New Research Accepted for Presentation at ICA 2026

Professor Jarrad Henderson previously presented LIFT research findings at the International Communication Association Annual Conference in Gold Coast Australia in 2024.

We are honored to announce that research from LIFT Minneapolis has been accepted for presentation at the International Communication Association (ICA) 2026 Annual Conference, to be held June 4–8 in Cape Town, South Africa. ICA is one of the most d competitive international gatherings in the communication scholarship, making this a crucial and exciting opportunity to share our work on one of the most important global stages.

Our paper engages an urgent question in journalism studies: how can journalists move beyond one-directional ethical practices to meaningfully repair harm and build reciprocal relationships with the communities that have been harmed historically? We look for these answers in a unique space: in communities that have experienced great harm, but still have found ways to trust certain journalists. Our study centers relational approaches to journalism ethics, emphasizing mutual agency and reciprocity. We interviewed journalists trusted by Black community members in Minneapolis, where the murder of George Floyd catalyzed a global movement against police brutality and systemic racism. In our study, we further explored how the dimensions of loving relationships, care, commitment, responsibility, respect, and knowledge, provided a useful framework for understanding and interrogating the roles journalists and audiences have played in building healing relationships -- even in communities that have experienced distinct trauma and harm. In addition, our findings highlight two key mechanisms, diligence and deference, that trusted journalists use to enact more receptive engagement with vulnerable communities. Our qualitative inquiry further offers pathways for understanding an ethic of love as an essential theoretical building block for crafting a more universally relevant understanding of strategies that repair harm for vulnerable communities, and thus all communities.

We are honored to have this opportunity and look forward to embarking on conversations at ICA 2026. The article is available upon request, and is currently in the blind-review process.