Unit 5 | DEV College of Media

I on the Media: Inside the Cultural Momentum of the 2026 Sports Season

Fans in a pub watching hockey and cheering together

February 19, 2025

The Super Bowl, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, and the FIFA World Cup this summer have set the stage for a sports season defined not just by competition but by community.

These sporting events create shared viewing rituals that bring millions of people together to experience the games in real time. And while audiences continue to reach historic highs, even as media habits fragment, it’s worth examining how these events shape identity, fandom, community, and the way people connect with one another.

To help understand why sports carry such cultural influence and how brands try to engage with fans in these moments of collective attention, we spoke with Steve Hall, senior lecturer of advertising, who is teaching a brand new course this semester on “Sports Advertising and Branding” and serves as chair of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Athletic Board.

With the rise of “communal viewing”—from watch parties to bars to fan zones—how does the social nature of watching sports amplify the impact of an ad compared to watching alone?

Viewing sports together as a shared social experience can be extremely powerful and create incredible opportunities for advertisers. It can also pose serious challenges.

The impact of advertising in communal contexts is complicated and depends on a dizzying array of variables. There are a lot of questions that need to be asked. For starters, how does an advertiser define and measure impact? From a media perspective, there’s a ton of data analytics being generated to measure what and when people are watching when it comes to sports on linear and streaming platforms. But that’s just scratching the surface.

Questions remain: What kind of fan zone, bar, or watch party is it? Organized or spontaneous? Is the game, match, or race interesting or boring? What stake or emotional connection do each of the audience members have with the sport, teams, players, and the group of people or type of fans who are there watching? Favorite or rival team winning or losing? Are people intensely engaged, having side conversations, focused on eating a pastrami on rye, checking fantasy stats, or posting videos of themselves at the party on social media?

Then you have the ad itself. Is the storytelling mediocre or amazing? Does it connect with the audience on an emotional, human level from a creative perspective? Do people discuss, share, or comment on the ad with others in a positive or negative way? Is there a strategy to amplify the advertising message across omnichannel touchpoints?

Understanding the impact of advertising in communal viewing environments is complicated. Stay curious. Keep asking questions. Because you’ll never have all the answers.

With the United States co‑hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, how significant is this moment for American brands looking to reach a global audience—especially given soccer’s growing popularity in the U.S.?

Whether you call it soccer or football doesn’t matter—the 2026 FIFA World Cup is a huge moment for all brands looking to reach global audiences. As the most popular sport on the planet, fandom is massive and culturally diverse. That opens a very big door for advertisers to tell their stories, create experiences, and connect with people everywhere on the world stage. To be successful, culture should be at the epicenter of advertising, fan engagement activities, and marketing programs. Branding is about what people think, feel, and believe. It’s reputation.

The FIFA World Cup will present incredible opportunities for advertisers to leverage culture, meet new audiences, create trust, and build relationships with everything from in-stadium brand activations to prime-time TV commercials. This global event will allow brands to align fans, teams, and athletes with relevant, authentic storytelling, sponsorships, partnerships, and innovative experiences that will not only reach global audiences, but connect with them in entirely new ways. After all, the world will be watching. Game on.

What are students currently analyzing and discovering in your brand new “Sports Advertising and Branding” course?

Currently, we’re looking at the relationship between culture, trends, and sports. Overall, the class allows students to explore, discover, and examine sports advertising and branding in a broad array of contexts that connect advertising, marketing, media, sports, teams, athletes, fans, events, experiences, and partnerships at amateur, collegiate, and professional levels.

The course introduces industry practices and processes to help students understand and apply concepts related to research, data, consumer behavior, strategic planning, creative content, production, media, and branded integration into the incredibly immense and fascinating world of sports.

Specific topics include sports information, public relations, event management, fan engagement, merchandising, brand activation, technology, e-sports, NIL, gambling, ethics, personal branding, sports celebrities, and collaborations. The class also incorporates experiential learning opportunities with alumni, sports industry professionals, and coaches, as well as attending NCAA athletic events on campus.

‘New York Times’-bestselling authors on presidential campaigns to visit University of Illinois for Q&A

Fight book cover with headshots of Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes

February 17, 2026

Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, co-authors of the New York Times bestsellers, “Fight,” “Shattered,” and “HRC,” will be on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus to discuss their recent reporting, Donald Trump, and a preview of the 2026 elections on Monday, April 20, from 5-6 p.m.

This event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Richard and Leslie Frank Center for Leadership and Innovation in Media at the University of Illinois College of Media.

Attendees may join the event in the Illini Union, Room B, 1401 W. Green, Urbana, or register to join via Zoom. The conversation will be led by Colleen King, director of the Frank Center and clinical assistant professor of journalism.

Allen is an award-winning senior national politics reporter for NBC News. He covers presidential campaigns, the White House, Congress, and national political issues.

Parnes is a senior political correspondent covering national politics at The Hill. She previously worked as a staff writer at Politico, and during the first Trump administration, she was a CNN political analyst.

