Brian Ekdale is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Tell us about your hometown; how did it shape you?

I was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and I have always rooted for University of Iowa sports. When I was 12, my Christmas present was two tickets to see the football team play in the 1991 Rose Bowl. Even though Iowa lost, we made a lot of great memories cheering on the Hawkeyes in Pasadena.

Tell us about your hobbies/outside interests.

I watch a lot of sports, especially basketball, with my wife and daughter. We have season tickets to the women’s basketball team, and we’ve witnessed some unforgettable moments at Carver Hawkeye Arena. I feel truly fortunate to live in a city that supports women’s sports. Some of my other hobbies include playing the drums, listening to podcasts, working on house projects, and watching horror movies with my wife.

What is your favorite hang out place?

I have a few favorite hangout places in the area. When the weather is nice, I like meeting up with friends at Big Grove and Bread Garden. I also spend a lot of time at the public library, whether I am there with my daughter to check out books or for a change of scenery during working hours. In the winter, we like to have people over to our house to watch sports, play cards, or just chat.

Can you share a recent book/movie/performance that you found compelling and why?

I was really captivated by the movie Anatomy of a Fall. The film takes what could be a rather predictable courtroom procedural drama and plays around with the storytelling and structure in innovative ways. Rather than getting caught up in the legal drama, the movie dives deep into the intimate and troubled relationships between complex characters. I watched it on a plane, so I hope the other passengers didn’t notice me crying.

What attracted you to the University of Iowa?

Iowa’s School of Journalism & Mass Communication is one of the most storied programs in our field. The program has a long history of critical and cultural studies of media, which resonates with my research interests. The school also has many incredible alumni who have become leaders in journalism, public relations, and creative media. In fact, my first introduction to the program was as a high school student, when I attended the Iowa Summer Journalism Workshop to learn how to be a yearbook editor. It’s truly an honor that I get to teach the next generation of media professionals.

What shaped your interest in your discipline?

As an undergraduate student, I majored in computer science and communication. This was the late 1990s, and I was convinced there was a need to adapt communication skills to the internet, even though I didn’t know what that would look like at the time. After college, I spent a few years working in IT while also freelancing in video production and website design. It wasn’t until graduate school that I started to learn what it meant to study digital media as a unique area of research.

What is the best advice you received as a student and do you still follow that advice today?

My senior year of college, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. One day, I was meeting with one of my professors, and I mentioned that I might apply to graduate school. He said to me, “don’t go to graduate school unless you know why you want to go to graduate school.” I didn’t fully appreciate this advice at the time, but I do now. Graduate school isn’t just something to do when you’re not sure what else to do. It is a commitment to a research area you are passionate about. It wasn’t until years after I graduated from college that I woke up one day and realized, “I want to go to graduate school, and I finally know why.”

Tell us about a project or achievement of which you are particularly proud.

For the past several years, I have led the Center for Publics, Platforms & Personalization (CP3). CP3 started as a small reading group organized by my colleague Tim Havens in Communication Studies, and it has grown into a productive interdisciplinary research group dedicated to studying the relationship between personalization algorithms and society. Today, we have 16 faculty and graduate student members from six universities around the U.S. While I am excited about our publications and external funding, I am most proud of the community of curious and compassionate scholars we have created together.

How do you see your work impacting your field?

Social media algorithms are black boxes. By that, I mean we know very little about how they work and what kind of outcomes they produce. Our research tries to demystify social media algorithms by uncovering the personalization process—both what algorithms do as well as how users respond to and make sense of personalization.

What changes are on the horizon for your work or your discipline?

We try to connect our research on personalization algorithms to broader questions facing society, including racial bias, political radicalization, and the spread of foreign influence campaigns. In the future, I could see us examining, for example, what the proliferation of AI-generated content means for personalization on social media. I am also interested in expanding our scope to better understand the personalization process in different parts of the world, especially parts of the Global South that rarely get the same amount of scholarly attention.

What piece of advice would you give to today's students?

Students in our field are always excited to learn the latest tools and technologies. While it is important to stay up-to-date, the most vital skill you can learn in college is critical thinking. There will always be on-the-job training to learn the specific tasks, software, and hardware you need to use on a daily basis. Learning how to be an informed, critical producer and consumer of media will give you the foundation you need to navigate the professional world intelligently and ethically.

In closing, what words of wisdom would you like to share, what quotation or person inspires you, what does the next chapter look like?

Take risks, have fun, and don’t be afraid to ask for help. All of us struggle from time to time. Know that there is a whole community surrounding you that wants to see you succeed.