CEMI

Dr. Chyi is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in media economics and her work focuses on user demand for multiplatform newspapers. She examined the viability of digital subscriptions and revealed a strong attachment to the print product among newspaper readers. Her “Ramen Noodles Theory” suggests that online news, like ramen noodles, is an inferior good. Her book, Trial and Error: U.S. Newspapers’ Digital Struggles toward Inferiority, challenges U.S. newspapers’ technology-driven strategy, calling for a critical reassessment of the future of the industry.

Her research receives substantial attention from the news industry. She has addressed major industry conferences in the U.S., Europe (WAN-IFRA), and Latin America (Inter American Press Association), and offered advice to news organizations including The New York Times. Her work has been covered by media outlets worldwide, such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Guardian, Columbia Journalism Review, Politico Magazine, Bloomberg, Fortune, Nieman Journalism Lab, Poynter, Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, WAN-IFRA (Germany), The Sunday Independent (Ireland), El Mundo (Spain), Excelsior (Mexico), La Nacion (Argentina), The Korea Times, CBC Radio One (Canada), among others.

Chyi has published more than 50 journal articles and book chapters and received many research awards, including the News Audience Research Paper Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, two Faculty Research Awards from the College of Communication at UT Austin, the Top Research Paper Award from the International Symposium on Online Journalism, two Top Paper Awards from the Newspaper Division of AEJMC, and an award for industry relevance from the International Newspaper Marketing Association. She serves on the editorial board of these research journals: Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, International Journal on Media Management, Communication and Society, and Journal of Information Society.

Chyi teaches Economics of New Media, Audience Research, Introduction to Research Methods, and Advanced Social Science Methods at the graduate level, as well as Domestic Issues and Global Perspectives and Digital Production and Analytics at the undergraduate level. She received the Barry Sherman Teaching Award from the Media Management & Economics Division of AEJMC, which recognizes excellence and innovation in the teaching of media management and economics.

Chyi received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree from Stanford University, and a bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University. She taught at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Arizona prior to joining the UT faculty in 2007. She worked for several media organizations in the U.S. and in Asia.

Casey Walker is a Media Studies PhD student in the Department of the Radio-Television-Film at The University of Texas at Austin. Walker primarily focuses on industry, technology, and labor scholarship regarding the classical Hollywood studio system.His M.A. thesis explored Karl Freund’s Hollywood career, detailing his collaborative (and sometimes combative) authorship, stylistic trends, and technological contributions.

Luis Rivera-Figueroa is a Ph.D. student in the Radio-Television-Film department at The University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on the transnational flows of Latin Music in the United States, Latin America, and the Hispanic Caribbean. His work can be found in the Journal of Latin American Communication Research and Flow TV. In addition, Rivera-Figueroa has worked on the editorial team of journals such as the Journal of Latin American Communication Research, The Velvet Light Trap, Designis, and Flow TV.

Alex is a PhD student in the Radio-Television-Film department at the University of Texas at Austin. Working within U.S. film and television histories, Alex is interested in fringe media objects and the limits of media studies. These objects range from horror to the fashion/design industries, and questions about the politics of excess, regulation, and material/visual cultures are of particular interest. He received his MA in Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication from the University of Texas at Dallas and his BA in Art History from the University of Southern California. He is published in FLOW, The Velvet Light Trap, and Media Industries Journal.

Hyun-jung Stephany Noh is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Radio-Television-Film at Moody College of Communication, the University of Texas at Austin. Her interdisciplinary research spans global media, media industries, and public diplomacy with a special focus on the Korean Wave or hallyu. Her interest in media studies originates from 10 years of work experience in Korean television networks as a programming producer, ratings analyst, acquisition specialist, and production budget manager. She is currently writing her dissertation “Streaming K-drama” that investigates the cultural implications of the transnational phenomenon by researching the context of television programs and the shifts of industry practices formed in the streaming environment.

Brad Limov (MA, Nagoya University) is a doctoral candidate in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is currently a graduate research assistant with the Center for Media Engagement's Solidarity Journalism Initiative. His research examines the media industries and social movements at the level of digital production. He is particularly interested in the role of events, community, and identity in shaping this production and its political engagements.

Kaitlin Lange is a dual degree MBA/MA candidate in the McCombs School of Business and Radio-Television-Film. She received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in both English and Anthropology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities as well as a Graduate Certificate in Documentary Filmmaking from George Washington University. As a business development and communications professional, Kaitlin spent 8+ years supporting storytellers in the development of interactive media and film for museum exhibits, live theater, and documentary projects. In her free time, she runs a book club focused on film adaptations and collects stamps for her National Parks Passport.

Rusty Hatchell is a doctoral candidate in media studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his M.A. in media studies from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. in English from Georgia Gwinnett College. His current research focuses on contemporary superhero television universes, particularly on the efforts to cultivate narrative continuity as well as the industrial production logics that help shape superhero television into its own distinct genre. His scholarly work has appeared in Middle West Review, the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, Flow: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture, In Media Res, and the edited collection After Midnight: Watchmen after Watchmen. He is currently working on his doctoral dissertation, “Mapping the Multiverse: Narrative Continuity and Industrial Logics in the Shared Television Universes of DC’s Superheroes, 1992-2022,” which uses a longitudinal study of DC Comics’ expansion into television from 1992 to 2022 to examine how shared universes are emerging as a guiding principle of the media industries, influencing television production and distribution strategies.

Laura C. Brown is a Media Studies PhD candidate in the Department of Radio-Television-Film. Her research interests include American broadcast media history, audiences, taste cultures, critical industry studies, music on television, and media failures. She is currently a co-lead editor of The Velvet Light Trap journal, and she holds a position on the graduate student council of the Library of Congress’ Radio Preservation Task Force. Laura received a bachelor’s degree in History and a master’s degree in Film and Television Studies, both from Boston University.