Research

Public memory is the conceptual process through which understandings about a historic event are defined, informed, and reshaped. This concept is important for public relations practitioners as public memory provides substance for the communicative process providing the space to establish shared meanings for members of a given public. One example of the role of public relations practitioners in crafting public memory was the 100th anniversary celebration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (TUS), termed #TUS100 in November 2021. In order to understand what and how memory was communicated through the #TUS100 event, we completed an interpretive thematic analysis of the materials created and distributed by the Arlington National Cemetery Office of Public Affairs related to the 100th year Tomb Commemoration and video clips from three popular national news outlets (ABC, CBS, NBC). In doing so we found that public memory is an evolving narrative that has the potential to create/reaffirm relationships—both of which have implications for public relations scholarship and practice.

Guided by the 5C (confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility) model of vaccination behavior, we examine the psychological antecedents of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (i.e. attitudes and intentions toward COVID-19 vaccination) among Black Americans, a group disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Celebrity announcements of diagnoses or deaths often generate talk. In turn, talk can spur health-related behaviors. Yet, very few studies have examined interpersonal talk about cancer as an outcome of celebrity announcements about health. Furthermore, questions remain about the theoretical predictors of such interpersonal communication. The present study investigated individual and network-level factors associated with interpersonal talk about cancer among Black women following the death of Aretha Franklin. Findings from a cross-sectional survey (N = 239) indicated that more than 40% of women talked about cancer, and more than half expressed intentions to talk about cancer with their family and friends. Network-level factors (health mavenism, network heterogeneity) were significantly associated with actual and intended interpersonal cancer talk. Of the individual-level predictors, emotional reactions were significantly related to actual and intended interpersonal communication. Understanding theoretical predictors of interpersonal cancer talk could lead to better structurally centered capacity-building strategies to mobilize peer-to-peer sharing among network-engaged Black women.

Information seeking is often heightened following news coverage of cancer announcements from prominent celebrities or public figures. While scholars have sought to explicate the mechanisms influencing cancer information seeking following celebrity health announcements, the focus has primarily been on cognitive and emotional factors. Other influences such as sociocultural constructs have largely been ignored in this domain. Additionally, few studies have examined the health communication behaviors of minority individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine Black women’s information seeking behaviors as a response to the death of the singer Aretha Franklin from pancreatic cancer and the role of fatalistic beliefs about cancer in the information seeking process. Using a survey conducted a few weeks after Franklin’s death (N = 164), we found moderate amounts of pancreatic cancer information seeking, with almost 30% of women looking for information. Younger Black women were much more likely to search for information after Franklin’s death than older women. Moreover, while we found fatalistic beliefs to be associated with pancreatic cancer information seeking, the findings were driven by younger women. In particular, younger women were more likely to seek pancreatic cancer information regardless of their beliefs about cancer. This study advances the understanding of cancer information seeking among Black women. Implications for cancer communication with Black women are discussed.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), we are entering an age of “infodemics,” with misinformation leading to mistrust in health authorities, increasing risk-taking behaviors, and undermining public health responses (WHO 2020). While concerns are rapidly growing about the prevalence and harmful impact of health misinformation (Nan, Wang, and Thier 2021), scholars have not clearly defined health misinformation or its components. Without a clear definition and shared agreement on what constitutes health misinformation, comparisons across studies purportedly about health misinformation will remain challenging, hampering our efforts to understand this phenomenon, assess its effects, and design effective interventions. However, defining misinformation in the first place is exceedingly difficult, partly because the benchmarks we often use to diagnose misinformation (eg, scientific evidence and expert consensus) are sometimes moving targets (Vraga and Bode 2020). In light of the ongoing debate about the nature of misinformation and the urgent need for a clear definition of health misinformation, this chapter aims to critically review current definitions of health misinformation, identify key challenges in defining health misinformation, and finally propose a tentative, unifying definition of health misinformation to guide future research. We conclude by discussing directions for future efforts in refining the definition of health misinformation.

