Three earn doctorates in emerging media studies

Three COM students successfully defended their doctoral dissertations and were each awarded a PhD in emerging media studies:

• Sejin Paik authored “The Digital Soup: The Interplay Between Journalistic and Algorithmic Curation on News Framing Effects.” She was advised by Chris Chao Su, assistant professor, emerging media studies.
• Li Zhang authored “Judging a Bot by Its Cover: Investigating the Effectiveness and Implications of Social Bot Labeling.” She was advised by James Cummings, associate professor, emerging media studies.
• Alex Rochefort authored “Unsafe at Scale: Big Tech, Social Media, and the Challenge of Policy Reform.” He was advised by Chris Wells, associate dean of faculty development and professor, emerging media studies.

COM’s PhD program is the nation’s first doctorate program in emerging media and its critical, daily role in modern life. The program awarded its first degree in 2019.