2024: The year in review
COLUMBIA, Mo. (Dec. XX, 2024) — In 2024, the Missouri School of Journalism was a stronger force than ever in hands-on education, community journalism and impactful research.
“This year, we gained even more momentum in moving the industry forward as a school rooted not only in the philosophy of learning by doing, but in serving by doing,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “From ground-level reporting to academic scholarship, and with hands-on, Missouri Method experiences for students at every step in between, the focus was on positive impacts for the people of mid-Missouri and the industry that serves them.”
That ethic of service was evident in the collaborative and well-coordinated coverage of the November general election from each of the School’s five professional newsrooms. With community-centered reporting that informed and educated voters in mid-Missouri, the Missouri News Network — consisting of NPR-member station KBIA-FM, NBC affiliate KOMU-TV, community newspaper the Columbia Missourian, digital business publication Missouri Business Alert and Vox Magazine — shined.
From ground-level reporting to academic scholarship, and with hands-on, Missouri Method experiences for students at every step in between, the focus was on positive impacts for the people of mid-Missouri and the industry that serves them.
David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism
But long before the election, students and their respective newsrooms had already distinguished themselves in numerous ways. Hearst Awards season was another success, with numerous students recording top finishes. KBIA once again won three Gracie Awards, along with four regional Murrow Awards and three honors from the Missouri Broadcasters Association (MBA). KOMU earned 11 MBA Awards.
The Missourian once again made a strong showing at the Missouri Press Association newspaper competition, winning 59 awards, and also garnered a $20,000 grant from LION Publishers to support community engagement efforts. And in support of Missouri Business Alert and the New York Program, the Randall D. Smith Fund for Business Journalism was launched in honor of its namesake, the founder of Missouri Business Alert and former endowed chair at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI). This was only one of several funds and scholarships launched in 2024 to support the School and its students.
The newsrooms also welcomed several new faculty members:
- Jann Carl – assistant professional practice professor, KOMU
- Brittany Hildebrand – assistant professor and community news editor, Columbia Missourian
- Stan Jastrzebski – assistant professor and news director, KBIA
John Anderson, former anchor for ESPN’s SportsCenter, also arrived as the Leonard H. Goldenson Endowed Chair in Radio in Television Journalism, while Tracy Draksler Brown and David Salisbury brought a combined 35 years of industry experience to the School as assistant professional practice professors in strategic communication.
In other news: As NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) revolutionized college sports, students were not content to stay on the sidelines. Partnering with Mizzou Athletics, strategic communication students led by Jon Stemmle developed promotional strategies designed to help athletes develop their personal brands and potentially land sponsorship deals. The second iteration of this program took place this fall.
Strategic communication students also demonstrated excellence with a variety of other accomplishments. In Holly Higginbotham’s final year as director of AdZou, a professional ad agency operated by School of Journalism students, the agency finished among the top five in the nation at the National Student Advertising Competition.
Not to be outdone, the School’s other ad agency — MOJO Ad — landed NASA as its client and created plans to promote the Artemis program, which intends to land the first woman and person of color on the moon.
They weren’t the only ones to deliver useful results for a real client. Five students in a public relations class built proposals to help global nonprofit Break Free From Plastic promote its multimedia storytelling campaign. The organization plans to turn the proposals into reality, creating a landmark moment for students who were largely new to research and strategic planning before the project.
And reflecting their translatable skill set, strategic communication students also played key leadership roles in 2024’s Homecoming festivities and on Marching Mizzou’s new media team. Two also won esteemed advertising awards: doctoral candidate Evgeniia Belobrovkina won the American Academy of Advertising’s Doctoral Dissertation Grant Competition, while then-senior Ryan Wilson was named one of the American Advertising Federation’s 50 Most Promising Multicultural Students before she graduated in May.
But as important as the work of the students themselves was the experience and guidance offered by expert faculty. New professors Brown and Salisbury joined a highly respected group of faculty including Monique Luisi, who published research informing how health professionals should communicate about vaccines; Shelly Rodgers, who earned the honor of Curators’ Distinguished Professor in November; and the aforementioned Stemmle, who was named Post-Secondary Professional of the Year and co-authored research reports investigating how employee communication professionals use AI.
Speaking of research: Faculty, students and alumni in all disciplines presented papers and held leadership roles at the annual AEJMC conference, including top awards for Stacey Woelfel (Bliss Award), Teresia Nzau (Inez Kaiser Graduate Students of Color Award) and Amy Simons (2024-25 class of Institute for Diverse Leadership in Journalism and Communication), who also took home the Provost’s Faculty Mentoring Award earlier in the year.
Susan Renoe, who serves as Mizzou’s associate vice chancellor for research development and strategic partnerships in addition to her role on the strategic communication faculty, expanded the Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society’s work thanks to a $9 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The center focuses on helping researchers address broader impacts in their scholarship.
Another grant-funded project came from Jared Schroeder and his team of accomplished graduate students, who used $5,000 from the Society of Professional Journalists to update and overhaul a legal guide that helps newsrooms in all 50 states deal with frivolous defamation lawsuits known as SLAPP suits.
Journalism research touched every corner of the industry this year. Keith Greenwood investigated how audiences feel about graphic wartime photography. Damon Kiesow translated decades of experience and research into the first-ever textbook on news product management, helping solidify the foundations of this emerging field. Nick Mathews examined the ongoing struggle between social media and small, rural news outlets for the attention of audiences.
Then there was RJI’s Burnout Report, the result of one of the largest-ever surveys of current and former news professionals on the topic of the industry’s burnout crisis. The report has so far been downloaded more than 4,000 times.
Additional recognition outside of research came for Kathy Kiely, who won the Mel Carnahan Public Service Award, an honor she saw as a statement about the value of public service journalism. The School’s chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists took home Chapter of the Year after a strong student effort to rejuvenate the chapter.
And the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk received a $100,000 grant from Press Forward to further reach underserved communities with environmental reporting. The Desk also continued to rake in acclaim for its large-scale collaborative project, “The Price of Plenty,” which was published last year but in 2024 won the David Teeuwen Student Journalism Award from the Online Journalism Awards and the Society of Environmental Journalists’ Outstanding Student Reporting Award.
Students and alumni of the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism also continued to find greater recognition. For the first time, a student’s film was accepted into the True/False film fest, and a strong alumni network has taken shape to help support continued success after leaving the School.
Of course, much more happened in 2024 than could fit here. As the new year draws closer, keep in touch with the newest developments on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Updated: December 17, 2024