As a CAS Associate, Ng will take time off from teaching in Fall 2026 to advance her research on “platform migration,” focusing on how regulatory bans, algorithmic shifts, and geopolitical tensions drive user migration between social media platforms. She argues that these shifts are fueling digital nationalism and reshaping digital sovereignty in an increasingly fragmented society.
Ng said recent events highlight the urgency of this topic, including the restructuring of TikTok in the U.S. and regulatory restrictions in Taiwan, the decline of Twitter/X use among journalists and academics, and the rise of Truth Social as the de facto official channel for the U.S. Presidency. These events reveal how global tensions and local politics are transforming the platforms people choose and the public spheres they build.
“We live in an era of rapid digital migration. We are seeing a wave of “digital migration” where users are trading in the dominant platforms for new communities that match who they are and what they care about.” Ng said.
“This project examines the forces behind this shift—from algorithmic decay and privacy concerns to political polarization and digital fatigue—and how these movements are reshaping the social, political, and cultural dimensions of online life.”
Ng said her study will particularly investigate digital migration across the United States, Hong Kong, and Taiwan by integrating large-scale computational analysis, surveys of thousands of users, and in-depth interviews with college students, journalists, tech workers, and elderly users. Drawing from those insights, the project will develop a framework that explains how political systems, institutional pressures, and everyday user practices intersect to shape modern migration patterns.
Ng said the findings promise to advance both theory and policy by documenting how these digital migrations create new forms of labor precarity, fragment public discourse, and erode the shared information environment essential for democracy. As users segregate into platforms that reflect their personal identities, the project explores how this new “digital mobility” challenges Big Tech dominance, redefines national sovereignty online, and ultimately reshapes the future of media, regulation, and public life.
Ng was appointed a CAS Associate for the Fall 2026 semester upon the recommendation of CAS professors and with concurrence of campus and university administrations.
CAS Associates are tenured Illinois faculty members whose project proposals are selected in an annual competition. They are granted one semester of teaching release time to pursue an individual scholarly or creative project.
The Center for Advanced Study works with every department on campus to identify and support the most productive, high-achieving, and innovative faculty at Illinois, providing them with connections and funding to pursue their work. Members of this accomplished community are invited to participate in CAS activities throughout the year and given opportunities to present their work to the CAS community. See CAS’s upcoming events.
January 22, 2026 | Giuliana Means, Communications Intern
From capturing fall aesthetics to investigating local ghost stories, students in the Documentary Club take a deeper look into campus life.
The registered student organization began in Spring 2024 to create a supportive space for both amateur and professional documentary filmmakers. They meet weekly in Gregory Hall to discuss and work on current projects, as well as host workshops to enhance their interviewing, filmmaking, and editing skills.
“I don’t necessarily need it to be good, professional, or amazing,” said Paige Gaines, president of the Documentary Club, and a senior earning a dual degree in media and cinema studies and in communication. “I just want people to make something and grow their skills because I think those skills are really transferable.”
Gaines said she was inspired to form the club because there was no official community for documentary-making on campus.
“I decided to be the change that I wanted to see and make a club for anybody who wants to be able to tell their own stories.”
Gaines says that documentaries are important because they shed light on stories that are often forgotten about in the media.
“There are so many different, wonderful, and beautiful things that are being discovered in our world,” Gaines said. “A lot of people have made big differences in our world, and those stories are often not talked about.”
The club is modest in size, with only five members, but welcomes interested students to join them. They currently have a handful of projects in the works, including a mini-series about campus life called Candid Campus. That project will feature footage from campus that shows what students see and hear on a typical school day at the University of Illinois.
“We’re going around campus and just seeing what’s happening,” Gaines said, adding that they are working with other student organizations to make short informational videos about them.
Gaines’s most recent video in this project is a profile about Velosity Dance, a sorority-led dance club.
“Filming dance is so interesting,” Gaines said. “You can play around a lot with how the body moves, so I’m really excited for the final project.”
