Center for Communication, Media Innovation & Social Change

As the newest center within the College of Arts, Media, and Design, CCMISC is a research, teaching and communications hub that applies a four-pronged approach (experimentation, creation, intervention and preservation) to disrupt historically dominant power structures in media and communication.

Led by Dr. Meredith D. Clark, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Department of Communication Studies, CCMISC counts faculty and graduate students among its members, and welcomes individuals from Roxbury and surrounding areas to join its Community Advisory Council. CCMISC also welcomes interest from local residents and Northeastern students, faculty, and staff on our campuses across the United States and throughout the world.  

CCMISC is guided by three statements of core values:

  • Collaboration and collective inquiry
  • Work that is historically informed and futuristically oriented
  • Projects defined as audacious experiments

During the 2022-23 academic year, CCMISC will fulfill these values through the establishment of the community advisory board, the creation of a community-centered communication grant program, and two signature events – the Otherwise Symposium in the fall, and a Reparative Journalism conference in the spring. Center members are engaged in an array of individual and collective projects, including an investigation of how news media erases women from its visual narratives; a study on the impact of efforts to diversify food journalism; the preservation of Black digital culture, and the creation of an audio storytelling training program designed to equip young women in the Boston area with skills to write, edit, and produce their own narratives.

Information about the application processes for the community advisory board and the community-based communication grants program will be announced during the event. Attendees will also have an opportunity to discuss their own projects and explore potential collaborations with CCMISC members during a reception following the event. The event is free, but interested parties are asked to pre-register online.


Meet the Team

 

Dr. Meredith D. Clark, Director

Meredith Clark is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and the Department of Communication Studies. She is also the Founding Director of the College of Arts, Media and Design’s Center for Communication, Media Innovation, and Social Change. Her research focuses on the intersections of race, media, and power in digital, social, and news media, and is informed by the years she spent working in newsrooms as an editor, editorial writer and columnist.

Her manuscript We Tried to Tell Y’all: Black Twitter & Black Digital Resistance is under contract with Oxford University Press. Clark’s academic research has been published in Communication & the Public, Communication, Culture & Critique, Social Movement Studies, Electronic News, and the Journal of Social Media in Society. She is the academic lead for Documenting the Now II, a project supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that helps community-based activists create and maintain digital archives of their work.

Prior to joining CAMD, Clark was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and a 2020-2021 faculty fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute.


Jacob Kemp, Communications & Marketing Specialist

Jacob Kemp (he/him) is a graduate student in Northeastern’s Media Advocacy M.S. program. His undergraduate career involved a Bachelor’s in Political Science, co-ops for the Attorney General and a sea turtle hospital, and a variety of extracurricular opportunities. He is most proud of his current stint as Education Coordinator for SHARE, Northeastern’s sexual health and reproductive justice organization on-campus, where he has been heavily involved in education campaigns and medical resource efforts. After graduation, he hopes to continue his career in media & communication strategizing for empowered social and health efforts.

Morgan Foster, Communications & Marketing Specialist

Morgan Foster is a graduate student in Northeastern’s Media Advocacy M.S. program. As an undergraduate, she earned her Bachelor’s in Communication Studies and Marketing, completed three co-ops, and was heavily involved on campus as a performing arts club leader and Residential Life community member. After graduation, she plans to launch her career as a Corporate Social Responsibility professional in the New England area.

Cheryl Daniel, Graduate Research Assistant

Cheryl Daniel is an Oklahoma native obtaining her Master’s degree from Northeastern University in Media Advocacy. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Dillard University in Mass Communication with a concentration in Multimedia Journalism. She is devoted to advocating for black and brown communities  around food insecurity, housing, and media representation. After graduation in May, Cheryl would like to advance her career in communications while pursuing a doctoral program exploring the intersectionalities of race, public policy, and communications.