News 34 | DEV College of Media

College of Media faculty appointed to Associate Dean positions

April 8, 2022 | Holly Rushakoff

Two faculty from the College of Media have been appointed by Dean Tracy Sulkin to associate dean positions starting August 16.

Announced in January, Stephanie Craft, currently professor and head of the Department of Journalism, will serve as the College of Media’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Announced in March, Jason P. Chambers, currently associate professor and associate head of the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, and Dean’s Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion, will serve as the College of Media’s inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

“I am pleased to welcome Professors Chambers and Craft to their important new roles, and I look forward to working closely with them,” Sulkin said. “Their strong administrative skills, commitment to the college and our mission, and consultative approach to decision-making make them both excellent additions to the College of Media leadership team.”

Craft, a scholar of news literacy and journalism ethics, joined the Illinois faculty in 2013. She has taught courses such as History of American Journalism, Introduction to Journalism, and Journalism Ethics & Diversity. She has served as head of the Department of Journalism from August 2018 until January 2022. Last summer, the third edition of her book Principles of American Journalism: An Introduction, coauthored with Charles N. Davis, was published.

“I have appreciated the opportunity to help my department colleagues work toward their goals but am now looking forward to the chance the associate dean role offers to take a broader view of the work we do in the college and how it connects to the rest of campus and beyond,” Craft said.

While on sabbatical this semester, Craft has continued her work to create a news literacy scale, and has been developing a summer media literacy workshop for high school teachers along with other faculty in the College of Media and the College of Education. She has also begun a new research project.

“The new project involves delving into the archives of one of the first major journalistic collaborations, called the Arizona Project,” Craft said. “I’m hoping to get a better sense of how the collaboration worked and how it set the stage (or didn’t) for future large-scale projects involving journalists from competing news organizations.

In her new position, Craft will facilitate college-level promotion and tenure processes; mentor Dean’s Fellows; liaise with campus offices on college participation in strategic initiatives; facilitate policy discussions among unit leadership; and coordinate professional development programming for junior and midcareer faculty; among other responsibilities.

“I am eager to work on the college’s professional education initiatives and think about how we can serve a variety of different kinds of students, both on campus and online,” Craft added.

Chambers joined the Sandage Department of Advertising faculty in 2001 and the Institute of Communications Research faculty in 2003. He is a scholar of advertising history, particularly the contributions of African Americans to the industry. He has taught courses including Classic Campaigns, Advertising History, and Multicultural Advertising.

In his new position, Chambers is excited about working with his colleagues “to drive change and link our faculty, staff, and students to all of the opportunities that diversity provides.”

Over the past several years, the College of Media has prioritized expanding its programming in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the projects that Chambers facilitated during his two-year term as Dean’s Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion will continue to be part of his portfolio. The Alumni Mentoring Program, which connects students with accomplished alumni to share perspectives and advice, will continue to grow. The pilot focused on Black students and Black alumni, and then expanded to Latinx students and alumni. Chambers will also continue his involvement in the New Voices Internship Program, which provides opportunities for first-generation students and those from underrepresented groups to work with College of Media faculty and staff on communications projects.

He will also work with colleagues across the college and on campus to coordinate workshops on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism that are relevant to Media faculty, students, and staff, and will seek ways to further the college’s capacity in this area.

“Leadership at the department, college, and campus levels have put real resources behind diversity initiatives,” Chambers said. “I want to ensure that the College of Media continues to take advantage of all the grants and other funding sources that the campus is making available for diversity-related topics.”

Chambers’s latest book Positive Realism: The Life of Advertising Pioneer Thomas J. Burrell has been submitted to the publisher for final review, with an expected publication date of 2023. He is also the author of Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry and Building the Black Metropolis: African American Entrepreneurship in Chicago.

Film and television producer Feder to speak at 2022 Media Convocation

April 4, 2022 | Vivian La, Communications Intern

Alumnus Stephen Feder with BB-8 in the Lucasfilm Offices at the Walt Disney Studios.