The documentaries usually take a semester to complete and are often captured on smartphones or cameras that students in College of Media courses can check out from the Media Technology Center.
“We use whatever we can get our hands on,” Gaines said. “It’s truly just a hodgepodge; we fix it all in post-production, where we do a lot of color correcting to make everything look cohesive.”
Gaines’s favorite part of the club is the community.
“It may be small, but we are mighty,” Gaines said. “I love working with the people here. I just hope these friendships and relationships will last because it’s something I have found really fulfilling.”
Join a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future of the College of Media at Illinois
January 14, 2026
A centennial is more than a milestone—it’s an invitation to define the future together.
As the College of Media approaches its 100th anniversary, we celebrate our proud legacy and commit to advancing the next era of media education and research. Illinois Media graduates have informed the public, shaped culture, advanced technology, and transformed the way the world connects. To ensure this momentum carries into the next century, the College of Media invites its most passionate supporters to help lead the way through the Centennial Circle.
The Centennial Circle will be launched to honor visionary donors who make transformational investments. Induction into the Centennial Circle recognizes gifts of $100,000 or more to any fund in the College of Media between January 1, 2026, and December 31, 2027. Donors can make an outright gift, a pledge, or a deferred gift such as a bequest in their will or a beneficiary designation of their IRA.
College of Media Dean Tracy Sulkin emphasized the historic significance of the Centennial Circle as the college celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2027.
“A centennial invites us to honor our past while envisioning a bold future. In this unique moment, philanthropy will play a central role in shaping the next 100 years of media,” said Dean Sulkin. “Joining the Centennial Circle is an opportunity to create a powerful, lasting legacy—one that uplifts generations of students and strengthens media education and research at Illinois for decades to come.”
Donors may choose to support any fund in the College of Media, including the Centennial Fund, which helps meet emerging priorities, from technology advancements and innovative pedagogy to faculty and student research. Recent examples of donor-funded impact include the founding of the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media and the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, student support such as scholarships and the Media Technology Center, and faculty support such as research initiatives and named professorships.
Preparing students for academic and professional success means ensuring they can navigate, analyze, and communicate effectively in an ever-changing media landscape. Support for the Centennial Fund positions the college to address complex societal challenges, including AI, media literacy, civic and public engagement, and the accessibility of news and information.
Joining the Centennial Circle is an opportunity to create a powerful, lasting legacy—one that uplifts generations of students and strengthens media education and research at Illinois for decades to come.
Tracy Sulkin
College of Media Dean
“The Centennial Circle reflects the power of partnership between the College of Media and our alumni and friends,” said Deanne Johnson, senior assistant dean for advancement. “By aligning philanthropic vision with emerging priorities, donors help ensure Illinois remains at the forefront of media education for generations.”
The historic cohort of Centennial Circle donors will be recognized during a College of Media centennial celebration and featured across the college’s communication channels. Recipients will also get a commemorative Centennial Circle lapel pin.
Join us in shaping the College of Media’s second century:
We welcome the opportunity to explore how your philanthropic vision can align with your passions and create lasting impact for the College of Media’s second century. To learn more, please contact Deanne Johnson, Senior Assistant Dean for Advancement, at 217-244-5466 or jhns@illinois.edu.
Students in ADV 498: The Sandage Project developed campaigns for three community organizations in Fall 2025, including Lincoln250, H3 (Harm, Healing, and Hope), and EARS Effingham Animal Rescue Sanctuary.
Advertising students pictured with their client, H3.
“The students put together impressive campaigns for each, and the clients were very happy,” said senior lecturer of advertising Marisa Peacock.
The eight-week service-learning capstone provides advertising majors an opportunity to develop ad campaigns for a nonprofit or local community partner. Clients may use any campaigns or assets produced.
Cooper Haynes, a senior in advertising, was part of the Lincoln250 team, which developed a full digital platform, including a website and Instagram page, that organizes, interprets, and presents Lincoln-era history in a modern, accessible format.