Their newest book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House—which provides an inside look at the Biden, Harris, and Trump camps during the 2024 battle for the White House—has been optioned for TV and film by Aline Brosh McKenna.

For more information, please contact Colleen King at cck@illinois.edu.

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Jan Slater

Professor Emerita

Affiliations

Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising

Education

Ph.D., S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University (Mass Communications)
M.S., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Advertising)
B.A., Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska

Course Specialties

Advertising Strategy
Account Planning
Advertising Management
Advertising Campaigns

Background

Dr. Jan Slater served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Gies College of Business and Professor of Advertising in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising at the University of Illinois. She aslo served as Dean of the College of Media for six years, and head of the Department of Advertising for three years prior. Before her appointment at Illinois, Dr. Slater was an associate professor and the associate director of the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University for nine years. She joined the academy following a successful career as an advertising practitioner, working in private industry, as well as owning her own multi-million-dollar advertising agency, J. Slater & Associates.

Dr. Slater has served as president of the Association for Educators in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), an organization she’s been active with since 1995. Additionally, she has served on the AEJMC Advertising Division’s executive committee as research chair, teaching chair, vice head, and head. She served as vice chair and chair of the Council of Divisions for four years, and was a member of the AEJMC Strategic Planning Design Team. She has served as a member of the committee, as well as a member of the council of the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications’ Accrediting Committee and has been chair of the American Advertising Federation’s Academic Committee.

Research and Creative Endeavor

Brand relationships, brand strategy, and branded content are the main areas of Slater’s research. She has been published in the Journal of Marketing Communications, Advances in Consumer Research, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, and the Journal of Advertising Education. She is a contributing author to a series of advertising books published by Sage and co-author of What’s in a Name? Advertising and the Concept of Brands.

Contact

slaterj@illinois.edu

Take 5 with Media Alumni: Alex Studer

February 6, 2026

Alex Studer (BS ‘17, advertising) is the director of web strategy at Peacock. He joined the streaming service in 2020—playing a key role in its launch—and now leads all major web initiatives and experimentation strategies across PeacockTV.com. Previously, Studer worked in the advertising industry as an account executive at Deutsch NY, where he supported the ACUVUE account, and later at Ogilvy NY, where he led client workstreams for Gerber and Nestlé. Studer has received multiple industry honors, including a Sports Emmy, Webby nomination, and three Webby honorable mentions. He has also been recognized as a 2023 MAIPer to Watch and was honored as an ADCOLOR FUTURE in 2019.

1. What is your current role at Peacock?

Currently, I’m the director of web strategy on the growth go-to-market team here at Peacock. I’ve been at the company for six years now and have been one of the key acquisition and experimentation leaders who have helped launch and grow the business. Put simply, my team runs our website (PeacockTV.com). We are responsible for everything consumers see when they come to our site, and we run experiments to try to get new users to sign up as efficiently as possible.

2. What do you find most challenging and most rewarding about your career?

The fast pace at which the marketing/advertising world moves is both a challenge and a reward for me. Each year, there are new advancements in technology, evolving consumer sentiments and values, and shifting company structures (e.g., mergers) in the industry that all result in a need to think into the future to stay ahead of it. This can for sure be daunting but also is satisfying as it challenges me to keep learning, adapting, and evolving alongside the industry.

3. When did you first realize advertising was the career path you wanted to pursue?

I started my journey at the University of Illinois as a pre-med psychology major. I spent my freshman year exploring different majors in the STEM world (electrical engineering, calculus, physics, and chemistry, to name a few), but everything changed my sophomore year on Quad Day when I stumbled upon the American Advertising Federation booth.

I’ll never forget my first AAF meeting and how inspired I was when learning that careers in advertising/marketing existed. The idea that you could have a career in a field where you analyze consumer behavior and use creativity to influence it really made an impact on me and motivated me to one day break into the industry. After getting heavily involved in AAF throughout my sophomore year, I was elected to the executive board my junior year and ended up running AAF Illinois as president my senior year. AAF is the reason I was able to finally discover a career path that felt more in line with my passions and interests. It’s also the reason I fell in love with NYC, thanks to our industry immersion visits here.

4. What advice would you give to students trying to break into the advertising industry today?

The biggest piece of advice I would give is to fully maximize and learn how to talk about all your past experiences to help land your future ones. Even before I started gaining industry experience, I was able to gain relevant, transferable skills through my involvement in student organizations, which later helped me land internships.

Once you start to compile your own set of experiences, I’d encourage students to focus on networking with those who are in the advertising industry, and to seek out professional organizations that can help further your career. For instance, I was fortunate to land my first ad agency internship at Bailey Lauerman in Omaha, Nebraska, after meeting a senior leader during an AAF Illinois campus visit.

My senior year, I decided I wanted to start my career in NYC, but recognized I didn’t have a strong network outside of Chicago. I applied to the Multicultural Advertising Internship Program and became a finalist, which gave me the opportunity to move to NYC after graduation to intern at Saatchi & Saatchi NY. My career in NYC wouldn’t have been a possibility without these prior experiences as I was able to finally start building my network and career here!