Stephen Feder (BS ’02, media studies) believes that with a little persistence and dedication to the things they love to learn about, students can accomplish anything.

“I think if people can harness that, there’s no telling how far they can go,” he said.

Feder, a film and television producer at T-Street Productions, will be this year’s alumni speaker for the College of Media Convocation. Because previous ceremonies had been postponed due to the pandemic, the May 2022 convocation will honor graduates from Fall 2019 through Spring 2022.

Looking back at his time at the University of Illinois, Feder said he learned a lot about himself both personally and professionally.

“Illinois gave me such incredible opportunities, not just inside the classroom, but outside the classroom,” he said. “That helped shape me as a human and taught me a lot about what my limitations were and the things that I needed to work on.”

He is driven by the people who have helped him get to where he is, especially past professors at the College of Media.

“I think it’s really important to pay homage to how you got somewhere. Understand that it’s because of your own drive, but also because people are willing to help you,” Feder said.

Feder’s love of movies was “cultivated at [the College of Media] just by proximity to the idea of Roger Ebert.” When he was a student, Feder met Ebert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic and Illinois journalism alum who created Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, known as “Ebertfest.” During Ebertfest, Feder had the chance to have lunch with Ebert.

“Our conversation and just his presence, interest, and care in us as students gave us a boost in confidence that our goals were well within our reach,” Feder said. “He probably never understood the impact he had on all of us—but his passion for movies, his intellect, and his success always was a driving force of motivation for me. I miss him.”

About a decade later, Feder’s documentary Kumaré was screened at Ebertfest 2013. Feder was executive producer for the film, featuring a man who impersonates an Indian guru and builds a following. “Kumare seems to establish that a guru can be a complete fraud and nevertheless do a certain amount of good,” Ebert wrote, “because what matters is not the sincerity of the guru but that of his followers.”

Feder said it was a full-circle moment and meant everything to him.

“The fact that he selected it to be part of Ebertfest among the last group of movies he handpicked before passing away is an honor I’ll never forget,” Feder said.

It was his work on Kumaré, which received a SXSW Audience Award, that led to Feder’s time at Annapurna Studios. As senior vice president of production and development, Feder worked on films such as Everybody Wants Some!!, which was also an Ebertfest selection, as well as Where’d You Go, Bernadette, both directed by Richard Linklater; Spring Breakers, directed by Harmony Korine; and The Grandmaster, directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

“I had always been inclined to want to tell stories that had a broad reach,” Feder said. Growing up, he was inspired by movies like Back to the Future, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Star Wars—movies that he shares with his kids.

Feder eventually got the chance to work on Star Wars, describing the feeling of walking onto set “a life-affirming moment.”

“It was a reminder of the power of one’s imagination—and how if you could dream it, you could make it a reality,” he said. “I never wanted to hear the word ‘cut’ and still don’t.”

He became vice president of film development at Lucasfilm in 2016, working on Solo: A Star Wars Story and other projects. He served as the Lucasfilm production executive on location/set for filming, and was a member of the Lucasfilm Story Group, which keeps track of the Star Wars canon to assist writers and directors in the development of new stories.

Feder is currently a producer at Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman’s T-Street Productions, responsible for the film Knives Out. He works with his producing partner, Kiri Hart, to help amplify artistic voices.

Feder said the professional relationships that have helped him throughout his career inspires him to pay it forward to the next generation of filmmakers. He has been a panelist at the college’s Media Career Nights to share advice on working in the entertainment industry.

“I’m only here by the grace of other people believing [in me] and I also have to be willing to do the same for others,” he said.

Above all, he recognizes that the industry and the world is forever changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As streaming makes content more accessible, Feder considered the next challenge that the media industry needs to address.

“We as filmmakers have to be malleable; we can’t firmly entrench ourselves in the past,” Feder said. “We have to think about how we’re going to reach a future generation of moviegoers, and TV goers, and content consumers. It’s our responsibility to innovate ways both to tell stories and also to make them feel new.”

Feder also hopes he can provide some comfort to Media students who are feeling unsure about their futures.

