School of Communication Director and Professor Kelly Garrett, received the National Communication Association's Charles H. Woolbert Research Award for publishing an article that has stood the test of time and become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of communication phenomena. 

The Woolbert Award is named in honor of one of the field’s earliest and most distinguished scholars. The award is reserved for an article or book chapter that, at the time of the award, is in at least its 10th year in print. 

The award committee noted that Garrett’s article in the Journal of Communication addressed an issue that still captures the attention of scholars, students, journalists, politicians, and arm-chair pundits across the world. His article proposes a distinction between selective approach (searching for like-minded viewpoints) and selective avoidance (opting out of information that challenges one’s pre-existing views). His article led to 15 years of robust scholarship about digital selective exposure and remains an essential corrective to a common misperception about digital media users.