Public relations (PR) research has centered activism to some extent, though a clear, collective commitment to center activism in the U.S. PR classroom is still lacking. Thus, educators have an opportunity to situate activism and social justice as an integral part of U.S. PR education and effect social change through their teaching. This essay outlines key considerations of activism research and the opportunities to concretize activism in U.S. PR education, presents critical communication pedagogy (CCP) as a framework to meaningfully include activism in PR curricula, and highlights why educators should consider teaching social justice activism topics. Ultimately, we argue that CCP—and its key concepts of identity, power, and social (re)production —provides a theoretical opportunity to purposefully and unapologetically integrate activism into the PR classroom while simultaneously advancing the field to realize its potential for social justice.

Weather warnings are critical risk communication messages because they have the potential to save lives and property during emergencies. However, making warning decisions is challenging. While there have been significant advances in technological weather forecasting, recent research suggests that social factors, including communication, influence warning meteorologists’ decisions to warn. We examine the roles of both scientific and social factors in predicting warning meteorologists’ decisions to warn on tornadoes. To do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of National Weather Service forecasters and members of management in the southern and the central regions of the United States, as well as conducted a retrospective data analysis of cross-sectional survey data from the central region Tornado Warning Improvement Project. Results reveal that dependency on radar velocity couplet and a variety of social factors predicted decisions to warn.

Preparing for natural disasters and adapting to climate change can save lives. Yet, minimal research has examined how governments can motivate community members to prepare for disasters (e.g., purchasing flood insurance or installing water barriers in homes for floods and hurricanes). Instead, studies have focused on how to communicate actions individuals should take during disasters, rather than before disasters. This study develops messages targeting social norms, which are promising approaches to motivate community members to adopt disaster risk preparedness and mitigation behaviors. Specifically, we developed a variety of messages integrating descriptive norms (i.e., what others do), injunctive norms (i.e., what others believe should be done), and a social norms-based fear appeal, or social disapproval rationale (i.e., a negative social result of [not] taking behaviors). Then, we tested these messages through two between-subject factorial online experiments in flood- and hurricane-prone U.S. states with adult samples (N = 2,286). In experiment 1 (i.e., purchasing flood insurance), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced behavioral intentions. In experiment 2 (i.e., installing water barriers), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters, the injunctive norms message using neighbors, and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced mitigation intentions. However, the descriptive social norms message was not effective in increasing social norms perceptions. We provide some of the first empirical evidence on how organizations’ risk communication can empower community members to prepare and mitigate the impact of disasters.

As we face the ravages of COVID-19, climate change, economic  disparities,  and  social  injustice,  the  world needs listening skills more than ever. Listening skills are  one  of  the  core  life  skills  that  are  critical  in  life, work,  and  school.  Listening  skills  enable  children to  access  information,  develop  other  skills,  such as  empathy,  and  critical  thinking,  and  have  better academic performances and lives. Listening skills are one of the most desired and needed in workplaces. In  this  brief,  we  explain  the  importance  of  listening skills  and  listening  processes.  Then,  we  review  how policymakers can help develop listening skills. Lastly, we review how policymakers can measure and assess listening skills. 

The construction of Nancy Pelosi as the monstrous-feminine reveals itself in the highly misogynistic attack advertisements of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential reelection campaign. In our analysis of five YouTube attack ads, we demonstrate how short-form digital advertisements use the conventions of digital platforms to heighten the elements of horror used to construct the monstrous-feminine. Drawing from horror genre logics and editing conventions, the Trump campaign produces a narrative strategy that preys on conservative fears regarding women, race, and breaches in a gendered social contract. Targeting one of the most powerful women in American politics, Trump’s digital ads deploy a variety of editing strategies combined with common horror tropes to push audiences toward violent conclusions of how to “defeat” the monstrous-feminine, Pelosi.