school of communications

Four journalism students created a documentary explaining their adjustment to working remotely during a pandemic

Four professionals answered questions about experiences with diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace during a panel discussion

The project, titled “Your Decisions Write Our Stories,” won several awards this year, including a Gold Award at the International Andy Awards and Best in Show at Utah’s American Advertising Federation Awards

What if you were able to work on real-life projects for global brands such as Amazon, Gatorade, Nike and Spotify as a student? Students who work in BYU’s AdLab, a professionally mentored, student-led advertising agency, do just that. Oh, and they are also pretty good at winning awards. Like Emmy-award winning good. Earlier this month, one recent project from the team became the latest to win the Emmy for Commercial, PSA, or Promo from the College Television Awards. The commercial tells the story of a father and son who reconcile their relationship when the father accepts his son for who he is rather than what he wants his son to be. A big reason why the students and faculty in this lab are so successful is their ability to be in sync with the advertising industry and its trends. Most recently, they have embraced the new model of brand storytelling through social advocacy. To do that, professors and advisors encourage students to tap into their personal backgrounds, areas of interest and passion to help brainstorm the next project. See the full article by Aaron Sorenson at news.byu.edu.

Communications student Madison Moulder shares how an experiential learning opportunity has enhanced her time at BYU

Tessa Ostivig, who graduated in April 2020, reflects on her time at BYU

Isabella Vaughn, who graduated in December 2019, reflects on her time at BYU

Lui — a native of Seattle, Washington — will graduate with a BA in communications with an emphasis in advertising on April 24, 2020

Speed — a native of Denver, Colorado — will graduate with a BA in communications with an emphasis in communications studies on April 24, 2020

The project

Communications alum documents the refugee experience to promote compassion and understanding

A group of BYU students used skills developed in class to highlight their unique experiences and promote diversity awareness among BYU students and faculty

Cutri’s documentary examines the world of extreme sports including socio-economic factors and peak in participation Extreme sports continue to fascinate and entertain the public even after their long history beginning in the 1950s. It is nearly impossible to peel your eyes from the seemingly superhuman feats athletes perform as they fly, jump and twist through the air. Safety is put on the backburner as participants appear to defy human limitations. In recent years, there has been a boom in the popularity of these kinds of sports. Although School of Communications professor Chris Cutri does not participate in extreme sports himself, he is passionate about understanding the spike in participation because of his previous projects focused on the sociology of sports. “These pursuits are becoming more and more common,” Cutri said. “I wanted to find out why.” The documentary — filmed entirely in black and white — was recently picked up by First Run Features — a prominent distributor of independent films based in New York City. Cutri’s film explores the psychology of extreme sports such as wingsuit jumping, ultramarathons and highlining. Read the full article on the School of Communications website.

It was NCAA star player Grayson Allen’s first game back after his suspension that came from deliberately tripping an opposing player. Everyone in the press room was fighting their way to him, including 20-year-old Abigail Keenan. This was only the beginning of many experiences where fighting her way through unseen obstacles would lead her to achieve her dreams. Her ability to pivot and find unique opportunities led her to photographing The Bucket List Family and to interning with the Los Angeles Lakers. With everyone surrounding Allen in the locker room, Keenan had to think fast. She knew that she wanted that shot, but how could she get it? “This was my first time rushing into the locker room, and I had no idea what to do,” Keenan said. “Being the newcomer once again, I saw a three-person deep wall surrounding Allen.” Clawing her way through eager reporters, she still couldn’t fight her way through the barricade of people surrounding Allen. Keenan reached down and tilted her camera up. She took a chance and shot between the legs of the man in front of her. With her fingers crossed that the angle was right, she snapped a picture hoping to capture where Allen was sitting. She then looked at the picture on her camera, and to her surprise, the photo was not only in focus but also in perfect lighting. What occurred that day in the press room foreshadowed the rest of Keenan’s journey — nothing is off limits. Keenan, a former Daily Universe photographer and 2019 BYU School of Communications graduate, saw what felt like a far-fetched dream became reality when she scored an internship with the Lakers. However, the path that led her there was anything but conventional. Read the full article at universe.byu.edu.

BYU communications faculty, staff and students co-produce a documentary filmed in Spain about the famous network of pilgrimages — Camino de Santiago Five students and three professors from the BYU School of Communications traveled to Spain to capture the experience of BYU Spanish language majors walking the Camino de Santiago, a network of pilgrimages leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James the Great in northwestern Spain. The footage they took was compiled into a documentary about the Camino de Santiago, why people walk it and what it means to be a pilgrim. The 15-minute video, “Camino de Santiago: The Way of St. James,” was released on Aug. 25. “Our communications students conducted themselves so professionally. They were passionate about the project and hardworking,” said Cressman. “We were very fortunate to have this experience. I believe it begins to fulfill the vision of our school’s director, Ed Carter — to get our students out into the world in mentored-learning situations where they can do challenging but exceptional things.” BYU communications students shadowed and interviewed BYU Spanish students on the Camino de Santiago study abroad as well as others they met along the pilgrimage. “Everywhere I went on the Camino, people told me they had met one or more of our students,” said Cressman. “In every single instance, those people told me how impressed they were with them.” Read the full story at comms.byu.edu.

