ASU is a comprehensive public research university, measured not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed; advancing research and discovery of public value; and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it serves.
Chelsea Reynolds Director and Associate Professor
Our People:
Haley Achtzehn Barrett Honors Fellow
Battinto Batts, Jr. Dean and Professor
Marcos Colón Assistant Professor
Dawn Gilpin Associate Dean and Associate Professor
Cody Hays PhD Student
Elita Dilshad Karim PhD Student and Research Assistant
Amanda Kehrberg PhD Student
Genie Kuester PhD Student
Karina Luna PhD Student and Research Assistant
Lauren Mucciolo Professor of Practice
Sada Reed Associate Professor
Celeste Sepessy Assistant Teaching Professor
Leslie-Jean Thornton
Associate Professor
Ali Zain Assistant Professor
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Building bridges of understanding between people has never been more important. We can focus on our differences, or we can focus on what we have in common – where we agree. We have to work to find common ground. The Center for Media and Communities helps us build appreciation for each other and gain greater respect for not only who we are, but why we are.
Cronkite School Dean Battinto Batts, Jr.
Our affiliate scholars advance social science methods and humanistic inquiry to examine the relationships between media, culture, and society.
We partner with groups like the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJLA) and Latino Journalists of California (CCNMA) to host workshops that advance media equity.
We work with universities and media organizations to develop sustainable, community-centered practices for classrooms and newsrooms.
In August 2024, I joined the Cronkite School with a mission to launch a new type of academic center –one built on collaboration, trust, and relationships. The center would advocate for community-driven storytelling while advancing research about media cultures, ultimately bridging gaps between media industries and the research university. And we’d do it all at the ASU California Center, expanding Cronkite’s impact from the heart of the greatest creative economy in the world: Los Angeles.
During a challenging moment in higher education, we have made significant advancements toward these goals. President Crow, Provost Gonzales, and the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) officially approved the Center for Media and Communities in July 2025, representing ASU’s continued support for university initiatives that address community, equity, and media solutions.
While ABOR reviewed our strategic plan, we recruited a mighty team of scholars and expert practitioners to guide Center initiatives (see p. 5). We hosted listening sessions, faculty talks, and developed an in-house residency program. We built partnerships with L.A. media through co-sponsored activities with the National Association of Black Journalists, Public Relations Society of America, Press Photographers of Greater Los Angeles, Latino Journalists of California, and more. In collaboration with scholars at ASU and across the country, we conducted research that champions equitable representation, technological innovation, communication theory, and journalism pedagogy.
These efforts have begun making impacts across California, Arizona, (next page)…
Reynolds greets guests at the Los Angeles Media Party, celebrating the importance of community journalism in the wake of the L.A. fires in January 2025.
and the Desert Southwest. In August 2025, we celebrated the Center’s Launch Party at Thunderbird Pub in Phoenix, where 50+ Cronkite faculty members, staff, students, and local journalists came together to build community and discuss opportunities for collaboration.
Dean Battinto Batts, Jr. and Associate Dean Dawn Gilpin gave touching speeches about the importance of storytelling that features a plurality of viewpoints and engages community voices.
Our Cronkite Los Angeles Faculty in Residence, assistant professor of media and Indigenous communities, Marcos Colón, and Howard Center for Investigative Journalism executive producer, Lauren Mucciolo, shared take-aways from their residency at the ASU California Center. During the program, Colón and Mucciolo connected with L.A.based ASU partners, including Zocaló Public Square, the M.A. program in Narrative and Emerging Media, Cronkite’s L.A. Content Studio, the ASU FIDM Museum, and Borderlands Cinematic Arts at Herberger Institute for Design and The Arts.
On the research side of things, Cronkite Ph.D. student (and CMC research assistant) Karina Luna shared a ChatGPT tool we’re developing to facilitate critical thinking about media bias. A second Ph.D. student, Cody Hays, reported on their work analyzing news coverage of drag queen bans and LGBTQ+ deplatforming efforts on social media.
We also welcomed Barrett Honors Fellow, Digital Audiences B.A. student, Haley Achtzehn, to CMC.
In AY 25-26, we will continue pursuing opportunities for growth. I look forward to publishing an edited special issue of Journalism & Media about mental health in journalism, which features a couple Cronkite authors. We’re also eager to collaborate with the Knight Center for the Future of News, which just launched with a mission to accelerate journalism transformation. We have upcoming workshops planned with our friends at the Society of Professional Journalists, National Center on Disability and Journalism, and more. Did we mention that CMC will welcome a Fulbright Scholar from the University of Barcelona in spring 2026?
All this exciting outreach happens while we take CMC’s mission national and make appearances at conferences from San Francisco to Long Beach, from Chicago to New Orleans. We’re building connections across geographic regions and disciplinary boundaries. Our reach expands every day.
