledge communities,” Computers in Human Behavior

Sulafa Zidani (Second Year) presented her paper, “Between Arabi and Ajnabi: Humor as a Site for Cultural Negotiation,” at the American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting 2018 at UCLA.