Himelboim recognized in faculty paper competition and by Karen Russell Award

Itai Himelboim

Itai Himelboim, associate professor of advertising in the Advertising and Public Relations Department at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, was awarded third place in the faculty paper competition and The Karen Russell Award for his research on social networks.

Himelboim’s research in classifying Twitter topic-networks using social network analysis was presented this August in the annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. In order to further uncover the success of social media networks, Twitter social media network datasets were segmented. This segmentation allowed for the research to illustrate six distinct patterns of collective connections. Himelboim was awarded third place in the Communication Technology division for his work delving into the value of these network structures.

In addition to his recognition for his work in identifying distinct patterns of connections via Twitter, Himelboim was given The Karen Russell Award for most downloaded Journal of Public Relations Research paper in 2014. Named after Karen Russell, an associate professor of public relations at Grady, this award was presented to Himelboim as the study identified social mediators that connected the U.S. State Department with its international public. As the research concluded, it was unveiled that government-related formal mediators and informal social mediators showed similar bilateral relationships. Himelboim was recognized for this award in the Public Relations division.