These are tough times in journalism and academia. But our mission is more important than ever. Through tireless support from President Crow, Dean Batts, and our community at Cronkite and beyond, there’s much to celebrate. We owe it all to you.
Chelsea Julian Reynolds, Ph.D. Director, October 2025
Wellbeing & Technology
How social media and artificial intelligence interact with emotional, physical, and spiritual health.
Free Speech & Community Resilience
Threats to expression and opportunities for self-representation in polarized media environments.
Trust, Truth & Information Integrity
Public trust and community information needs in a fragmented media landscape.
Chelsea Julian Reynolds, Ph.D., Director, Center for Media and Communities
Lauren Mucciolo, Executive Producer, Howard Center for Investigative Reporting
Marcos Colón, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Media and Indigenous Communities
In 2024-2025, the Center for Media and Communities developed its mission to build community and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. In our first academic year we successfully contributed:
• 23 research manuscripts submitted, accepted, or drafted for publication in esteemed collections from Routledge and in journals such as Journalism Studies, Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, and Discourse & Society.
• 15 conference presentations, including programming at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication, the National Communication Association, the International Communication Association, and the Cultural Studies Association.
• 9 public-facing events, including partnerships with community media organizations, high school journalism outreach, a party celebrating L.A. local journalists, and the Schaufler Prize for Journalism awards ceremony.
• 3 community development initiatives for Cronkite faculty: The Cronkite L.A. Residency Program, the Cronkite Monday Writing Group, and the CMC Launch Party at Thunderbird Pub.
• 1 Fulbright Scholar at the ASU California Center. In January 2026, Dr. Olatz Larrea Estefanía will join the CMC from her home at the University of Barcelona in Spain. With Dr. Reynolds supervising, Dr. Larrea will execute her project, Youths’ Attitudes and Behaviors toward Sexual Health Related Messaging on Social Media: A Comparative Study of Youths from U.S.A. and Spain.
One of our most productive initiatives has been launching the Cronkite Monday Writing Group for research faculty and Ph.D. students. Every Monday from June through December 2025, a group of engaged scholars has met to share research goals and write in community with one another – via Zoom.
The writing group sparked productivity and ignited collegiality. Reporting my progress to group members helped keep me on track, and working on a Monday generated momentum I wanted to continue into the rest of the week. The whole process held me accountable in ways I could not have imagined. – Sada Reed, Ph.D., associate professor
Every time I see the meeting on my calendar, it’s like a reminder not just that the meeting is coming up, but that I should have XXX done before that date or at least have a goal and outline the steps to get there. – Karina Luna, Ph.D. student and CMC research assistant
In Summer 2025, we launched the first-ever residency for Phoenix-based faculty to visit the ASU California Center. We supported hotel and airfare for two faculty members: Howard Center for Investigative Journalism Executive Producer, Lauren Mucciolo, and Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor of Media & Indigenous Communities, Marcos Colón.
Their three-day site visit has resulted in ongoing collaborations with Los Angeles-based media organizations and ASU California Center faculty and staff. During AY 25-26, Mucciolo and Colón will hold virtual meetings and brainstorm programming initiatives with our L.A. partners.
Asibey, E., & Hays, C. (2025). Illuminating Black history: Strategic communication as a tool for historical redress and visibility. Journal of Public Interest Communications, 64.
DeFoster, R. & Reynolds, C. (2026). Critiquing the Kendrick-Drake Rap Battle: The Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show and the Hip Hop Theory of Punishment. Race / Gender / Class / Media, 6th edition. (Rebecca Ann Lind, ed.). Routledge.
Hays, C., Chernin, K., & Radice, J. (2025). Stories of struggle, stories of strength. Journal of Public Interest Communications, 9(1), 1.
Hays, C., Kehrberg, A., & Reynolds, C. (2025). Silenced by design: Deplatforming queer and sexual speech in the algorithmic age. [Mansucript in preparation]. Queerly platformed: LGBTQ realities, resistance, and algorithmic life in the age of social media. Routledge.
Hays, C., Reynolds, C. & Lemaster, L. (2025). “I just see a lot of skinny, muscular, white people in those ads”: A critical analysis of walking focus groups about LGBTQIA+ representation in outdoor promotional media. [Manuscript in preparation).
Kuester, G. (2025). Gramsci in the manosphere: James Lindsay, podcast discourse, and the mediation of political subjectivity in young male voters. Journal of Radio & Audio Media.
Kuester, G. (2025). From wages to wagers: Predatory persuasion and the media ecology of speculative leisure. Explorations in Media Ecology.
Kuester, G. (2025). Serving the narrative: The cultural work of alcohol representation across reality television formats. [Manuscript in preparation].
