The Newspaper and Online News division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication awarded two graduate students with the MacDougall Student Paper Award for the best student paper submitted to the division in 2017.

George Pearson and Simon Lavis, both entering their fourth year at Ohio State, were awarded for their paper “Way-finding and source blindness: How the loss of gatekeepers spread misinformation in the 2016 Presidential election,” which examines a link between news consumption techniques and susceptibility to fake news during the 2016 election.

Both students study political communication, with George focusing on public opinion and journalism, and Simon focusing on political entertainment and narrative communication.

The students will be presented with the award at the Newspaper and Online News division business meeting at the AEJMC Conference in Chicago Aug. 9-12.