Trending: Spring 2018
鈥�鈥淲alking While Black鈥� wins the 鈥淣ak鈥�
Benjamin Conarck, Florida Times-Union
Topher Sanders, ProPublica
In Jacksonville, Florida, hundreds of small, seemingly insignificant pedestrian citations added up to a widespread case of racial profiling, according to investigative reporting by a team of journalists from ProPublica and the Florida Times-Union.听
The journalists鈥� story, is a five-year analysis of citations issued by the Jacksonville Sheriff鈥檚 Office. Reporters found that the tickets鈥攆or violations including jaywalking, failing to cross the street at a right angle, crossing against a yellow light and more鈥攚ere disproportionately issued to black pedestrians. The story is the winner of the 2018 Al Nakkula Award for Police Reporting, sponsored by the College of Media, Communication and Information. Judges in the competition applauded the use of traditional, data and multimedia journalism to uncover a slew of injustices that might have easily gone unnoticed.
鈥淥ne of the most important aspects of 鈥榃alking While Black鈥� is that the team showed jaywalking tickets resulted in a legal chain reaction of mounting fines, failure to appear in court violations and legal woes that prevented the recipients from getting housing, jobs and other basic needs for their livelihood,鈥� says听Angie Chuang, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at CU Boulder who was one of the competition鈥檚 three judges. 鈥淪o, a 鈥榤inor鈥� violation became much more than that when disproportionate enforcement and a punitive legal system were levied against an already marginalized population.鈥�
Read more on 鈥淲alking While Black鈥� and runner-up stories in the competition.
Programmatic course gives ad students an advantage
Savvy advertising students know that dedication and innovation make all the difference.
Recently, more than 20 students from the College of Media, Communication and Information spent their weekend in a one-credit course on programmatic advertising, learning about the automation of buying and selling of ads that is revolutionizing the industry. The idea for the course developed after alumna Heather Prince (Jour鈥�04) visited campus last spring as a guest speaker and introduced advertising students to the basic concepts of programmatic advertising. The topic spurred so much interest that Gangadharbatla invited Prince鈥攁 founding member of Cadreon鈥攖o return with Pablito Padua, Tyler Guthrie and Justin Phalichanh from the company to teach students more on the topic.
鈥淭he ad program at CU Boulder is unique and nimble in that it gives students opportunities to get ahead of the curve and experiment with new technologies,鈥� says听Harsha Gangadharbatla, founding chair of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Media Design.
Read more on the programmatic advertising course.
Celebrating International Women's听Day on Wikipedia听
Since听launching in 2001, Wikipedia has served as a staple for people looking for information and citations on almost any subject. The site boasts in-depth pages for topics ranging from 鈥淟ist of Animals With Fraudulent Diplomas鈥� to 鈥淭he Age of Reason.鈥� One area where the site is lacking, however, is in its representation听of women throughout history.
In an effort to increase these representations, instructors, students and staff at CU Boulder celebrated this year鈥檚 International Women鈥檚 Day by participating in an Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. The event was co-hosted by Intermedia Art, Writing and Performance doctoral student Maya Livio and CU Boulder Art and Architecture Librarian Alex Watkins. Working amid stacks of books on historic women in the arts and humanities, Livio and Watkins helped volunteers to update, improve and create pages about female artists on the site.
鈥淲ikipedia, at this point, replaces most people鈥檚 encyclopedias,鈥� Livio says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an important repository of knowledge, and like other repositories of knowledge women have historically been excluded. And women have been underrepresented in the art world, as well.鈥�
is an international campaign, which began five years ago. This is the third session of its type hosted at CU Boulder.
听
听