Recent Publications
Yu Publication
Dr. Nan Yu has recently had an article accepted for
publication in Health Communication.
The title of the publication is "Communicating the risks of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: Effects of message framing and exemplification." The authors are Dr. Nan Yu, Dr. Lee Ahern, Dr. Colleen Connolly-Ahern, and Dr. Fuyuan Shen.
The article says that health messages can be either informative or descriptive, emphasize either potential losses or gains. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is a severe threat to babies born to mothers who consume alcohol during pregnancy. This syndrome affects an estimated 1 in 100 live births in the US -- or as many as 40,000 newborns each year. Aiming at strategically using media messages to influence future mothers, this study found an advantage of messages with factual information and potential gains of preventing FADS in increasing perceived efficacy toward FASD. On the other hand, descriptive messages with the losses of not preventing FASD revealed an advantage in increasing prevention intention, perceived severity, and perceived fear toward FASD. The findings from this study could have significant implications for the health campaigns related to FADS.
Platt Publications
Dr. Carrie Anne Platt has two new publications. The first is an
article entitled "Writing in Public: Pedagogical Uses of
Blogging in the Communication Course," to be published in the
Electronic Journal of Communication.
This article explores the pedagogical value of blogging in both undergraduate and graduate level communication courses. Using three case studies, it explores both the positive and negative outcomes that can result from incorporating blogging into the communication curriculum. It argues that "writing in public" has the potential to increase student engagement, improve the quality of student writing, facilitate peer-to-peer learning, make the connection between theory and practice more concrete, and help students develop necessary levels of multi-media literacy.The article concludes by outlining a set of best practices for the educational use of this social media technology.
The second is a book chapter entitled "Cullen Famiy Values: Gender and Sexual Politics in the Twilight Series," to be published in the edited volume Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, and the Twilight Saga (New York: Peter Lang).
The chapter explores the gender and sexual politics of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series through an in-depth thematic analysis of the narrative as it develops over the four-book saga: Twilight (2005), New Moon (2006), Eclipse (2007), and Breaking Dawn (2008). The analysis explores how Meyer employs conservative social values like the policing of female desire, the protection of female virtue from ruin, the importance of marriage, and the sanctity of life as key plot devices, creating a world in which vulnerable women need to be protected at all times, both from external forces and from their own desires. It also looks at how language is used to connect the loss of female innocence with bodily harm or death. The chapter concludes by considering the possible social implications of these messages for the predominantly female readership.
Majdik Publication
Dr. Zoltan Majdik has a new publication entitled "Judging
Direct-to-Consumer Genetics: Negotiating Expertise and Agency
in Public Biotechnological Practice" to be published in
Rhetoric & Public Affairs.
The article analyzes how providers of direct-to-consumer genetic tests communicate about abstract, technical genetic science with non-expert audiences. It argues that direct-to-consumer genetics reveals an impasse in public discourse over where legitimate agency for interpreting genetic test results, judging their meaning, and making decisions in response to them should rest. Rhetorical analysis of textual communication between lay people and providers of genetic biotechnological products shows that in these communicative transactions, norms of what counts as expertise are contested, and interpretive spaces for personal judgment are opened that aid non- expert deliberation about technical issues in applied genetic biotechnology.
Littlefied & Colleagues Publication
The Department of Communication is pleased to announce that an
article authored by Shari Veil, an NDSU Ph.D. now teaching at
the University of Oklahoma, Robert Littlefield, Professor at
NDSU, and Katherine Rowan, a Professor at George Mason
University, and entitled "Dissemination as Success: Local
Emergency Management Communication Practices" has been accepted
for publication in Public Relations Review.
The article argues that most local emergency managers determine communication effectiveness by recording the dissemination of their crisis preparation information to the public, rather than by measuring the implementation of strategies taken by the public to prepare for the crisis. Local emergency managers are encouraged to develop strategies to increase the public's self-efficacy.
Pearson & Colleagues Publications
Dr. Jeff Child, a recent graduate from our doctoral program,
Professor Judy Pearson, and Senior Summer Scholar Dr. Sandra
Petronio have co-authored an article titled "Blogging,
Communication, and Privacy Management: Development of the
Blogging Privacy Management Measure." The article will be
published in the Journal of the American Society for
Information Science and Technology.
This study applied Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory to the context of blogging and developed a validated, theory-based measure of blogging privacy management. Across three studies, 823 college student bloggers completed an online survey. In study one (n = 176), exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques tested four potential models. Study two (n = 291) cross-validated the final factor structure obtained in the fourth model with a separate sample. Study three (n = 356) tested the discriminant and predictive validity of the measure by comparing it to the self-consciousness scale. The Blogging Privacy Management Measure (BPMM) is a multidimensional, valid, and reliable construct. Future research could explore the influence of family values about privacy on blogging privacy rule management.
