Summer 2020

What is public relations? Who does it? And for what purpose? These may seem like simple questions, but for Professor Krishnamurthy Sriramesh, they’re critical. The answers, he says, have long been far too limited, with a focus on corporate organizations in America and Europe that has left out much of the world.

As COVID-19 has forced many businesses to rethink their models, alumni near and far are leaning into creativity and nostalgia to meet the moment while supporting their communities.

A curated list of articles by, and featuring, CMCI researchers for your reading, watching and listening pleasure. Dig in!

Bill Cramer (Jour'56) lives in Bowie, Maryland, and turned 91 in November. Following graduation from CU Boulder, he had a career working as a Russian, German, French and Spanish military translator for the National Security Agency and Naval Intelligence during the Cold War. He and his wife, Virginia, whom he met at a square dance on the patio of the then-new University Memorial Center, have six children and four grandchildren.

Media Production students cluster around a table in CU Boulder’s Museum of Natural History as Emily Braker, the museum’s collections manager, reveals their subjects: a snake in a jar, taxidermied birds, a series of skulls and an array of other specimens dating back to the early 1900s. Their task? Take advantage of 2020 technology to reanimate the objects for an assignment in their Introduction to Extended Realities course.

Last spring, as the coronavirus outbreak swept the nation and the globe, students in Writing for the Media jumped into action. From conducting interviews with residents in their communities to combing through government-funded reports, students contributed local and national reporting on a range of pandemic-related topics, from education to business to relationships.

The Mimesis Documentary Festival will bring filmmakers together for an immersive week of film screenings and discussions. The virtual presentation will be held Aug. 12 through 18.

The Center for Environmental Journalism is proud to welcome its 24th class of Ted Scripps Fellows, who will spend nine months at the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Media, Communication and Information working on long-term, in-depth journalistic projects and reflecting on critical questions.