Consortium for the Study of
Communication and Decision Making
Director:
Erica Austin PhD.
(Ph.D., 1989, Stanford University) is Interim Director and professor of communication at Washington State University and is widely published on media literacy, family communication and health issues. Her research focuses on the uses of media in decision making and social development. Topics include the interplay of media and parental influences in children's decisions about health, politics and social reality. Dr. Austin also studies political decision making and disaffection among adults. She has served as advisor to organizations nationwide and the federal government on media literacy issues. She received the 2001 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Public Relations Educator of the Year award for 2005 from the Greater Spokane Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
Faculty:
Bruce Pinkleton, PhD.
(Ph.D. Michigan State University, 1992) is professor of communication at Washington State University. His research program focuses on the role of individual motivations and information source use in individuals' decision-making processes, and the behavioral outcomes associated with message exposure. This includes, for example, examining the relationship of political campaign strategies and techniques to citizens' political decision making and participation. He also investigates decision making in other contexts such as health communication campaigns and has conducted a number of studies to evaluate heath campaign effectiveness. He is coauthor of Strategic Public Relations Management and is widely published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Political Communication, Pediatrics, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, the Journal of Advertising, Communication Research,and Mass Communication and Society. His research has been sponsored by the Associated Press-Seattle, the American Legacy Foundation, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, and the Alcoholic Beverage and Medical Research Foundation.
Douglas Blanks Hindman, PhD.
(Ph.D. Mass Communication, University of Minnesota) is an assistant professor of communication at Washington State University where he teaches courses in telecommunications and new communication technologies. His research focuses on the role of mass media in community adjustment to social conflict and change. His work is published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, Health Education Research, Journal of Radio Studies, Mass media, social control, and social change: A macrosocial perspective, and in the forthcoming International Encyclopedia of Communication.
Mija Shin, PhD.
Ph.D., 2006, Indiana University) is an assistant professor of communication and the director of the laboratory for the study of communication, emotion, and cognition (CEC Lab) at Washington State University. Her research focuses on understanding how humans process persuasive media messages (e.g., advertising, health-campaign, etc.) and the effects of the processing. She conducts experiments to investigate how different forms of media messages impact the recipients' physiological and subjective experiences. In the CEC lab, with graduate students, she measures students' heart rate, skin conductance and facial EMG during media message exposure to assess attention, emotion and memory. She has published in Media Psychology, Human Communication Research and Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
Stacey J.T. Hust, PhD.
(Ph.D., 2005, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is assistant professor of communication at Washington State University. Her research explores whether the mass media can be used for health promotion through strategies such as entertainment education and media advocacy. As a health communication scholar, Dr. Hust focuses on the media's effects on sexual and reproductive health and substance abuse prevention. Her research has examined the media's effects on adolescents and gender identity, and she has studied media's coverage of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs for the past six years. Hust has earned awards for her research, which has been published as book chapters and journal articles. Her work has been published in Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Journal of International Advertising, Women & Health Journal, and Public Relations Review.
Research Assistants:
Michelle Arganbright, Doctoral Student
Yi-Chun "Yvonnes" Chen, Doctoral Student
Chunbo "Richard" Ren, Doctoral Student
Research Projects:
- Sexual Assault Campaign, Washington State University
- CD-Rom anti-drunk driving campaign; grant sponsor Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation
- Anti-substance abuse public service announcements; grant sponsor Washington State University Alcohol and Drug Abuse
- Media literacy based abstinence only based sex education; grant sponsor Washington State Department of Health
- An evaluation of anti-tobacco public service announcement; grant sponsor Washington State Department of Health
- North Carolina media literacy program; grant sponsor National Institute of Drug Abuse
- Content analysis of alcohol vs non-alcohol magazine advertising; grant sponsor National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism