Unit 31 | DEV College of Media

I on the Media: Brant Houston discusses the police raid on ‘Marion County Record’

September 8, 2023 | Holly Rushakoff

About the Media Expert

Professor Brant Houston is Knight Chair of Investigative and Enterprise Reporting in the Department of Journalism. He is the author of Changing Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom, co-author of the Investigative Reporter’s Handbook, among other books. In addition to teaching, Brant Houston oversees the online newsroom CU-CitizenAccess.org, devoted to community and watchdog reporting and data-driven stories by journalism students.

Houston served for more than a decade as the executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors and was an award-winning investigative reporter at daily newspapers for 17 years. He is co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network and the Investigative News Network and advises nonprofits newsrooms in the U.S. and internationally.

What were your first thoughts when you learned about the August 11 police raid on the Marion County Record, run by your former colleague, retired University of Illinois associate professor of journalism Eric Meyer, as well as his home?

My first thoughts were that this was an out-of-control, small-town justice system whose actions resembled those of autocratic governments in developing countries. Although those governments go on to burn down news offices and imprison reporters.

Did you talk about the Marion County Record and Eric Meyer with your advanced reporting classes on the first day of class, only 10 days after the raid?

I did talk about it. To be candid, most of the students had not heard about it. The one student who had been in one of Eric Meyer’s classes was aware of it. I explained what had happened, the dangers it represented to a free press if replicated, and talked about the broad national support Eric Meyer and his weekly were getting.

What does it mean for local journalism and First Amendment rights that the national response to this case has been one of overwhelming support for Meyer and his newspaper?

We live in a time when the national press is under constant criticism and attack, while at the same time officials and the general public have realized the local newsrooms, which generally are regarded as more credible and accessible, have been deeply diminished by a changing business model that has led to budget and staff cuts. The national response shows there is still strong belief in the First Amendment and a free and independent press.

Marion County police were ordered to return the seized equipment and phones because of insufficient evidence to support a raid. How can newsrooms prevent overstepping of their First Amendment rights?

The only way to prevent such invasions of newsrooms and other overstepping of First Amendment rights is through the assertion of the value of those rights and immediate and robust responses to those violations. It is a constant struggle to preserve those rights, but absolutely necessary.

Is there a misperception of investigative journalism and its value?

I think the value of solid credible investigative journalism is widely recognized and appreciated. While those under scrutiny may not like it, the public still counts on investigative journalists to be watchdogs for the community, to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in government and to hold the powerful accountable for taking advantage of the powerless. For a community, investigative reporting is often the court of last resort, when bureaucracies or businesses fail to correct bad practices or protect the public.

“I on the Media” is a series from the University of Illinois College of Media in which faculty, staff, and students at the college address current issues and research.

Media faculty and TAs make list of teachers ranked as excellent

September 8, 2023

Congratulations to all of the College of Media faculty and teaching assistants who were ranked as excellent by their students!

This list is based on Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) questionnaire forms completed by students during the Spring 2023 semester. Only those instructors who distributed ICES forms at least once during this time period and who released their data for publication are included in the list. View the complete list.

Note: * denotes that the instructor ratings were outstanding.
+ denotes Summer 2023 course.

ADVERTISING

* TERRY KASDAN – ADV 409

* SHACHAR MERON – ADV 283

SUSAN MUIRHEAD – ADV 490

* MICHELLE NELSON – ADV 582

* MARISA PEACOCK – ADV 410, ADV 498

SELA SAR – ADV 588

RASHMI TENNETI – ADV 490

CARRIE WILSON-BROWN – ADV 301, ADV 400

JOURNALISM

CHRISTOPHER BALL – JOUR 430, JOUR 451

* LEON DASH – JOUR 452

COLLEEN KING – JOUR 210

CAROL LOMBARDI – JOUR 220

MARGARET NG – JOUR 425

CARLA ERDEY – JOUR 453

MEDIA

*DEREK LONG – MACS 590

MEDIA & CINEMA STUDIES

CL COLE – MACS 356

VICTOR FONT – MACS 371+

JONATHAN KNIPP – MACS 282

E. KURT – MACS 372

DEREK LONG – MACS 361

CARRIE WILSON-BROWN – MACS 203

STRATEGIC BRAND COMMUNICATION

RICH PIECZYNSKI – SBC 504

TEACHING ASSISTANTS

* C. ARREAZOLA – ADV 150

S. HEO – ADV 283

* D. LEE – ADV 460

* J. LIU – ADV 200

* S. PARK – ADV 283

* D. CARRILLO FUCHS – MACS 101

* J. CINTRON – MACS 100

* Y. GAO – MACS 101

A. PENG – MACS 101

R. SIECZKOWSKI – MACS 260

Veranika Paltaratskaya

Email: vp21@illinois.edu

Research Interests

Veranika’s master’s thesis focused on the topic of time perception during media use. Her current research focuses on time perception, message fatigue, and computational approaches to communications research.

Veranika completed her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and art history at Emory University, and her master’s in advertising at UIUC.

Recent Publications/Presentations

Paltaratskaya, V., Wise, K. Time perception, cognitive load, and memory for short form video applications (SVAs). 73rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association. Toronto, Canada, in review.

Courses Taught

ADV 284 Consumer Insights

Awards and Honors

Earl M. Cummings Advertising Education Research Award (Spring 2022)

Media students apply classroom skills to internships across the country

September 6, 2023 | Faith Lee, Communications Intern

Several Media students put the skills they learned in the classroom to good work this summer, applying their course knowledge to on-the-job training. At internships across the country, students gained valuable lessons that will help provide them with future academic and professional success. Here are just a few student experiences:

Vivian La
Reporting Intern/Asian American Journalists Association Intern with Chicago Tribune

Vivian La, a senior in journalism, worked as a reporting intern with the Chicago Tribune, covering environmental issues such as the city’s poor air quality due to Canadian wildfires. La’s work also focused on climate change and how it has affected Chicagoans—from tick season to home flooding.

La also covered breaking news twice a week, including crime, weather, and various events. She had the opportunity to write about the Chicago Pride Parade and the NASCAR Chicago Street Race. In addition, La was able to write one of her favorite pieces of the summer about the first LGBTQ+ pride parade held in Petersburg, Illinois.

La said she absorbed a lot of useful information from experienced journalists in the newsroom.

“There are a couple people who are on the younger side, who are just graduating college, but there are people there who have been nominated for Pulitzers,” La said. “Even just being in the office and listening to them talk to each other, or talk to me, or overhearing their phone interviews with people, you learn a lot just by sitting there and soaking in what people are saying to each other.”

Trent Miles
Business Affairs Intern with AppleTV+

Trent Miles, a junior in media and cinema studies, worked as a contract administration intern with AppleTV+ in Los Angeles. In his position, Miles assisted in three departments supporting a senior executive in charge of securing feature film deals.

Due to the ongoing strike by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, Miles had to work in the non-fiction programming department since production for scripted programming had stopped. Miles assisted sports executives in securing documentary deals by previewing submitted pitches and providing feedback on them.

A highlight of Miles’s time at AppleTV+ was being able to explore and find a passion for the non-fiction department.

“I came in wanting to do something in scripted, and then when I found out that scripted is not doing anything because of the strike, I guess I just naturally fell in love with non-scripted,” Miles said.

Paris Baptiste
Marketing Intern with Music for All

Paris Baptiste, a second-year graduate student pursuing a master’s in advertising, spent her summer as an intern with Music for All, an event-based, nonprofit educational organization. She worked on several projects including research and creating social media posts.

Baptiste enjoyed having the opportunity to attend a band camp for one week during the internship as well as the chance to work on a small team.

“Because it was a smaller nonprofit, it was a smaller team, and I felt very heard and listened to and like an actual part of the team, which was very valuable,” Baptiste said.

As an undergraduate, Baptiste took ADV 290 (now ADV 201): Social Media and Personal Branding that was helpful during her time at Music for All.

“That course presented ways to write content, how to find content, and that really helped when I was kind of stuck writing the same thing over and over again to post on Instagram,” Baptiste said.

Nathan Lin
Sales Intern with Procter & Gamble

Nathan Lin, a senior in communication in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences who is also pursuing a media sales certificate in advertising, relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina, this summer, where he joined Procter & Gamble as a sales intern. Lin assisted the fabric care division of the company to help increase profits and provided recommendations about product sales.

Lin, who credits several advertising courses with giving him the skills he needed to be a successful sales intern, says the experience will help boost his growing professional career.

“It was good work. I learned a lot,” Lin said. “I really learned how to sell and present. [I learned] it’s less about presenting and more about having a conversation with the buyer and being able to be persuasive and sell the products.”

Editor’s note: If you had a summer internship, we’d love to hear about it! Media students are invited to share summer work experiences here. Media students are also invited to learn about career resources by making an appointment with Media Career Services. For more career advice, Media students can attend a Rapid Resume Review on September 11 and attend our virtual Media Career Nights held throughout the academic year.