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Tombras School Launches New Purpose Project Initiative
The Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations recently announced the launch of the Purpose Project, a new initiative to promote socially valuable research and advance the use of effective communication to positively impact purpose goals. “Purpose” in this sense operates as the core functionality of an organization—that is, the organization itself is a social…
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Alumni Assist with CCI’s Annual Career Fair
It was an internship that led to Pam Schmidt’s (’93) current job at MP&F, where she’s worked for a total of 25 years since she graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It’s no wonder that, as director of human resources and talent development, she’s an avid proponent of students getting internship experience before they…
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Nashville Broadcast Meteorologist, CCI Alum Lelan Statom Recognized with Alumni Professional Achievement Award
Lelan Statom (‘86) has always been a weather nerd. When he was in middle school, he never missed a forecast, and he had his own weather station in the backyard. Fast forward a few decades, and Statom was honored by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Alumni Board of Directors with an Alumni Professional Achievement Award…
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Four Fellows Named for CCI’s Information Integrity Institute
Four inaugural Information Integrity Institute fellows have been selected from among the faculty at the College of Communication and Information, one from each school and all of whom are already conducting research that falls under the institute’s scope: “I wanted to have representation from the schools and also a mixture of rank from full professor,…
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PhD Student Finds the Magic in Communication Studies
From left: Curt and Ty Anderson When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Curt Anderson’s career as a professional magician came to an abrupt stop. It was time for him to pull a new kind of trick out of his hat, and a suggestion from a professor at the University of Alabama encouraging Anderson to finish his…
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In Memoriam: Professor and Director Ronald E. Taylor
Ronald E. Taylor, former professor and director of the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, passed away Sept. 11, 2023. Taylor came to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in January 1984 after earning his PhD in advertising from the University of Illinois. He was head the Department of Advertising and when the current Tombras…
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NPR’s Rob Stein to Speak at Hill Lecture Series Oct. 19
When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and took over the world, it also took over the news. Behind many of those stories keeping a quarantined public informed were science journalists such as Rob Stein, award-winning journalist, correspondent, and senior editor on NPR’s science desk. Stein is the featured speaker for this year’s Hill Lecture Series 7-8…
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CCI Alum, VFL Film’s Barry Rice Retires After 34 Years
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s football team has been recording games since the 1920s to scout and evaluate performances. They started by using 16mm film but in 1989 a decision was made to switch to video—which posed a bit of a problem, since no one knew how to use the video editing equipment that had…
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Alum Creates Endowment for the Daily Beacon Staff
Jeff Copeskey’s (‘82) first journalism class at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, changed the trajectory of his future. Copeskey had been studying business at UT before switching majors in 1979 and entering the College of Communication and Information. His basic reporting class was sent to cover the aftermath of a fire on The Strip on…
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Peyton Manning Joins First Class as CCI Professor of Practice
After the recent announcement that Peyton Manning (’97) was named a professor of practice for the College of Communication and Information, the CCI alumnus dipped his toes into his new profession as teacher and joined a School of Communication Studies class for a Q&A session with his former instructor and advisor, Associate Professor John Haas, Monday. …