“Working with my team and actually being divided into roles with goals and objectives that we set for each member was really nice for having a bit of insight into how team dynamics work at real agency and company jobs,” he said. “Navigating problems [with] people having different ideas of how to approach things was also a great experience for preparing for the industry as well.”
Throughout the course, students meet clients to understand the organization and campaign goals, then complete a discovery report analyzing the target audience, brand, and competitive landscape. These insights inform the campaign strategy.
Teams pitch three campaign concepts to the client and based on feedback, select one to develop further. Students refine the creative and media strategies and present a final campaign in the last week.
Three student teams collaborated to strengthen the visibility and impact of H3 (Harm, Healing, Hope), a coalition of organizations, businesses, and individuals in Champaign County dedicated to ending community violence. Together, these groups produced a cohesive set of recommendations to help H3 share its story, reach its audience, and transform its mission into a broader movement.
Jamaira Williams, a senior in advertising who worked on the H3 campaign, said she learned the true lesson of the Sandage course wasn’t about selling a product, but selling a feeling.
“Advertising is, at its core, the purest form of storytelling. Every brand color, every word chosen, is a mirror, because people crave to see themselves reflected in the world. We’re not crafting fiction, we’re guiding real brands and real livelihoods,” she said. “The moment you respect the reality of their brand, you transition from student to professional.”
Clients for the Sandage Project are selected based on their ability to support meaningful, real-world public engagement experiences for students. Ideal clients are community partners—on or off campus—who are open to authentic collaboration and willing to actively engage with students throughout the process. Their mission or campaign should benefit from storytelling that creates emotional connection, often through real community voices or narratives.
Natalie Circolone, a senior in advertising, worked as the creative director for the EARS Effingham Animal Rescue Sanctuary, positioning the rescue as a transparent, caring, foster-based organization that helps people “write the next chapter” in each animal’s life by adopting or fostering. The team also helped to increase awareness and engagement through social media storytelling and small, tangible touchpoints like stickers and goodie bags that keep EARS visible in the community.
“The Sandage Project gives seniors in advertising a real opportunity to work in an agency setting, with designated roles and a real client,” Circolone said. “Through this project, I gained hands-on experience planning and executing a creative campaign, applying skills I’ve developed over the past four years in advertising courses. The opportunity to create something meaningful for such a great cause was a rewarding experience.”
Understanding the role of popular television shows and movies in society—and in students’ own lives—is a central focus of a high-enrollment 100-level course in the College of Media at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Starting in the 2026-27 academic year, the media and cinema studies course “Introduction to Popular TV and Movies” will be one of four U of I courses also taught in the classrooms of select Illinois high schools as part of the new Dual Credit Learning Accelerator initiative.
The four courses are:
ASTR 150: Killer-Skies: Astro-Disaster
CS/STAT 107: Data Science Discovery
MACS 100: Introduction to Popular TV and Movies
SPED 117: The Culture of Disability
This pilot opportunity marks a new approach for the university in offering its popular general education courses directly to high school students across Illinois in the form of dual credit—at no cost to those students.
“The dual-credit initiative reflects our university’s commitment to expanding access and opportunity for students and families across Illinois,” said Provost John Coleman. “Through the Learning Accelerator’s innovative learning model, we’re bringing transformative educational experiences to high school classrooms and preparing students throughout the state for success in college and beyond.”
Led by the Office of Online Learning and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, the Learning Accelerator was funded through the American Talent Initiative IDEAS grant to establish the university’s first dual-credit initiative.
The result is a dual-credit model that can scale up so that an academic unit at the U of I can offer any of its courses to a high school student.
The College of Media is proud to support this initiative, which strengthens the land-grant mission by expanding access to an Illinois education and promoting early student success.
“The dual-credit program offers us the opportunity to bring our exciting media curriculum to students who interact with the media but have a limited idea as to how it’s developed and created,” said Jason P. Chambers, associate dean for access and engagement and professor of advertising. “By providing students access to courses such as MACS 100, they’ll get a chance to consider a media major before arriving at the University of Illinois.”
