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2024 Mark and Heather Rosenker Lecture featuring Joe Mazza

Joe Mazza presents "Enduring Words" for the 2024 Rosenker Lecture

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Communication Professor Brooke Fisher Liu Named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher

Liu leads diverse research teams to theorize and test risk and crisis communication.

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Communication & Media Career & Internship Fair | Fall 2024

Don't miss this opportunity to connect with employers looking to hire for full-time and part-time jobs and internships in fields spanning communication, media, entertainment, marketing, production, and more.

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From Cardamom Chai to Lattes in Australia: A Journey to Understanding Pakistan’s Public Diplomacy

Zia's article explores public diplomacy issues in Pakistan

Communication

Author/Lead: Lamia Zia
Dates:

COMM Lecturer Lamia Zia's article, "From Cardamom Chai to Lattes in Australia: A Journey to Understanding Pakistan’s Public Diplomacy," was published on the USC Center on Public Diplomacy's blog. 

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All joking aside? Comparing the effects of a humorous vs. a non-humorous message strategy in building organization–public relationships and community resilience

An online experiment in the context of weather messages

Communication

Contributor(s): Jiyoun Kim, Brooke Fisher Liu, Anita Atwell Seate, Saymin Lee
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Daniel Hawblitzel
Dates:

Communication scholars have studied the persuasive power of humor messages, but research provides mixed results. Also, the literature has been slow in demonstrating the practical effects of humorous messages on desired outcomes (e.g., organization–public relationships). Through an online experiment in the context of weather messages with samples of U.S. adults residing in the Southeastern U.S. (N = 209), we compared a humorous social media message designed to build relationships with the public to a non-humorous message in predicting OPRs and perceived community resilience when there is no high-impact weather on the horizon. Compared to a humorous message, a non-humorous message appeared to be more effective in increasing perceived community resilience and three dimensions of positive OPRs – trust, control mutuality, and commitment. The effects were more robust for community members with low to moderate levels of weather salience (i.e., the psychological value and importance that people have for the weather).

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Building the new architecture of crisis management: Global experts' insights on best and worst practices for securing external funding

This study explores the best and worst practices for funded research through an expert consultation survey

Communication

Author/Lead: Brooke Fisher Liu
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Yan Jin, Wenqing Zhao, Andreas Schwarz, Olivia Truban, Matthew Seeger
Dates:

External funding is an important yet understudied area of inquiry in crisis communication research. With external funding being a keystone of assessing and broadening research impact in both academia and industry, it is important for scholarship to examine effective practices for funding proposals. This study explores the best and worst practices for funded research through an expert consultation survey of 36 global communication scholars with track records of funding success. Findings reveal motivating factors for seeking, securing and managing funding, as well as institutional factors. Findings also inform best and worst practices for securing external funding, including bridging theory and practice and establishing strong research partnerships.

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