The College of Communication and Information has added two faculty and two staff members to the team in addition to one faculty member adding a new role. 

Alex Carter is working towards his Ph.D. in advertising, while also working for the School of Advertising and Public Relations as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. Prior to his time at the University of Tennessee, he worked with Eastman Chemical Company and Creative Energy. He graduated from East Tennessee State University in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in public relations, advertising, and applied communication.

Balancing a career while also completing a graduate degree can be difficult. The College of Communications and Information has recently introduced an online master’s degree program which allows students to receive their graduate degree on their own schedule. The program consists of asynchronous courses which incorporate all four of the college’s concentrations into one program. Students complete courses in public relations, advertising, journalism and electronic media, communications studies, as well as information sciences.

Dollywood and Abramorama in association with The Dollywood Foundation partnered to present a free one-night-only live streaming world premiere event for The Library That Dolly Built, the Land Grant Films documentary about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Originally scheduled as a nationwide live event on more than 300 screens this spring, the world premiere for The Library That Dolly Built was reimagined as a free live stream screening of the film on Dec. 9 The screening was followed by an acoustic performance by Dolly Parton. 

The College of Communication and Information’s 2020 school/program alumni of the year were honored during the fall CCI Board of Visitor’s meeting on Nov. 6. 

This year’s award winners include: Advertising Alumnus of the Year Brad Jacobus (BS/AD ’06), Communication Studies Alumnus of the Year Curt Maggitt (BA/CS ’14), Information Sciences Alumnus of the Year David Johnson (MSIS ’93), Journalism and Electronic Media Alumna of the Year Teresa Walker (BS/JEM ’87), and Public Relations Alumnus of the Year Jamie Lonie (BS/PR ’10). 

Award-winning meteorologist Lelan Statom (JEM ’86) is the recipient of the UT College of Communication and Information’s 2020 Donald G. Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest alumni honor given by the college.  

Statom was honored along with five school and program alumni of the year award winners during the virtual CCI Board of Visitors meeting on Nov. 6

In what has become a tradition every four years, journalism and electronic media students in Professor Rob Heller’s Media Graphics class (JEM 380) created billboard designs to encourage voter participation in the presidential election.

Heller’s class partnered with Lamar Advertising, which ran student billboard advertisements prior to the 2016 presidential election. This year, Lamar Advertising cycled through four student designs on an electronic billboard in Memphis.

The idea for this project began in 2012 when the class worked with the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy to post 12 designs around campus.

The College of Communication and Information’s Adam Brown Social Media Command Center will be monitoring the social media conversation and trends before, during and after the presidential election.

PhD student Alex Carter, the head graduate assistant in the lab, has been leading the center’s monitoring and coverage of the debates heading into the election.