Backpack students sit down with Assistant Professor Steinke to talk about authenticity in the digital age.
Assistant Professor Allison Steinke thinks about branding and digital media differently: not as tools, but as spaces where people can find meaning, connection and purpose. Guided by a commitment to authenticity and human connection, she’s built a career that bridges journalism, branding, research and a deeply people-centered philosophy that she brings into every classroom she leads.
As an award-winning scholar, author and educator with a background in journalism, Steinke now teaches thousands of undergraduate and graduate students in the Hubbard School, blending research, real-world experience, and a passion for storytelling to help students navigate the evolving world of branding and communication.
We sat down with Assistant Professor Steinke to discuss not just how digital media functions, but how it influences identity, community and the way we communicate with each other — and how she encourages authenticity, creativity and purpose in both her students and her own work.
Backpack: How did you end up at Hubbard?
Allison Steinke: My sister was a Strategic Communication major here, and I was in Chicago for college and grad school, and my sister, who was in her senior year here, was like, hey, come visit the U, I want you to sit in on one of my classes just for fun. I sat in on a class during a lecture, and there was a pop quiz that I took on media ethics. I didn’t put my name on the paper because they wouldn’t know who I was anyway and handed it to the TAs. They were freaking out, questioning whose paper it was because you were going to fail without a name. I ran up to the front and told them I was visiting and that my sister was in class but you could throw away my quiz. The professor asked where I worked and what I did, if I ever thought about a PhD because I had a Master’s degree at the time and was teaching part-time — but I hadn’t thought about it. He said, “I think you should think about a PhD, and I think you should think about doing it here.”
B: How did your interest in digital and brand communication begin and what has kept you passionate about it?
AS: I grew up with Napster, Kazaa, all the music platforms back in the day, and so I was raised on digital media. When I went to college, I majored in media studies, so I studied all kinds of digital and analog media, the rise of the internet and blogging, social media and more. I really wanted to study that as it was happening. When I got my Master’s in magazine editing and production, I was interested in blogging and launched a blog with the Chicago Tribune that actually got me my first job. So just riding waves and figuring out what’s trending, what works, what doesn’t. I have always loved that, and studying that is really important because I like connecting with people. Storytelling has always been important to me and getting to know people, telling stories and journalism are a great way to do that. The best way to put it: my interest in digital media is because it’s always changing, and that’s what’s exciting about it. I love innovation and being a part of it, but also teaching and talking about it and how we can make the world a better place in and through it.
B: How do these past experiences as a blogger, editor, researcher and strategist shape the way you show up for students in the classroom?
AS: I like to encourage my students to bring their whole selves to class, and I think authenticity is important. I think that we were all created on purpose for a purpose. We all have a purpose to carry out in life and, first and foremost, it’s to see others, to encourage them, help them better live their lives and see their truths.
For the classes that I teach, experiential learning is the best kind. That’s something I was taught and modeled in undergrad and grad school — if you can put your boots on the ground and do the work, you’re going to learn way better than you will sitting in a chair and listening to somebody. That doesn’t mean that people don’t have good things to say. Professors are subject matter experts. They’ve been there, done things, and we’re always gleaning wisdom from people who have gone and lived things before us. Doing the things that matter most and co-creating reality is what matters most to me as a professor, so I encourage my students to find their purpose and pursue their passions.
I try to put all the best things that I’ve been able to do in my career right back into the classroom, encourage students to do those things, bring their own positionalities and perspectives on things into those projects and processes, so we can make the best products and publications possible.
B: What do you think students often overlook or misunderstand about the role digital media plays in shaping how audiences understand social issues?
AS: It’s very easy to fall into traps that we don’t even realize we’re falling into and to participate in rhetoric that’s damaging. That happens when we don’t look up. We need to be having conversations in-person to be intentional with the words that we use because words can be weaponized. I think it is important for us as ethical communicators to really pay attention to, like I mentioned, the authenticity, but also the credibility and the emotional attachment that we all have with regard to language.
B: What is your Hubbard Hot Take?
AS: My hot take would be to choose not to answer that question.
To learn more about Allison Steinke and her work, visit her CLA faculty profile.
Text by Ashaar Ali, photo by Wren O'Brien, Office Hours logo by Reagan Frystak, Backpack students.