Practitioner Q & A: Chenjerai Kumanyika

Journal Manager and CJC Adjunct Professor Kelly Chernin, Ph.D., interviews Chenjerai Kumanyika,Ph.D., assistant professor of Journalism and Media Studies in Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information, on designing for long-lasting social change. Read more.

Audience Reactions to Climate Change and Science in Disaster Cli-fi Films: A Qualitative Analysis

Little scholarly attention has been paid to how audiences interpret pop culture messages about climate change. This paper, by Lauren Griffin, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate in the CJC STEM Translational Communication Center, takes up the case of disaster cli-fi films and explores how audiences react to film representations of climate change. Analysis reveals that by only briefly discussing climate change in their plotlines, the films weaken their environmental message. Read more.

Trolling and the Spiral of Silence Effect in Women, LGBTQIA Communities, and Disability Populations Before and After the 2016 Election

Using a survey of 338 Twitter and Facebook users, Candi Carter Olson, Ph.D., assistant professor at Utah State University, and Victoria LaPoe, Ph.D, assistant professor at Ohio State University, explore the effect that the 2016 U.S. presidential election had on people’s political posts before and after the election. Their research explores the question: is trolling changing our digital public sphere and affecting our political conversations. Read more.

Calling Doctor Google? Technology Adoption and Health-Information Seeking Among Older, Low-income African-American Adults

Hyunjin Seo, Ph.D, associate professor at the University of Kansas, and her colleagues, explore how older, low-income African American adults in Kansas City, Mo., use technology to seek out health information. Findings show that although that group perceives technology to be highly useful, they do not view it as easy to use, thus preventing them from further adopting or using relevant technologies. This study advances research on underserved groups’ technology use and health-information seeking by looking at the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, age and income. Read more.