Several 黑料不打烊 faculty members have received awards from the Turnage Fund for Political Communication to further their research on political communication and media literacy.
The Turnage Family Innovation and Creativity Fund for the Study of Political Communication has granted awards to several 黑料不打烊 faculty members to support their research on political communication and media literacy in the 21st century. This year鈥檚 recipients approach relevant issues to the Fund鈥檚 mission from local, national, and global perspectives.
The recipients of the Turnage Fund will present their work on campus during the 2024-25 academic year.
Enrique Armijo聽
Enrique Armijo, professor in the School of Law, is pursuing a research project titled 鈥淐ounter鈥恖ies: Disinformation and the Marketplace of Ideas.鈥 According to Armijo, “participants in knowledge production environments are often not motivated by accuracy.鈥
His project 鈥渙ffers a novel but needed corrective to First Amendment theory by taking a social epistemology approach to considering actors鈥 motivations in the knowledge production system and introduces and theorizes the concept of counter鈥恖ies: disinformation concerning verifiable facts that is shared with the intent to deceive one into believing their mistaken beliefs are true.”
Armijo will use the Turnage Funds to present his work at professional venues and produce public-facing writing for general audiences.
Jane O’Boyle
Jane O鈥橞oyle, associate professor of strategic communications, received support for her project 鈥淕en Z, Media Literacy and Elections: Two studies about news consumption and first-time voters.鈥 O鈥橞oyle says her project鈥檚 goal is “to teach students how important it is for a democracy to have citizen engagement and ethical news media that reaches them.鈥
Noting a distrust in news media and politics, she will collect national data about Gen Z鈥檚 use of news media and also develop 鈥減edagogical tools that will make a difference in students鈥 learning and engagement on these topics.”
J. Israel Balderas and Jill Auditori
The trio of J. Israel Balderas, assistant professor of journalism, Jill Auditori, lecturer in political science and public policy and Matthew Blomberg, assistant professor of journalism at Temple University Japan, will have the Turnage Fund support their collaborative project 鈥淭he N.C. Coalicio虂n por la Precisio虂n: Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Targeting North Carolina’s Latino Communities in the 2024 Election.鈥
Balderas, Auditori and Blomberg are working with the Latino community through Alamance Community College, and with the support of resources from Factchequeado, a pioneering Spanish-language fact-checking organization in their project. Among the objectives of this project are analyzing “how political actors communicate to Latino constituencies in a fraught media environment鈥 and equipping “Latino voters with media literacy skills to determine information accuracy.鈥 The researchers will use the Turnage Funds for data collection and dissemination of their research.
The Turnage Family Faculty Innovation and Creativity Fund for the Study of Political Communication was established with generous contributions by Dave Turnage to facilitate the study of political communication and media literacy in the 21st century. Baris Kesgin, associate professor of political science and public policy, is the director of the Turnage Fund.