The second publication is called "Family Problem Solving: A Comparative Study of Adult Children in Puerto Rico and North Dakota." The authors are Dr. Judy C. Pearson, professor; Mary F. Casper, former doctoral student; Dr. Kerri Spiering, former doctoral student and now NDSU's Director of International Programs; and Dr. Jeffrey T. Child, former doctoral student and now assistant professor at Kent State University in Ohio. The article was accepted for publication in the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.
This study examined family problems and problem solving among American Upper Midwest and Puerto Ricans participants. Thematic and chi-square analysis provide a snapshot of how diverse families experience similar macro problems in day-to-day endeavors. Responses to each macro issue or strategy also suggest ways that the two cultural groups relate to family problems differently. Puerto Rico participants described and discussed significantly more communication related problems than did the United States sample. By contrast, the Upper Midwest participants identified communication as something they thought about doing to resolve problems more often than did the Puerto Ricans. The article discusses how micro level values are inherent in macrocultural family problems.
O'Connor & Shumate Publications
Dr. Amy O'Connor, Assistant Professor in the Department of
Communication, and former faculty member, Dr. Michelle Shumate,
an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, have had
their manuscript entitled "Corporate reporting of cross-sector
alliances: The portfolio of NGO partners communicated on
corporate websites" accepted for publication in
Communication Monographs, a top competitive journal in
our discipline.
This research tests two of the propositions of Shumate & O'Connor's (in press) Symbiotic Sustainability Model concerning the number and type of NGO alliances likely to be communicated by corporations. In particular, this research demonstrates that most corporations only communicate alliances with a few NGOs and with one NGO in an issue industry. In addition, the results suggest that corporations in the same economic industry are likely to communicate alliances with different NGOs in the same issue industries. In combination, these findings imply that a small set of social issues are likely to be included in NGO-corporate communication.
The study builds on a 3-year, long-term project entitled "The symbiotic sustainability model: Conceptualizing NGO-corporate alliance communication," to be published in the Journal of Communication.
This article introduces the Symbiotic Sustainability Model (SSM) as a macro-level explanation of NGO-corporate alliances. The SSM presents NGO-corporate alliances as a distinct interorganizational communication relationship that is symbolized to stakeholders to influence the mobilization of capital. The study contends that alliance partners communicatively co-construct the alliance with stakeholders to mobilize economic, social, cultural, and political capital. By focusing on the communication of the alliance's existence and character, new propositions emerge concerning the role of communication, capital mobilization resulting from NGO-corporate alliances, NGOs and corporations' choice(s) of alliance partner(s), the number of alliance partners organizations are likely to communicate, and the potential risks and rewards of such alliances. The model is illustrated using the Rainforest Alliance and Chiquita Better Banana Program as an abbreviated case study.
DeGreeff & Burnett Publications
The Journal of Happiness Studies, an ISI journal, has
accepted an article entitled "Communicating and Philosophizing
about Authenticity or Inauthenticity in a Fast-Paced World."
The authors of this paper are Becky L. DeGreeff, doctoral
student; Dr. Ann Burnett, Associate Professor; and Dr. Dennis
Cooley, a philosophy and ethics professor from NDSU's
Department of History, Philosophy & Religious Studies.
This study blended philosophy and communication to examine how individuals talk about time in holiday letters. North Americans live in an increasingly fast-paced world which could be physically and relationally unhealthy. This life style also may prevent people from living life to its fullest or achieving true happiness. Results of this study indicate that many letter writers were living inauthentic lives because they were too focused on the external world of others, rather than living authentic lives by understanding the world for what it is and who they are as individuals.
DeGreeff and Burnett have also written an article entitled "Weekend Warriors: Autonomy-Connection, Openness-Closedness, and Coping Strategies of Marital Partners in Nonresidential Stepfamilies" to be published in the December 2009 volume of The Qualitative Report.
This study examined the tensions experienced by marital partners who do not have physical custody of their children or stepchildren. Analysis of interviews revealed tensions were present not only between the relationship partners, but also regarding the visiting children. Parents and stepparents struggled with parent/child relationships. Stepparents also struggled with whether or not they should tell their spouse their true feelings about parenting issues, the stepchildren, and the ex-spouse.
Beck Publications
Dr. Stephenson Beck has two new publications.
Beck, S. J, & Keyton, J. (in press). Perceiving strategic meeting interaction. Small Group Research.
This study investigates how individuals perceive the message strategies of team members and how these perceptions relate to meeting interaction. After recording meeting interaction, the researchers conducted retrospective interviews using video clips from the meeting discourse. The study then compared interview transcripts with coded meeting messages. The results advance our knowledge of communication in team meetings, specifically, how and why team members interpret the same interaction in different ways.
Keyton, J., Beck, S. J., & Asbury, M. B. (in press). Macrocognition: New construct for shared meaning? Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science.
Although many disciplines have investigated the relatively new concept of macrocognition, nobody has explored the benefits of a communication perspective. Often in social psychological or organizational studies communication is oversimplified and treated as static. From a communication perspective, interaction is problematized and shared meaning is complicated, necessitating a different way of understanding macrocognition, in addition to a different way of capturing the concept methodologically.