Luna, K., Reynolds, C. & Zain, A. (2025). “The SCAMPER method uncovered new insights. The AI challenged me to think about things differently”: Using a Custom AI Assistant to Teach Critical Media Literacy. [R&R]. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator.
Mendez, L., Reynolds, C., Arroyo, J. & Trevizo, V. (2025). “What my Mexican family hears when I tell them I have seen a therapist”: How Latinx Mental Health Content Creators use Social Media as an Intersectional Counterspace. [R&R]. Journal of Communication Inquiry
Mundel, J., Hays, C., & Reynolds, C. (2025). Analyzing media framing of violence and backlash against Drag Story Hour events. [Manuscript in preparation].
Omni, C., & Hays, C. (2025). Cultivating Black joy as a revolutionary approach to health and happiness: Interview with Dr. Chris Omni. Journal of Public Interest Communications, 37.
Reed, S. (2025). Developing a team effectiveness, peer-rating rubric for sports journalism ethics classes. [Manuscript submitted for publication].
Reed, S., Johnson, R., Bednar, T., Brennan, S., De Haas, J., Krick, W., & Nute, S. (2025). The Golden carrot: A comparison of players’ experiences and news coverage of MiLB work conditions. [Manuscript in preparation].
Reed, S. (2025). An examination of Play the Game abstracts, 2015-2024. [Manuscript in preparation].
Reynolds, C. & Ayala, J. (2026). Special issue: Mental Health in the Headlines. Journalism & Media. [Special issue in production]
Reynolds, C., Maddox, J., Stein, K., & Bendefaa, N. (2025). In defense of qualitative description: Reclaiming “small t” theory as a site of knowledge advancement. [R&R]. Communication Theory.
Reynolds, C. (2026). “Manifest your dream life on ChatGPT:” Algorithmic interpellation and the ideological subject in AI-generated wellness discourse. [Invited for publication.] Discourse & Society.
Reynolds, C. (2025). “We tried to warn you, but the coal mine’s on fire now:” Adult industry news as advocacy journalism in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA. [Under review]. Journalism Studies.
Saint Louis, A., & Hays, C. (2025). Celebrating Black joy: Positive narratives in community healing and organizing. Journal of Public Interest Communications, 54.
Thornton, L. J. (2026). Duck and cover: Journalists on being “enemies of the people” during early days of Trump’s “fake news” world. [Invited for publication]. Journalism and Media.
Thornton, L. J. (2025). Hellmouth resurgence: Existential horror returns in political imagery of Trump. [Manuscript in preparation.]
Thornton, L. J. (2025). Captured history: Social and commercial appropriation of Evan Vucci’s Butler Rally Trump photo. [Manuscript in preparation.]
Dr. Chelsea Reynolds (center) and Cronkite PhD student Cody Hays (center-right) present at the AEJMC conference in San Francisco
Ausness, A., Reynolds, C., Gomberg, B., Smith, D. (2025). Shaping the 21st century woman: Fourth-wave feminism in shapewear social media marketing. [Paper presentation]. The Commission of the Status of Women of Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC). San Francisco, CA. (Top open paper, 2nd place).
DeFoster, R. & Reynolds, C. (2025). “It’s bigger than the music”: The politics of the Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show and news coverage of the Drake-Kendrick rap battle. [Poster presentation]. Critical-Cultural Studies Division of the AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Hays, C. (2025). Queer tales & trails: Finding joy in nature through access and belonging [Poster presentation]. AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Hays, C. (2025). Comparison of messaging strategies between climate activists and deniers on Instagram [Poster presentation]. AEJMC , San Francisco, CA.
Hays, C., Reynolds, C. & Mundel, J. (2025). Analyzing news media coverage of the Tennessee drag ban: A longitudinal content analysis [Poster presentation]. AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Kuester, G. (2025). Infrastructure as empire: Journalistic discourses of the Colorado River Storage Project and Power Africa. [Paper presentation.] National Communication Association (NCA), New Orleans, LA.
Luna, K. (2025). Latina managers in corporate America: Co-cultural communication strategies for career advancement [Research escalator program]. NCA, New Orleans, LA.
Reynolds, C. (2025). Preserving LGBTQ+ discourse. [Paper presentation.] American Journalism Historians Association conference, Long Beach, CA.
Reynolds, C., Maddox., J., Stein, K., & Bendefaa, N. (2025). In defense of descriptive research: Gatekeeping and social science theory in mass communication research. [Paper presentation]. ICA 75th Anniversary Theme Session on Communication Theory. International Communication Association annual conference, Denver, CO.
Reynolds, C. (2024). The X factor in Digital Media Studies: Building trust with XXX content creators. [Panel presentation]. Digital Intimacies X Symposium. Monash University, Melbourne, AUS.
