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The Oral Communication Program wins Do Good Campus Fund Award

Congrats to Drs. Otis, Lucas, and Mazzone!

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Dr. Hailey Otis and Ph.D. Student Morgan Thoem Win FSRA Award!

A great recognition and opportunity for graduate mentorship

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The Oral Communication Center successfully partnered with the University of Maryland Medical Center

An inspiring community partnership between the OCC and UMMC!

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Dr. Raquel Moreira wins 2026 Independent Scholarship, Research and Creativity Award

Excellent work, Dr. Moreira!

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COMM Speed Mentoring Night Connected Many COMM Students with Alums!

A successful and inspiring evening of networking and mentoring!

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Explore Communication at UMD

Undergraduate Students

Interested in our undergraduate program?

The Department of Communication at the University of Maryland offers a B.A. in communication, a rhetoric minor and an oral communication program. Communication is a Top Ten major at the University of Maryland and has been for ten years.


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Faculty and Staff Information

Faculty and Staff Information

Search our directory to learn about our faculty and staff, or access resources relevant to faculty and staff.


Losing the API: Developing Novel Methods for Scraping Black Twitter

Co-authored piece with COMM members and alums!

Communication

Author/Lead: Andrew Lowe
Contributor(s): Rianna Walcott, Abigail Vázquez Rosario
Dates:

As digital platforms continually evolve, rapid changes to platform affordances quickly render digital tools and data collection methods obsolete. Researchers of digital culture therefore must proactively adapt to the ephemerality of data. This paper examines these challenges within the context of Twitter (X) following its 2022 acquisition by Elon Musk, and the subsequent limiting of access to the API for data collection. Using a combination of manual data-collection practices and Zeeschuimer [Peeters 2025], a browser extension that collects social media data while browsing, researchers developed a novel data collection method, and model methodological adaptability within shifting digital terrains.

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Corporate Social Advocacy (CSA) and Message Strategies: What to Communicate and How to Communicate

Co-Authored Book Chapter in "Strategic Communication for Corporate Social Advocacy"

Communication

Author/Lead: Sun Young Lee, Najwa Albaqami
Dates:

Focusing on the two basic aspects of message strategies—“what to communicate” and “how to communicate”—the chapter provides a comprehensive overview of CSA message strategies. For the “what” strategies, a company can communicate about the social issue it is addressing, its stance on the issue, and what advocacy efforts it is making, as well as highlighting its motives and its history of commitment. For the “how” strategies, we review strategies for tone, value-oriented vs. action-oriented strategies, strategies of emotional appeals, and visual strategies. We identify valuable insights attained so far but point to areas where more research is needed. The chapter ends with a mini-case study comparing the message strategies of Lyft and Levi’s CSA supporting abortion rights in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

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Artificial intelligence, deepfakes, and wars: How global news media frame actors, threats, and solutions in 19 countries

Collaborative research from the COMM department published in Media, War & Conflict

Communication

Author/Lead: Taufiq Ahmad, Seyeon Park
Dates:

This study analyzes 308 news articles published by 19 newspapers across 19 countries to examine the actors behind deepfakes, the associated threats, and the proposed solutions. Using the Russia–Ukraine war as a case study, the authors examined how newspapers frame deepfake-related actors, threats, and solutions during the conflict. Qualitative thematic analysis was used to analyze the data, and framing theory to interpret the findings. Findings reveal that the actors responsible for creating, distributing, and supporting deepfakes include state and political entities, technology companies and developers, criminal networks, covert channels, and propaganda agents. The threats posed by deepfakes span political, ethical, legal, social, security, and economic domains. Proposed solutions to counter deepfakes fall into several categories: technical, policy-based, regulatory, institutional, and educational. This research contributes to the growing body of literature on modern warfare, AI-generated disinformation, deepfakes, and the rapidly changing digital information ecosystem in the post-truth era.

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