“If you have been able to get through what you’ve done the last few years and come out of it, I think that there’s a lot of promise ahead,” Feder said.

Challenges can be seen as opportunities, he said.

“I understand the world is really scary at the moment and challenging, but it needs us. It needs us to make changes,” Feder said.

“So we can’t retreat. We have to push forward.”

From Gottfried to ‘Golden Arm,’ Ebertfest back in full swing

The 22nd annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as “Ebertfest,” has announced its full slate of films for the April 20-23 event. The list announced today includes an appearance by comedian Gilbert Gottfried to discuss his film Gilbert; another movie that introduces us to women arm-wrestlers; and an appearance by a pair of filmmakers to discuss the topic of identity.

The festival also announced the itinerary for opening night.

With Oscar-winning directors, comedians, and musicians, augmented by many independent movie gems, this year’s lineup takes the festival back to the roots established by late co-founder Roger Ebert, an Urbana native and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign journalism alumnus who gained a wide following as a film critic until his death in 2013.

“We will present films that will make you laugh, and make you cry, and some filled with so much music you will want to dance,” Chaz Ebert said. “But, most of all, we will enjoy being back together, in person, to celebrate cinema in a joyous way on the big screen as a community.”

The festival had previously announced Oscar-winning or nominated films and directors like Guillermo del Toro (Nightmare Alley in black and white), Ramin Bahrani (The White Tiger), Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World), Azazel Jacobs (French Exit), and the late Alfred Hitchcock (The 39 Steps). Ebertfest is adding other films that did not get the audiences they deserved because the theaters were closed during the pandemic.

“Some of the small theaters that showed independent and art movies, including the Art Theater in Champaign, which was one of Roger’s favorite cinemas, will never open again,” Chaz Ebert said. “So, we have carefully curated a selection of independent films, especially chosen for our Ebertfest family of movie lovers, to come to our big screen at the beautifully renovated movie palace, the Virginia Theatre.”

The “overlooked” films of this year’s Ebertfest include Gottfried’s appearance to discuss his film, which gives an intimate look behind the scenes in the life of a comedian. The festival also will welcome Krisha Fairchild to discuss her movie Krisha, which is about life, alcoholism, and recovery, but mostly about family. Golden Arm is a movie that brings a slice of life, both comic and dramatic, from a world not many know about—women arm wrestlers. The festival will award many of Golden Arms cast and crew the coveted Golden Thumb. Ebertfest will also discuss the nature of identity with Jason Delane Lee and Yvonne Huff Lee after the paired showing of their short film Lifeline and a second film that they executive-produced, the BAFTA-nominated and Spirit Awards-winning film Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall.

The opening night fare will include diverse voices starting with alt-country artist Clem Snide performing the song “Roger Ebert.” Also slated for April 20 is the Oscar-winning documentary Summer of Soul, followed by acclaimed jazz and torch singer Tammy McCann performing with Champaign’s own Aplustrodamus and Ther’Up.Y (pronounced “Therapy”). The band’s leader emphasizes the therapeutic nature music has for us, especially in these perilous times.

Other scheduled musically related films and events include Soy Cubana, by Jeremy and Robin Ungar, about the “Vocal Vidas”—Cuban singers considered national treasures.

Renee Baker and her 10-piece orchestra will be back by popular demand to accompany and interpret the silent film Siren of the Tropics. The film stars the late Josephine Baker, who in 2021 made history, 46 years after her death, by becoming the first American—and the first Black woman—inducted into the Pantheon in Paris, which is a monument reserved for French national heroes. Born in St. Louis, Baker became a French citizen in 1937. She is buried in Monaco. Previous inductees include Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie. Her induction ceremony was presided over by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Ebertfest has taken extra precautions, going beyond local measures to make audiences feel comfortable. The festival is introducing reserved ticketing for the first time to reduce capacity and provide ample spacing between groups. And the Virginia Theatre has installed a new state-of-the-art ventilation system.

The festival will announce additional filmmaker guests in the coming weeks.