Through the MACS 100 course, students will build media literacy skills while thinking critically about popular media. One goal of the course is to teach students how to see beyond narrative to address how the film form—such as cinematography, editing, sound, and special effects—generates meaning.
“The most important lesson, I believe, is that even ‘popular’ media, films, and TV shows produced for mass audiences have meaning and complexity,” said Jon Knipp, senior lecturer of media and cinema studies who teaches MACS 100. “These are cultural expressions that tell us a lot about the world and ourselves if we pay attention—and thinking about something deeply makes it more enjoyable.”
The four new dual-credit courses slated for the 2026-27 academic year were developed to showcase the breadth of educational topics offered at Illinois, with faculty partners who are passionate about reaching students from underrepresented populations and interested in presenting their courses in a setting outside of campus that might spark interest in their fields of study.
“We’re trying to offer both an advanced educational experience, but also something that students might not get in a regular high school class,” said Hilary Gross, the Learning Accelerator program coordinator. “The hope is that we might show high school students that college can be whatever you make it.”
Ken Burns’s new PBS series The American Revolution is more than a sweeping historical documentary—it illustrates the ways in which journalism helped ignite and sustain the fight for independence. Melita Garza, associate professor and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Scholar in Business Journalism, and winner of Journalism History’s 2024 essay contest, shares her insights on journalism’s pivotal role in shaping America’s founding era.
About the Media Expert
Melita M. Garza, associate professor in the Department of Journalism and a faculty member of the Institute of Communications Research, is an American journalism historian who studies news as an agent of democracy, specializing in English- and Spanish-language news, the immigrant press, and coverage of underrepresented groups. She is the lead editor of The Routledge Companion to American Journalism History (2024). Her research has won awards from the American Journalism Historians Association, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication divisions of: History, Minorities and Communication, and International Communication.
How does this series place journalism at the heart of the American Revolution?
The most obvious example is the documentary’s treatment of colonial reaction to the Stamp Act, showing that the two dozen weekly newspapers, along with pamphleteers, stoked support for colonial tax protests. Significant though this is, the imprint of journalism on the Revolution is much bigger than that.
Bostonians reading the Stamp Act in 1765, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Consider that Burns starts his six-part history with a quote from Thomas Paine, America’s first political journalist. The documentary opens with a black screen that slowly transforms into the pink, purple, and yellow colors of dawn. The audience then hears a voice intoning:
From a small spark, kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished. Without consuming, it winds its progress from nation to nation, and conquers by a silent operation. Man finds himself changed and discovers that the strength and powers of despotism consist wholly in the fear of resisting it, and that in order to be free, it is sufficient that he wills it.”
Although these words of agency come from Paine’s The Rights of Man, written in 1791 during the French Revolution, they capture the spirt of Paine’s earlier writings, such as Common Sense, which helped catalyze the colonists to pursue and persist in the American Revolution. Writing for Wired in 1995, Jon Katz explained why this pioneer of free expression should be remembered in the Internet age. “Because we owe Paine. He is our dead and silenced ancestor. He made us possible.” The documentary covers the eight years of the American Revolution, making it impossible to push too deeply into any single historical actor’s role with the depth they deserve. Ideally, however, the series will inspire viewers to take another look at Thomas Paine and other figures from our past whose impact isn’t fully understood today.
Political cartoon (1754) attributed to Benjamin Franklin, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
And there’s more. Still within the first two-and-a-half minutes of the documentary, viewers are introduced to Benjamin Franklin. Although described simply as a noted scientist and writer in The American Revolution, Franklin was a pivotal figure in the development of American journalism and is credited with publishing one of the earliest pieces of colonial visual journalism: the political cartoon. The documentary showcases the famous “Join, or Die” snake woodcut drawing, published in Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754. Originally designed to rouse the colonists to unite during the French and Indian War, the documentary notes that it was republished to urge colonial unity against the British during the American Revolution.