BYU School of Communications students, professors and alumni joined together for a catered lunch and a motivational lecture on Friday, Sept. 20 Public relations graduate Abe Gong was the guest speaker at the Fall 2019 Beckham Lecture, a semi-annual lecture given by a communications alumni or professor to students. He is currently the CEO of Superconductive Health and was chosen for his innovations in healthcare research. Gong focused on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that guide individuals’ lives — both professionally and personally. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that have happened in Gong’s life include his undergraduate education at BYU, his masters degree at the University of Michigan, various job opportunities and creating a family with his wife. Gong noted that people typically say “seize the opportunity” when encouraging others to take chances that could lead to positive growth, but he argued that the word “seize” has a sudden, forcible and grasping feeling that inhibits personal responsibility for opportunities. Instead, Gong believes that students should think of the phrase as “cultivate the opportunity.” As individuals seek to cultivate opportunities in their lives, they will create and shape life-changing trajectories and events. Read the full story at comms.byu.edu.

With a boost from BYU’s top-ranked advertising program, students are blasting off—creating iconic campaigns and landing at the world’s most-respected agencies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I2koKZUFRk BYU students from the School of Communications and the Department of Design came together to create ‘Handimojis’ — an ASL-friendly version of Apple’s ‘Animoji’ BYU students Sam Carlson, Amanda Rasmussen and Coni Ramirez were given an assignment in their advertising class — create an idea that uses technology to connect customers to a brand. The result of this project extended beyond the classroom walls and has encouraged a wider conversation about inclusivity and diversity. Carlson knew he wanted this project to focus on the deaf community because of his deep admiration of American Sign Language and deaf culture — a respect he gained while serving an ASL mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and working as an ASL teaching assistant for BYU. During the brainstorming phase, Carlson proposed to Rasmussen and Ramierez that they use the idea of Apple’s Animoji technology and add the ability to depict hand movement. This would allow users who couldn’t previously use the feature to have access to Animoji technology in a new, exciting and personalized way. In addition to using this for their class project, the team decided to enter ‘Handimojis’ into the Future Lions advertising competition. The challenge for the competition was to “connect an audience of your choosing to a product or service from a global brand in a way that wasn’t possible three years ago.” ‘Handimojis’ fit the goal of the competition, so they decided to make the April 15 deadline. When the team presented the idea of ‘Handimojis’ to their BYU class, they were met with hesitation as many people were under the assumption that it would be impossible for deaf users to be able to hold their phone and use ‘Handimojis’ at the same time. However, the team explained that deaf people already use just one hand when video chatting on the phone. The new feature could be easily integrated into the existing culture. The team enlisted the help of Britta Schwall, a member of the Salt Lake Deaf Community, to sign in the one minute and 15 second video clip. After they finished shooting the footage of Schwall and others from the Salt Lake Deaf Community, there was still an integral part missing — the animation for the ‘Handimojis’ hands. This task proved to be the most challenging aspect of bringing ‘Handimojis’ to life. The three advertising students knew what they wanted but didn’t have the skills themselves to execute the 3D graphics for ‘Handimojis.’ As the team hurried to find someone to do the animation before the upcoming competition deadline, they turned to the Department of Design and its animation students. They eventually got in contact with Emily Ellis, who had just learned in her animation class the exact skills and techniques that would be required to complete the ‘Handimojis’ idea. “Emily was the answer to our prayers,” said Carlson. “With four days until the deadline, she pulled off some kind of magic. Seeing her animation was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen — it was exactly how we imagined it.” Rassmussen took Ellis’ animations and added them into the video only hours before the Future Lions competition deadline. Although the team’s idea didn’t advance in the competition, the team felt proud of their work and commitment to include a group of people that had previously been excluded from using Animojis. Schwall asked the team for permission to share their video on her Facebook to show what she had helped with. While the post was initially intended for Schwall’s immediate family and friends, the post now has over 48k views and 800 shares. Many of the comments on the post ask if ‘Handimojis’ is available for download or mention they weren’t able to find it in the App Store. While this app hasn’t been picked up by Apple, these comments show high interest and appreciation for this idea created by BYU students. “Seeing how the Deaf community reacted to it was more fulfilling than winning any award,” said Carlson. “It was a reminder to me why I first got involved with advertising — there's so much good and positive change we can be a part of.” Read additional coverage at ABC4.