Ebertfest will be held at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign, with related talks and panel discussions at the Hyatt Place in Champaign and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Passes are available for $200, including all processing fees. Four passes purchased together are $700. Also available are a small number of University of Illinois student passes priced at $150 each. Individual movie tickets will be available April 1 at $20 for the general public or $15 for University of Illinois students. Passes and tickets may be purchased through the festival website or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Updates will be posted on the festival website. Depending on available seating, tickets for individual movies may be available April 1.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is a special event of Chaz Ebert and the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For additional information, visit http://www.ebertfest.com.

Editor’s note: Anyone interested in supporting the event as a festival sponsor may contact Andy Hall, the festival’s project coordinator, at amhall2@illinois.edu.

View original press release from the University of Illinois News Bureau.

Media Career Night virtual panels extend engagement opportunities between students and alumni

Media Career Nights, a college initiative borne out of necessity during the pandemic, has become a successful continuing model for connecting students with alumni from across the nation. Now in its second year, this virtual series has been an innovative and effective way to facilitate panel discussions focused on careers in specific media industries.

Three Media Career Nights were scheduled this semester on careers in entertainment media, especially in Hollywood, in nonprofits, and in media and law. Past panels addressed sports media, politics and public life, science communication, crisis communications, and more.

“Students have enjoyed getting advice from professionals and hearing about panelists’ career paths,” said Daniel Almanza, assistant director of Media Career Services. “Students are also interested in knowing the types of organizations, internships, and other things alumni did while they were students here at Illinois.”

Alumni at the entertainment and Hollywood panel included Stephen Feder (BS ’02, media studies), producer at T-Street Productions; Emma Miller (BS ’08, media studies), senior vice president of scripted development and programming at AMC Networks; and Mike Vainisi (BS ’08, journalism), head of original content at ATTN:.

Students asked the panelists about recommended locations to begin entertainment careers, how to gain experience through summer internships, and how to connect with people in the industry. Panelists also provided advice on how to break into the entertainment industry and navigate the job market after college.

“Every experience that you have is part of the narrative you’re going to create, which is what you’ll use to help sell yourself for potential opportunities,” Feder said.

Alumni at the Media Career Night panel on nonprofits included Isabel Morales (BS ’13, journalism), media relations manager at The Nature Conservancy; Rosie Powers (BS ’12, journalism), strategist at Mission Minded; and Bradley Smith (BS ’18, advertising), program development manager at Children’s Miracle Network.

The panelists addressed what influenced them to work in the nonprofit industry, the resources they used during their time at UIUC, and the importance of resumes and portfolios.

“Our alumni panelists value events like these where they can give back and connect with current students,” Almanza said. “They also enjoy sharing their advice, their story, and are happy to discuss other topics to help students as they prepare for a successful career post-graduation.”

The final Media Career Night this semester, on media and law, will take place on April 12. The alumni panelists include Renee Cogdell Lewis (BS ’90, journalism), legal and HR consultant, private investigator, mediator, and coach at MFR Law Group PLLC; Aura L. Lichtenberg (BS ’06, journalism), partner and divorce and family law attorney at Berger Schatz; David E. McCraw (BS ’76, journalism), lead newsroom lawyer at The New York Times; and Todd Stern (BS ’85, advertising), entertainment attorney and shareholder at the law firm of Weintraub Tobin. Students can register here.

Past Media Career Night panels have been recorded and can be viewed online.

“We are grateful to our Media alumni for their generosity with their time and for their sincere interest in helping our students prepare to be the next generation of leaders,” said Dean Tracy Sulkin.

—Faith Lee, Communications Intern

Advanced Filmmaking class produces live action short film

This spring, students in MACS 480: Advanced Filmmaking are producing a live action short film called “The Goji Project,” written and directed by advertising senior Lincoln Rogers. Watch the final video.

The class, led by Victor Font, lecturer in media and cinema studies, built a dorm room set at Illinois Public Media in March and began filming just before spring break.

Students work on pre-lighting while others work on set decoration at the studio.

