Student work
School of Communication at NAU
Explore some of the great work the students in the School of Communication have completed. From writing and speaking to producing and animating, SoC Jacks graduate with lots of hands-on experience.
Student films sparking positive feedback from international film festivals
Senior Angela Houston, junior Ember Crowley and recent graduate Huntr McMillan submitted three projects produced through UTV Studios, NAU’s independent film studio within the School of Communication, to film festivals around the world, generating very positive responses, said Bill Carter, Assistant Professor of Practice, and Director of the student-led film production studio. This accomplishment was recently featured as a feature in the Arizona Daily Sun.
Student leaders promote NAZ Today and analyze the impact
Gianna Bellato, junior, is managing social media analytics and helping with long-term communication plans. She also posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram social media channels. Mackenzie Poland, junior, is in charge of Friday features on the broadcast to learn more about the students running our news programs. Stay up to date on news on campus and in the community. Follow @NAZtoday on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
Public Relations capstone class goes to the movies
Associate Professor of Practice Amy Hitt said the PR Capstone client this semester is the nonprofit Sedona International Film Festival. The student teams are helping the staff make plans to reach a younger audience. Teams are named after classic films and here’s what they had to say about the experience so far.
Team “King Kong”
“Working with the Sedona International Film Festival has been a really exciting process because we are getting hands-on experience with a real client. Our team has had fun brainstorming new ideas and learning more about the film festival industry. We look forward to these next couple of months working with Patrick (Schweiss) and helping the Sedona International Film Festival have its best year yet in 2021!”
Team “The Breakfast Club”
“We’re excited to finally apply what we have learned throughout our college career to a real client and to express our potential in the field. Working with the Sedona International Film Festival–a world renowned event–has been an incredibly rewarding experience!”
NAU Art Museum to spotlight student work
The NAU Art Museum issued a call for student artists to be featured in a new social media and web news segment called #NAUArtistOfTheWeek wherein student artwork is highlighted each week. The Museum is currently limiting featured submissions to fine art mediums. Students interested in being highlighted for this segment may reach out to art.museum@nau.edu with the Subject line “Artist of the Week: [Student Name]” including a short self-biography, samples of artwork, an optional school-appropriate headshot, and consent for the Museum to share the artwork online with appropriate credits to the artist. Contact ty.miller@nau.edu with any questions.
Student research in communication
Student contributes to research published in top journal
Graduate student Mary Laffidy, and Assistant Professor Zhan Xu published News Frames and News Exposure Predicting Flu Vaccination Uptake: Evidence from U.S. Newspapers, 2011–2018 Using Computational Methods in the Health Communication journal. This study also received a Top Paper Award at Health Communication Division, National Communication Association Annual Meeting, 2020, the top conference in Communication. The study was funded by the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Award.
Student studies the impact of authentic apologies
Qwincey Leenstra, senior, is working with Assistant Professor Jiun-yi Tsai on “Walk the Talk: Conceptualizing and Exploring the Impact of Authentic Organizational Apologies to Racially Charged Crisis.” Despite efforts and numerous public statements to support racial equity, brands continue to fail to address public criticism adequately after launching racially offensive products or campaigns. What constitutes an authentic apology in these situations lacks a clear theoretical conception. To bridge this gap, Leenstra and Tsai are developing an empirical framework to explore the impact of sincere apologies on perceived authenticity and downstream behavioral outcomes. Results from an experiment suggest that participants assigned to an authentic condition had a more positive attitude about the organization’s communication style and thought the message was more hopeful, which in turn increased participants’ perceived brand authenticity, intention to share and react.