Our work generally falls into four research domains (see below), though it is multifaceted and spans topics in health, politics, science, and environmental issues. Our ongoing projects can be found here.
“Entertainment-education is a theory-based communication strategy for purposefully embedding educational and social issues in the creation, production, processing, and dissemination process of an entertainment program, in order to achieve desired individual, community, institutional, and societal changes among the intended media user populations” (Wang & Singhal, 2009).
Narrative persuasion can be briefly defined as the impact of narratives on the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of individuals exposed to them.
Media effects are typically defined as social or psychological responses resulting from exposure to or processing of media messages.
In this line of research, we examine the pervasiveness and effects of health and political misinformation, as well as ways to reduce its spread and impact through correctives, or information to combat misinformation.
With our strategic communication research, we aim to design, evaluate, and disseminate messages that affect attitudes and beliefs, and ultimately increase pro-social and -health behaviors.