In February, students held auditions for the film in the new production studio in the basement of Gregory Hall.

Meyerson’s Chicago Public Square named best free daily roundup in your inbox by ‘Chicago Reader’

Charlie Meyerson (BS ’77, MS ’78, journalism), who creates ChicagoPublicSquare.com was named in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago edition for “Best free daily roundup in your inbox.”

“Square reflects all facets of Meyerson’s rich personality, his ear for news, his eye for finding interesting takes on that news, and his taste for quirky bits of human interest,” wrote Chicago Reader critic Jack Helbig.

Chicago Public Square is an email newsletter that Meyerson began producing in 2017. He has spent four decades as a journalist, working in Chicago newsrooms at various radio stations, as well as at the Chicago Tribune.

Directors del Toro, Zwigoff join Ebertfest slate

The 22nd Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, co-founded and hosted by Chaz Ebert and also known as Ebertfest, announced that director Guillermo del Toro will return to the festival in April alongside screenwriter Kim Morgan with a black-and-white version of their Oscar-nominated movie Nightmare Alley. Director Terry Zwigoff also will attend with his cult classic film Ghost World.

Announced last year prior to the festival’s rescheduling to 2022, directors Azazel Jacobs and Ramin Bahrani are also in the Ebertfest lineup. Jacobs will appear with the movie French Exit and Bahrani with The White Tiger—both recent critically acclaimed movies that audiences did not get to watch on the big screen during the pandemic.

Best known for his Academy Award-winning fantasy films Pan’s Labyrinth in 2006 and The Shape of Water in 2017, del Toro is considered among the most creative and visionary artists of his generation, with a distinctive style showcased through his work as a filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and author. The Shape of Water earned the Oscars for best director and best picture.

“Del Toro is a director with a genuine visual sense, with a way of drawing us into his story and evoking the mood with the very look and texture of his shots,” Roger Ebert once wrote. The director appeared at Ebertfest in 2016.

Recalling his last visit to Ebertfest in 2006, Zwigoff said the festival and Roger Ebert’s legacy are important for filmmakers. “Roger was a very wise and enlightened guy,” Zwigoff said. “If the film was a good one, he didn’t care who was in it, or what the budget was, or who made it. If it was good, he embraced it.”

Festival co-founder and host Chaz Ebert, the wife of Roger Ebert—an Urbana native and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign journalism alumnus who gained a wide following as a film critic until his death in 2013—said she is excited by the return to an in-person festival this year.

“Watching movies during quarantine and then again afterward reinforced for me how totally different it is to watch movies in the cinema,” she said. “There are some movies that you don’t want to watch on a little screen unless you have to and, even if you have streamed some of these movies, you are going to get a very different experience seeing them at the festival.

“This is certainly the case for Nightmare Alley, where we’ll screen the black-and-white version that represents the filmmakers’ original vision for the film.”

Ebertfest organizers aim for variety in its programming by curating a mix of small gems, independent films and classics—old and new—as well as blending musical performances into the schedule.

The alt-country band Clem Snide will open the 2022 festival, and musical presentations will be part of other Ebertfest movies this year. A silent movie screening of Siren of the Tropics, starring Josephine Baker, will be accompanied by 10 musicians from Renee Baker’s Chicago Modern Orchestra. In addition, the festival will follow other movies on the schedule with live musical performances that will be announced shortly.

Ebertfest will also feature an “audience choice” movie, the Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps. Among Roger Ebert’s all-time favorite movies, the 1935 British film is an early work that puts on display all of the style elements that Hitchcock is known for.

The festival will announce more films and filmmaker guests in the next few weeks.

Ebertfest will be held April 20-23 at the Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign, with related talks and panel discussions at the Hyatt Place in Champaign and at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Passes are available for purchase at $200, including all processing fees. Four passes purchased together are $700. Also available are a small number of University of Illinois student passes priced at $150 each. Passes may be purchased through the festival website or at the Virginia Theatre box office, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign, 217-356-9063. Updates will be posted on the festival website. Depending on available seating, tickets for individual movies may be available April 1.