Reynolds, C. (2025). The depoliticization of drag by mainstream media. In Drag queens in American media: Assessing the landscape in 2025 [Panel presentation]. Mass Communication and Society Division and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Interest Group, AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Reynolds, C. (2025). Personal ads, zines, and hookup apps. In Queer voices: Media’s role in shaping San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ narrative [Panel presentation]. History Division and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Interest Group, AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Reynolds, C. (2025). It’s really not that urgent: Slowing down for focus, creativity, and workplace wellbeing. [Preconference panel.] Careers & Internships Interest Group. AEJMC, San Francisco, CA.
Reynolds, C. (2025). “Manifest your dream life in ChatGPT:” Race, gender, and social class in wellness influencer discourse. [Paper presentation]. Cultural Studies Association Annual Conference, Santa Clarita, CA.
Reynolds, C. (2024). The kids aren’t alright: Facilitating workplace wellbeing for Gen Z journalists. [Panel presentation]. The Mental Health in Journalism Summit. Online.
CMC hosts NABJLA’s monthly members meetings the last Tuesday of each month. The NABJLA 45th Annual NABJLA Soiree is at the ASU California Center in November 2025.
In August 2025, CMC hosted PRSALA’s Speed Pitching Mixer featuring top editors from the LA Times, Los Angeles Sentinel, and more. We hosted the PRism Awards in October 2025.
In summer 2025, PPAGLA held a wildfire photography workshop with CalFire, teaching journalists how to embed with firefighting teams in Los Angeles – an important intervention following the L.A. fires. The CMC will host a PPAGLA awards event in April 2026.
In January 2025, we welcomed 32 high school media students from Del Oro High School in Bakersfield, CA. Students learned about Cronkite Los Angeles programs from faculty and staff including CMC Director Chelsea Reynolds, academic advisor Pat Abracia, L.A. Content Studio director Rachel Kane, and Associate Dean Brett Kurland.
In February 2025, Cronkite’s Marcos Colón screened his documentary, Beyond Fordlandia, and discussed a new book about climate change in the Amazon. A dozen+ guests, including ASU California Center students, faculty, and staff, learned about storytelling with Indigenous communities.
More than 100 guests, including civic leaders and staffers from L.A. news outlets, attended a party to celebrate local journalism in March 2025. Cronkite Dean Battinto Batts and Dr. Reynolds were featured as guest speakers.
“The CMC creates a space where scholars, media professionals, and community leaders can collaborate on truly innovative solutions.”
- Cronkite School Associate Dean, Dawn Gilpin, Ph.D.
Want to launch a project together?
Submit your ideas by clicking here.
Our research initiatives have incredible momentum. Through budding partnerships with ASU’s Learning Transformation Studios, the Knight Center for the Future of News, and the Critical Media Studies Research Cluster, the CMC will cement its reputation as a leading source for scholarship on representation, media ethics, and technological innovation. As an R1 research center, the CMC supports interpretive and empirical projects that investigate the relationships between media and the human experience. This year, we will advance research related to artificial intelligence, freedom of expression, and community-driven media interventions.
We have forged foundational relationships with Los Angeles-area journalism leaders and strategic communication professionals through collaborations with AAJA, CCNMA, NABJLA, PPAGLA, PRSALA, and more. Through these relationships, we are building bridges so Cronkite students may benefit from L.A.-based internships and mentorship opportunities.
Events raise the CMC’s profile in Los Angeles and beyond. Luckily, we host a lot of them! In AY 25-26, we will launch online and in-person workshops in both California and Arizona. We are excited to develop training programs and host symposia alongside groups like the National Center on Disability and Journalism and Society of Professional Journalists.
At the Cronkite School, philanthropy plays a vital role in shaping the future of journalism and strategic communication. Our generous donors empower aspiring journalists and professional communicators to pursue immersive, hands-on education that prepares them to lead in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
The Center for Media and Communities brings together researchers, industry leaders, content creators, activists, artists, and community members from diverse backgrounds. Through collaborative programming and innovative research, the CMC fosters trust, amplifies inclusive storytelling, and explores the transformative power of media to bridge cultural divides and inspire collective action.
In response to shifting federal funding priorities, the CMC has strategically pivoted toward private philanthropic support as a primary funding source. In partnership with the ASU Foundation, we are actively engaging individual donors, corporations, and foundations to support our work. The ASU community’s connections and advocacy are instrumental to our continued success.
We are currently in active discussions to establish naming opportunities for the Center for Media and Communities. We seek visionary donors who share our commitment to equity in media and are positioned to make transformational six- and seven-figure investments.
To learn more about how you can support the Center for Media & Communities, please contact:
Tim Richter Senior Director of Development Timothy.Richter@asufoundation.org
Click here to support the Center for Media and Communities
Above: The Center for Media and Communities is housed in the historic Herald Examiner building in DTLA.