Alex Studer Olympics — Alex Studer with fellow members of the 2024 Paris Olympics campaign team for Peacock.

5. You were part of a campaign team that earned the Sports Emmy for Outstanding Interactive Experience for the 2024 Paris Olympics. What was your role for that campaign and what was it like to receive that recognition?

My team was responsible for the website acquisition and experimentation strategy to garner as many new subscribers as possible for the Olympics. For all organic traffic and paid media, our website served as a destination to learn more about the Olympics and helped consumers sign up for Peacock as seamlessly as possible to start streaming.

If I’m being candid, receiving this recognition didn’t feel real until I opened the (heavy!!) box the Emmy came in and saw my name on it. Early in my career, I was given valuable feedback from a mentor that I don’t take the appropriate amount of time to celebrate my wins and instead immediately look ahead to the next one. I challenged myself for this award to start to shift that and will definitely incorporate more celebration and reflection into any future awards/recognition my career brings me!

Receiving an Emmy was without a doubt a career highlight so far! It doesn’t feel like an “all-at-once” type of recognition, and instead feels more like a culmination of all my past wins, failures, lessons learned, etc. I feel fortunate to have this under my belt, and every day feel reminded of the accomplishment when I walk past the statue at home.

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Ebert Symposium 2026 focuses on fandom and the media

January 30, 2026

The 2026 Chaz and Roger Ebert Symposium, presented by the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies, will address “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media.” Join us for this free two-day event on March 30-31, featuring a film screening, a roundtable discussion, and keynote address.

Monday, March 30

Film Screening: The Wiz

7 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum

Before Wicked, there was The Wiz.

Join the Ebert Center for a screening of Sidney Lumet’s The Wiz (1978). See cultural icons such as Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and Nipsey Russell follow the yellow brick road in this musical retelling of The Wizard of Oz.

While considered a failure upon its release, the film has since developed an enduring and charming legacy, as well as a dedicated cult fan base.

The film will be introduced by Dr. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at University of Miami, and Ebert Symposium keynote speaker.

Tuesday, March 31

Roundtable Discussion

2-3:30 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum

Join a roundtable discussion with doctoral students from the Institute of Communications Research on the Ebert Symposium theme of “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media.” Not only will it explore themes from The Wiz and the Ebert Symposium keynote speech, but it will also expand to all types of media. Moderated by Cait Coker, Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Illinois, this discussion will be held among ICR students Youngin Kang, Gustavo Nery, Stephanie Perez, Kendra Williams, and Nansong Zhou. Audience participation is encouraged.

Keynote Address

4 p.m., Knight Auditorium, Spurlock Museum
Or register to join via Zoom

“What The Wiz Was (and Is): Media Industries, Distribution, Reception and The Wiz”

The Ebert Symposium keynote will be delivered by Dr. Alfred L. Martin, Jr., Chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at University of Miami.

As a part of the Ebert Symposium’s theme, “Onscreen Fantasies/IRL Illusions: Fandom, Parasocial Relationships, and the Media,” Martin draws attention to The Wiz as the first Black-cast blockbuster and re-assesses its significance to issues of Black media production, initial reception, distribution, and its enduring fandom. Concomitantly, this presentation is about the ways, particularly within a socio-political environment hostile to Blackness, The Wiz provides a prism through which to place the feminist “I” and joy into research. Engaging media industry studies, fandom/reception studies, and media studies, this presentation argues that the history and ongoing legacy of The Wiz is far more complicated than reducing it to a financial failure.

Martin is associate professor of media studies and chair of the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Miami. He is author of Fandom for Us, by Us: The Pleasures and Practices of Black Audiences (New York University Press, 2025) and The Generic Closet: Black Gayness and the Black-Cast Sitcom (Indiana University Press, 2021), editor of Rolling: Blackness and Mediated Comedy (Indiana University Press, 2024), and co-editor of The Golden Girls: Tales from the Lanai (Rutgers University Press, 2025). A former marketing communications executive and ballet dancer, in his spare time, Martin is a ballet teacher, coach, and choreographer.

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Margaret Ng selected as Center for Advanced Study Associate for 2026-27 academic year

January 28, 2026 | Kelly Youngblood

Margaret Ng, associate professor of journalism and a faculty member in the Institute of Communications Research, has been selected as a Center for Advanced Study Associate for the 2026–2027 academic year.

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.

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Documentary Club provides students a platform for real-life storytelling

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.”

To learn more about the Documentary Club, watch their videos on YouTube, visit their website, or check out their Instagram. To join Documentary Club, or to ask questions, please email uiucdocumentaryclub@gmail.com.

Photos courtesy of Paige Gaines.

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Centennial Circle: Investing in the next century of media education

Futuristic illustration of person viewing screens

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 100^th 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 100^th 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.

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Advertising students create real-life client campaigns through Sandage Project capstone course

Advertising students pictured with their client, H3.

January 8, 2026

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.

“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.”

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Illinois announces first dual-credit initiative, bringing media and other courses to high school students

January 8, 2025

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.”

For more details about this new program, see the University of Illinois News Bureau press release.

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