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival is an event of the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. For additional information, visit http://www.ebertfest.com.

Anyone interested in supporting the event as a festival sponsor may contact Andy Hall, the festival’s project coordinator, at amhall2@illinois.edu.

Campos illustrates new book by Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Lopez

Andrea Campos (BS ’12, advertising) has teamed up with Jimmy Fallon and Jennifer Lopez for her debut picture book. Con Pollo: A Bilingual Playtime Adventure, which was co-authored by Fallon and Lopez, centers around a bilingual chicken, which was brought to life by Campos’s illustrations. Con Pollo will be released on October 11, 2022.

Learn more.

Kishi wins Shirakawa Shinobu Award from Tokyo Advertising Association

College of Media master’s and doctoral degree alumna Shizue Kishi (MS ’79, advertising; PhD ’83, ICR) received the 41st Shirakawa Shinobu Award from the Tokyo Advertising Association for distinguished contributions to the advertising industry.

Kishi is the first female honoree to win this award, named after the advertising director at Shiseido, the largest cosmetic company in Japan. Kishi will retire on March 31, 2022, after her many years of service as dean of the School of Business at Tokyo Keizai University.

Her publications on media models and communication effects of advertising appeared in Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Proceedings of the American Academy of Advertising, as well as in Japanese academic journals. Her book, Contemporary Advertising (coauthored with Hiroshi Tanaka and Kazue Shimamura), was awarded a prize for an excellent textbook from the Japan Academy of Advertising in 2001.

King to serve as inaugural director of Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media

After a successful run as the executive producer for MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Brian Williams, Colleen King decided to shift her career focus from broadcast TV news to education, pursuing her master’s in journalism and mass communication.

Her new path has led her to become the inaugural director of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media and a clinical assistant professor of journalism.

King, who joined the College of Media in February, looks forward to providing students with “front-row seats” to professional journalism today as programming ramps up at the Frank Center.

She hopes that students will be able to hear from high-profile speakers, get connected with internship opportunities, and learn from professionals directly through panels, workshops, and symposia.

“I want to fulfill the Franks’ mission of making Illinois a top choice for all future journalists and I want every media professional to think of UIUC graduates as the best potential talent for their newsrooms,” King said.

King, who spent 17 years at news outlets from CBS News to Fox News, has produced political news about such high-profile events as presidential elections, inaugurations, and Supreme Court nominations, as well as other national news stories such as the Parkland, Florida, school shooting and several devastating hurricanes.

Colleen King in control room — Colleen King works in the control room during *The 11th Hour.*

During her time at The 11th Hour, King helped the show transform from what was supposed to be a six-week, half-hour news digest to a permanent full-hour program that became the number one rated cable newscast in the 11 p.m. time slot.

“I loved my time in television and I am so proud of all of the time and effort I put into that work,” she said. “Some of my most rewarding moments in journalism were working with younger team members and staffers and watching them learn and develop skills that helped them rise through the ranks in journalism, so [the transition] was a natural progression for me,” she added.

After leaving MSNBC in 2019, King earned her master’s degree from Kent State University, concentrating on journalism education. That time allowed her to consider how to apply her newsroom skills in the classroom.

“I can [provide] students with my firsthand experience of being in multiple newsrooms for all hours of the day and all days of the week covering a range of stories,” King said. “I’ve experienced firsthand what they’ll be walking into and I hope that my knowledge and skills can be an asset for them—both in learning how to navigate their roles in journalism and introducing them to professional opportunities that can help them develop their own career paths.”

This semester, King is teaching JOUR 494: Navigating the Job Market. She feels that it is the perfect way to begin her career in education and she is excited to equip and prepare students for their own journalism careers.

“It’s incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by student journalists because they have the drive and passion that makes us remember why we got into this business,” King said.

Students can look forward to more Frank Center programming later this spring. Past panel discussions can be viewed on YouTube:

—Story by Faith Lee, Communications Intern. Headshot of Colleen King by Isabella Pennebaker, Photography Intern.