The documentary is replete with such examples of what I call “hidden” journalism, in which their groundbreaking significance to the journalism profession as a whole remains obscured.
Apart from serving as a sparkplug for rebellion, what are some other ways the documentary depicts the role of journalism in colonial life?
There are a few things, again, just in the first installment, that the documentary flicks at, which underscore the primacy of journalism and print culture more generally in the lives of the colonists. For instance, in a segment discussing the impact of British culture on colonial life, historian Jane Kamensky references the London Book Shop and the Crown Coffee House in Boston. Bookstores offered colonial citizens exposure to Enlightenment ideas, among other things, and served as centers of cultural exchange for the community. Book sellers were often also in the newspaper business. One such newspaper owner was Benjamin Franklin, who is also credited with being first to open a book shop in colonial America. Likewise, coffeehouses were central places for the exchange of news and newspapers. These are two more examples of the “hidden” journalism in the documentary.
Another aspect of journalism that might be easy to overlook in the documentary involves the episode of the Saturday, December 27, 1760, arrival of the British frigate that “brought with it big news”—the death of King George II and the ascendancy of King George III to the British throne. In early colonial America, it was often faster to get news from England by ship than it was to get news from southern colonies, considering the state of the roads at the time. Even so, having to wait two months to find out that you were being ruled by a new monarch illuminates the pace of colonial communication compared to that of today’s high speed Wi-Fi society.
What can TheAmerican Revolution teach us about telling historical stories in ways that connect with today’s audiences?
Ken Burns is well known as a gifted storyteller and the documentary’s striking visuals, sound effects and music, and well-edited commentary from experts, are staples of his work. In The American Revolution, letters and journals from young men, women, and officials and pundits on both sides are the stars. These primary sources allow individuals to speak as though they are reporting to us from the homefront and the battlefront, and that brings the Revolution right into our living rooms centuries after it ended. Simply employing solid storytelling techniques is only partly why the story resonates with today’s audiences. The other reason is that we can see parallels with our own experience. Some of these parallels are obvious. Others are a matter of perspective.
Thomas Paine (1792) by Laurent Dabos, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For instance, one scene shows colonists on the street reading newspapers together, with some looking like they are commenting to each other. Thinking critically about media and information, the colonists were practicing true social media. In person, face-to-face, they exchanged ideas in a way today’s often anonymous, digital exchanges can’t compare. And as the documentary also notes, word of mouth was also a prime source of news. While it is true that stories and ideas didn’t have a World Wide Web to buzz through, these mechanisms still allowed journalism, starting with Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, to go viral through the colonies. In fact, the documentary points out a prime reason for print culture’s popularity in the Thirteen Colonies: At the time, only Scandinavia was more literate than the American colonial population.
Other relatable issues that we still grapple with today, such as women’s rights, the limits of free speech, taxation, and immigration, to name a few, are also highlighted. Take immigration. In the documentary, historian Christopher Brown discusses “the sheer diversity…living in the heart of the Thirteen Colonies”: Africans, Scots, Scots-Irish, Huguenots, Germans, and Native Americans, along with the English. The outcome of American Revolution, both the reel one and the real one, proves it was not culture, national origin, or language that brought the colonists success. In historian Christopher Brown’s words, the colonists cohered “around a set of purposes and ideals for one common cause.” In my view, the American Revolution shows how colonial journalism played a prime role in establishing coherence for that single cause: freedom.
The Institute of Communications Research marked a highly productive year at the 2025 National Communication Association convention from November 19-23 in Denver, Colorado, with faculty members, students, and alumni presenting research, chairing panels, and contributing to programming at the 111th annual event.
In addition to this strong scholarly presence, several members of the ICR community were recognized with some of NCA’s most prestigious awards.
“These achievements underscore ICR’s enduring leadership in communication scholarship and its commitment to fostering impactful research across generations of scholars,” said Mike Yao, director of ICR and professor of digital media in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising.
