The University of North Dakota’s Department of Communication held its fifth annual Communication Appreciation Day event last Thursday, April 23. The event, held in the Memorial Union ballroom from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., was divided into five events, each offering something different to attendees, who ranged from students to faculty to the general public.
The event began with the Comm Class Showcase, which featured communication students sharing some of the class and internship work they have accomplished throughout the year via poster presentations. Ten posters were included in the showcase, with topics ranging from journalism class feature stories to analyses of social media metrics. There was also a particular focus on medical communication, with four posters originating from COMM380HON: Health Communication.
The Comm Class Showcase was followed by a brief opening ceremony by Department Chair Dr. Joonghwa Lee, spoke briefly on the department before introducing the next portion of the event: the latest installment in the Hagerty Lecture series. This lecture—named in honor of the late Jack Hagerty—brings a notable journalist with ties to UND back to campus to speak on contemporary issues facing the media landscape. This year’s guest speaker was Ian Swanson, a UND Alumnus and Editor-in-Chief of the Hill, a Washington-based publication and one of the nation’s primary news sources on Capitol Hill.
Swanson’s lecture was titled, “From Obama to Trump: Why Non-Partisan News Matters,” and touched on many important facets of the current media landscape, such as political polarization in the media, the ethics of partisan reporting, and the importance of developing human connections with sources in the age of AI.
Next up was the Digital Storytelling Summit Showcase. The Digital Storytelling Summit is a weeklong workshop held in the summer by the communication department. Over the course of the summit, a group of high schoolers from around North Dakota and Minnesota come to campus and learn about various aspects of producing digital content. Several alumni from last year’s summit took to the stage with their undergraduate coordinators to share their experiences and show their work to the audience.
The penultimate event of the day was the Comm Career Alumni Roundtable. Over the course of a 40-minute session, students could sit down with UND alumni in various communication-based fields, spending ten minutes each at tables of their choosing. Covered career fields included content development, community engagement, public affairs, social media, leadership, sports communication and more.
The fifth annual Communication Appreciation Day concluded with a scholarship ceremony, where communication and journalism students receiving scholarships or endowments walked the stage. Many of donors or relatives of donors were present for the event, offering words of congratulations and advice to the recipients. Recipients for some of the more lucrative scholarships also offered words of gratitude and appreciation to the donors who gave them so much.
Quinn Berg is a Dakota Student Section Editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
