Emerging Scholars Program

Tips for Creating a Strong Proposal

The successful research project should contribute to the body of knowledge, should be designed so that it could be executed successfully, and should be within the abilities of the researcher to complete. To demonstrate that your project has these characteristics, we suggest the following for your proposal:

  • Make sure the proposal is well developed and clearly explains your project.
  • Explain the importance of the topic and the broad implications that this research can have.
  • Follow the specific categories from the call to make it easier for the reviewers evaluate.
  • Spell out the anticipated outcomes – What article(s) will be produced? How does this study advance our knowledge in the area?
  • Provide a title for the proposal. It helps crystallize the topic in the reviewer’s mind right off the bat.
  • Describe methods clearly and succinctly. How will you select your sample? How and why will the sample allow you to address the aims of the project? How will you analyze the sample?
  • Make sure the budget provides details. You should break out the categories and list exactly how the funds will be used.
  • Explain how this grant will assist in completing the project. If the project requires more funds than available, explain where the rest will come from so the work can be completed.

More Helpful Tips

Read Tips for Creating that Perfect Research Grant Proposal from 2019 AEJMC Senior and Emerging Scholars.

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Questions?

Questions about the AEJMC Emerging Scholars Program should be directed to Lillian Coleman at lillian@aejmc.org.

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Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2026

  • Chalise Macklin, University of Memphis
    “From Classroom to Newsroom:  University of Memphis–Marion Dual Enrollment Bridge Program”
  • Won-Ki Moon, University of Florida
    “Smarter or Just More Confident? Investigating Generative AI’s Impact on Fact-Checking, the Illusion of Expertise, and Interventions for Digital Literacy”

Read the Abstracts for the 2026 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2025

  • Alison Burns, Maryland
    “Digital Storytelling as Service Learning in an Undergraduate Media Literacy Course: A Case Study of the Harriet Tubman Byway Project” 
  • Sisi Hu and Ginger Blackstone, Arkansas, Fayetteville
    “Breaking the Stigma: How TikTokers Frame and De-stigmatize Childless Women”

Read the Abstracts for the 2025 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2024

  • Yee Man Margaret Ng, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    “The Twitter Exodus: Negotiating the Transition from Twitter to Mastodon among Journalists”
  • Benjamin Toff, University of Minnesota
    “Evaluating Differences in Trust Toward Audio- versus Text-based Modes of News”

Read the Abstracts for the 2024 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2023

  • Megan Duncan, Virginia Tech
    “Relationships between Geographical Political Sorting, Discussion Networks, and Audience Perceptions of News Bias”
  • Ciera Kirkpatrick, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
    “Examining Health Information Seeking on TikTok and the Impact of TikTok Message Features on Young Women’s Health-Related Attitudes, Perceptions, and Behavioral Intentions”

Read the Abstracts for the 2023 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2022

  • Desirée Schmuck, School for Mass Communication Research at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
    “Modern Political Educators or Sources of Fake News? Influencers’ (Mis-)Information About Political Topics on Social Media”
  • Jieun Shin, University of Florida
    “Evaluating the Quality of News and User Engagement on Social Media”

Read the Abstracts for the 2022 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2021

  • Yan Huang, University of Houston
    “Correcting Vaccine-Related Misbeliefs Through Vicarious Self-Persuasion: Effects of Storytelling and Refutation”
  • Joanna Strycharz, University of Amsterdam, and Claire Segijn, University of Minnesota
    “A Change in Media Diet as a Result of Corporate Surveillance. A Comparison between the United States and Europe”

Read the Abstracts for the 2021 Emerging Scholar Recipients

Emerging Scholar Recipients for 2020

  • Russell Clayton, Florida State
    “Examining E-Cigarette Users’ Psychological, Affective, Attitudinal, and Behavioral Responses to Freedom-Threatening Anti-Vaping Public Service Announcements”
  • Viorela Dan, Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich, and Stephanie Van Stee, Missouri-St. Louis
    “Verbal-Visual Mismatch: The Disclosure Section of Televised Direct-to-Consumer Advertising and Its Effects on Consumers”
  • Wenlin Liu, Houston
    “Examining the Role of Community Communication Resources and Disaster Storytelling in Building Community Resilience”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2019

  • Jeanine Guidry, Nicole O’Donnell and Jay Adams, Virginia Commonwealth
    “Promoting Pro-Environmental Behaviors through Visual Social Media”
  • Lindsay Palmer, Wisconsin-Madison
    “A Cultural History of the Committee to Protect Journalists”
  • Jason T. Peifer, Indiana
    “(Re)Building Credibility: Understanding How Transparency, Locality, and Perceived Importance Can Contribute to Fostering Media Trust”
  • Meghan Sobel, Regis and Karen McIntyre, Virginia Commonwealth
    “The Role of the Media in Post-conflict Development in Three East African Nations”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2018