One of this year’s standout accomplishments came from ICR doctoral student Nansong Zhou (pictured above), whose paper “Serious Games as Digital Mental Health Tools: Increasing Depression Literacy and Reducing Stigma,” co-authored with Donghan Fu (University of Missouri-Columbia), was selected as a Top Student Paper in the Game Studies Division. Zhou was also elected to serve as the Division’s next Student and Early Career Representative, a leadership role that reflects his growing visibility and influence within the field.
ICR’s reputation for shaping the field was further affirmed by the recognition of Sang-Hwa Oh,associate professor of advertising, whose article—co-authored with former ICR doctoral student Seoyoon Lee (PhD ’23)—received the inaugural Teri Thompson Outstanding Article Award from Health Communication(pictured above). This rare honor is especially notable: Out of the journal’s 35-year publication history, only three papers were selected for this distinction. Receiving the award directly from the journal’s founding editor, Teresa Thompson, underscored the lasting influence and methodological rigor of Oh’s research on social media, public risk perception, and preventive health behaviors.
The conference also celebrated the contributions of Angharad Valdivia, ICR professor emerita, who was honored with NCA’s Distinguished Scholar Award during the President’s Award Ceremony (pictured above). One of NCA’s highest honors, the award recognizes a career of groundbreaking scholarship and mentorship in media studies, Latina/Latino studies, and global communication. Valdivia’s presence throughout the conference—as panel chair, respondent, mentor, and presenter—reflected both her continuing intellectual leadership and her deep commitment to supporting emerging scholars. Valdivia’s NCA participation included:
Senior Mentor, 2025 La Raza Mentoring Panel
Member, Publications Council Meeting
Chair and respondent, “The Complexities of Elevating Latinidad and the Media”
Respondent, “Audiences Navigating Disney and Popular U.S. TV Shows”
Presenter (with ICR doctoral student Kendra Williams), “Barbie as a Cultural Phenomenon: Doll, Brand, and Media Icon”
ICR faculty and students also contributed important new research to the conference program. Kevin Wise,professor of advertising, and doctoral student Alice Jicollaborated on the study “Reimagining the Presentation of Important Safety Information (ISI) in Social Media Pharmaceutical Advertising,” co-authored with ICR doctoral student Veranika Paltaratskayaand Erin Willis (University of Colorado, Boulder), presented in the Health Communication Division. Their work adds to ICR’s growing presence in research addressing digital health communication and public understanding of risk information.
Jicontributed an additional presentation on ISI in pharmaceutical social media advertising as part of the Health Communication Division’s paper session. ICR doctoral student Jennifer Zhangpresented her dissertation research, “More Vivid, More Deeply Processed: Exploring the Roles of Message Format in Misinformation and Correction of Health Misbeliefs,” in the Health Communication Division.
Two ICR alumni were also recognized with major awards at NCA:
Mel Stanfill (PhD ’15), University of Central Florida, won the Diamond Anniversary Book Award for the book Fandom Is Ugly: Networked Harassment in Participatory Culture (NYU Press, 2024).
Diana Leon-Boys (PhD ’20), University of Wisconsin-Madison, won NCA’s New Investigator Award in the Critical and Cultural Studies Division.
The Teaching and Mentoring in Diversity award honors faculty, instructors, or lecturers who have consistently contributed to the promotion of understanding critical issues related to diversity and equity in teaching and/or the mentoring of diverse students.
Wilson-Brown was nominated in part by students, including Odi Ogbuefi, a senior in advertising, pictured at right.
The Larine Y. Cowan Make a Difference Awards celebrate the achievements of faculty, academic professionals, and civic service employees who made significant contributions in creating and sustaining an inclusive living, learning, and working community at Illinois.
Named in honor of the past Assistant Chancellor and Director of what is now the Office for Access & Equity, the Larine Y. Cowan Awards were created to reflect the commitment to human rights advocacy, social justice, and diversity that defined her leadership for nearly 20 years at Illinois.
Learn more about the people who help make our college such a great place to work—what they do, what inspires them, and a few things you might not know—in this Q&A series featuring staff members from across the College of Media and Illinois Public Media.
Ann Abdelzaher eLearning Specialist Media Tech
How long have you worked at the College of Media?
Four-and-a-half years.
What led you to your current career or position?
I started in special education and gradually switched gears to educational technology where I became focused on eLearning, first as a developer.
Can you tell us a little about what you do in your current role?
I help faculty members develop online courses that are both engaging and accessible and in keeping with current best practices. I also advise faculty on the current technologies and tools available to them.
What’s one fun fact about you that your coworkers might not know?
I have an extensive collection of Disney’s Goofy, and I love to crochet.
What’s your favorite place (restaurant, coffee shop, park, etc.) in Champaign-Urbana?
Kohinoor Indian restaurant! Their food is the best.
What are you currently watching, listening to, or reading?
I always have at least two books going at once as well as an audio book. But I am currently reading Unbound by Michael Miller.
Beginning in Fall 2025, the Department of Media & Cinema Studies created a new internship for students at Flyover Film Studios in Rantoul. Francisco Albarran, a senior in media and cinema studies, was the first student selected for the program.
Francisco Albarran, a senior in media and cinema studies, met rapper Wiz Khalifa while working as an intern on the set of the upcoming crime drama Moses the Black.
Albarran was able to work on the production of a new drama Moses the Black, starring Omar Epps and rappers Wiz Khalifa and Quavo. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is an executive producer of the film, which is set to premiere in January 2026.
The semester-long internship, which grew out of conversations with Victor Font, senior lecturer of media and cinema studies, and Flyover Film Studios, offers students hands-on experience in a growing local film industry.
“Learning about Flyover’s [film] projects made me realize what a remarkable hands-on experience this could be for our MACS students,” Font said. “It took time and coordination to make it happen, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see this partnership become a reality.”
Film production in the region is expanding, thanks to new state tax incentives that are drawing more companies to shoot locally, said Derek Long, associate professor of media and cinema studies. For students, this surge translates into increased opportunities for on-set learning in a field where practical experience is essential.
“As MACS expands its media production-oriented curriculum, we are always seeking professionalization opportunities for our students, as media production is very much a learn-by-doing industry,” Long said.
The internship is designed for advanced production students willing to learn the different facets of the media production industry—from directing and cinematography to support and infrastructure roles.
I think the real benefit of this internship lies in opening students’ eyes to the wide variety of different types of labor that go into a professional media production in the 21st century, including those that aren’t necessarily ‘on set.’
Derek Long
Associate Professor of Media & Cinema Studies
“Our hope is that they get a broad sampling of the types of media industry work they might do after they finish their degree. In that sense, we want that broader experience to augment both the on-set focus of our classroom production curriculum and the critical thinking skills of our studies courses,” Long added.
Interns work both at Flyover Studios, which hosts sets, costumes, production offices, and other resources, and with visiting production companies shooting in Illinois.
“I think the real benefit of this internship lies in opening students’ eyes to the wide variety of different types of labor that go into a professional media production in the 21st century, including those that aren’t necessarily ‘on set,’” Long said.
Through his internship, Albarran was able to participate in many aspects of film production. He helped build bedroom and jail sets; shaped scenes filmed at Willard Airport in Savoy; and transported crew members.
Being involved in day-to-day operations also allowed Albarran to meet and interact with cast and crew, pictured below from left to right, the film’s director Yelena Popovic and actors Vonzell D. Scott (Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist) and Corey Hendrix (The Bear).
Albarran said he was nervous at times about his role on the set, but encouragement from everyone around him helped boost his confidence.
“I was anxious, but everyone was telling me to relax, just enjoy the moment—that I deserved to be there just as much as anyone else,” he said. “I have all these people who just believe in me, and there’s no greater feeling than that.”