  • Suzannah Evans Comfort, Indiana University
    “Responsibility, Vulnerability, and Climate Change: Toward a Model of Influences on Climate Journalism in Developing Countries”
  • Julia Daisy Fraustino, West Virginia University, and Amanda K. Kennedy, St. Mary’s University
    “Care in Action: Disaster Communication Ethics and Preparedness in Vulnerable Communities”
  • Summer Harlow, University of Houston, and Danielle Kilgo, Indiana University
    “Disrupting the Protest Paradigm: Toward a Model of the Sociological Effects, Routines and Norms Influencing Journalistic Coverage of U.S. Protests”
  • Candi S. Carter Olson, Utah State University
    “Act Like a Lady: Women’s Press Clubs and the Rise of the Twentieth Century Newswoman”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2017

  • K. Hazel Kwon and Monica Chadha, Arizona State University
    “News Proximity and Social Media Framing of Terrorism: A Computational Approach toward Large-Scale Framing Research”
  • Yu-Hao Lee, University of Florida
    “Feeling Right about the News: A Motivated Information Processing Examination of the Effects of News Headline Framing on Selective Exposure and Elaboration”
  • Bryan McLaughlin, Texas Tech University
    “Tales of Conflict: Political Transportation and Political Polarization”
  • Ivanka Pjesivac and Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, University of Georgia
    “Virtual Reality Journalism: Emotions and News Credibility”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2016

  • Mary Angela Bock, Texas at Austin
    “Black and Blue: The Discourse of the Police Accountability Movement”
  • Brett G. Johnson, Missouri
    “Measuring New Norms of Intolerance Toward Extreme Speech: Assessing Public Opinion of Extreme User-generated Content and the Extralegal Practices of Managing Such Speech”
  • Ammina Kothari, Rochester Institute of Technology
    “UK Media Coverage of the Syrian Humanitarian Crisis”
  • Jessica Gall Myrick, Indiana
    “Making the Environment Healthy: An Experimental Test of the Effects of Framing Climate Change as a Public Health Issue”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2015

  • Jan Boehmer, University of Miami
    “Motivating News Engagement: How Social Cues Affect Learning From News”
  • Lindita Camaj, University of Houston
    “Media Use of Freedom of Information Law to Set the News Agenda in Bulgaria”
  • Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University
    “The Emergence of Professional Prizes and the Development of Journalistic Professionalism in the U.S.”
  • Edson C. Tandoc, Nanyang Technological University
    “What’s the Buzz? Find Out How Buzzfeed is Transforming the Journalistic Field

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2014

  • Gang (Kevin) Han, Iowa State University
    “Mapping Health Information Flow and Knowledge Diffusion on Microblogging: A Social Network Analysis of Social Influence on Twitter”
  • Seth Lewis, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
    “Big Data and Journalism: Epistemology, Expertise, and Ethics”
  • Hyunjin Seo, University of Kansas
    “Roles of Visuals During Syrian Conflicts: Toward a Theoretical Model of Visual Propaganda in Social Media Age”
  • Nikki Usher, George Washington University
    “For-Profit News Start-ups and the Future of Journalism”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2013

  • Miao Guo, Ball State University
    “Double Vision: Examining Second Screen Usages and Impacts in a Social Television Viewing Environment”
  • Beth Knobel, Fordham University
    “The Watchdog Still Bites: How Accountability Reporting is Evolving in the Internet Era”
  • Marcus Messner, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Marcia DiStaso, Penn State University
    “Turning to the Wiki-Doctor? A Study of Wikipedia Health Information Use and Perceived Credibility by Internet Users and Doctors”
  • Jingsi Wu, Hofstra University
    “Entertainment and Public Sphere in Contemporary China”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2012

  • Elina Erzikova, Central Michigan University
    “Submissiveness and Subversiveness: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Interdisciplinary Analysis of Russian Media’s Trajectories”
  • Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante and Jeannine Relly, University of Arizona
    “Silencing Mexico: A Study of Influences on Mexican and U.S. Journalists Reporting along the Northern Border”
  • Robert Handley, University of Denver
    “Are Global Journalistic Practices and Global Epistemology Emerging? Evidence from Multinational and Extra-National Journalistic Partnerships”
  • Weirui Wang, Florida International University, and Nan Yu, North Dakota State University
    “The Power of Acculturation: Understanding Online Information Seeking Among New Immigrants”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2011

  • Jennifer Stevens Aubrey, Missouri
    “Teen Pregnancy and Health Literacy: An Entertainment Education Approach to Examining the Impact of 16 and Pregnant”
  • Jiyoung Cha, North Texas
    “Social Television: Redefinition of Social Interaction among Television Viewers in the 21st Century”
  • Jakob D. Jensen, Purdue
    “The Influence of Ethnic Newspaper Consumption on Cancer Prevention Behaviors: A Test of the Cognitive Mediation Model”
  • Susan Keith, Rutgers
    “Homegrown Media Criticism: The U.S. Journalism Review Movement, 1958-1977”

Emerging Scholars Recipients for 2010

  • Bill Herman, Hunter College & Minjeong Kim, Colorado State University
    “The Internet Defends Itself: The Network Neutrality Debate on the Web”
  • Heather LaMarre, University of Minnesota
    “Citizen Journalism and Social Media in the 2010 Election: A Multi-method Approach to Understanding Emerging Trends and Innovations in Mass Communication Campaigns”
  • Jasmine McNealy, Louisiana State University
    “A Survey of Subpoenas Against Anonymous Internet Speakers and Outcomes”
  • Leigh Moscowitz, College of Charleston
    “Gay Marriage in the News”