Current Research
The following are brief descriptions of what our department is doing in the field of research.
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Referred Publications
Journal articles
Pinkleton, B. E., Austin, E. W., Cohen, M., Chen, Y., & Fitzgerald, E. (in press).
The value of a peer-led media literacy curriculum for adolescent sex education. Health Communication.
Austin, E. W., Pinkleton, B. E., Van de Vord, R., Arganbright, M., & Chen, Y. (2006).
How Orientations Toward Media Use Affect Media Literacy Outcomes in a Test Focused on Channel One News. Academic Exchange Journal, 10(3), 115-120.
Austin, E. W., Chen, Y., Johnson, J. Q., & Pinkleton, B. E. (2005). The Benefits and
Costs of Channel One in a Middle School Setting and the Role of Media Literacy Training. Pediatrics, 117, 423-433.
Invited Book Chapters
Hust, S. J. T., Austin, E. W., Pinkleton, B. E., & Chen, Y. (2008). Beer
advertising in magazines and its effects on adolescents. In Preedy, V. R. (Ed.), Beer in Health and Disease Prevention.
Chen, Y. (2006). Movies, adolescents� rates and uses. In J . J. Arnett
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of Children, Adolescents, & the Media (pp.556-558). Thousand Oaks: CA: Sage.
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Professor Denton's area of scholarship is political communication to include media and politics, political campaigns, and presidential discourse. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 20 books, one in its sixth, fifth and third editions. The most recent projects, THE COMMUNICATOR-IN-CHIEF: HOW OBAMA USED NEW MEDIA IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION and IDENTITY POLITICS AND THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN are in press. Denton has written numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and presented over eighty convention and professional papers. He is currently working on another general audience book entitled, THE END OF THE SOCIAL CONTRACT: THE AGE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EGOISM. |
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Holloway investigates rhetorical and media strategies used in political and corporate campaign discourse.
Recent publications and presentations include:
"Evangelicals Go Green: Religion, Environment, and Politics." With Robert E. Denton, Jr. Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern States Communication Association annual meeting, April 3, 2008
"Trans fat and Public Health: An Issue Management Perspective." Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern States Communication Association annual meeting, April 3, 2008
Tedesco, John C., & Holloway, Rachel L. (2007). Countering deceptive health promotion: Measuring health literacy effects. Business Research Yearbook.
Preston, Marlene M. and Rachel L. Holloway, (2006). �Case Study of a Basic Course: Using Assessment to Legitimize Innovation.� Basic Communication Course Annual, Volume 18.
Tedesco, John C. and Rachel Holloway. (2005). "Deceptive health promotion: Barriers to health literacy." Studies in Communication Sciences, 5:2, 99-110. |
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Wat Hopkins' research focuses on the constitutional protections for free speech and a free press. He has published books on libel law and the free speech contributions of Justice William J. Brennan Jr. He has written a number of journal articles and is co-author and editor of a communication law text book. In addition, he is editor of COMMUNICATION LAW AND POLICY, a law journal that publishes research on free speech issues. He is at work on a book examining the marketplace of ideas model for protecting speech and on journal articles examining protections offered by the Supreme Court in a variety of opinions. |
B. Wayne Howell, “Continuity & Change in Victory and Concession Speeches: Race, Gender, and Age in the Last Speeches of the 2008 Presidential Election Campaign,” American Behavioral Scientist (under review).
Reagan at the Summit: Presidential Public Diplomacy and the Collapse of Soviet Communism (monograph in process for submission to Michigan State University Press).
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Dr. Ivory's primary research interests deal with social and psychological dimensions of new media and communication technologies. In particular, much of his research focuses on the content and effects of technological features of new entertainment media, such as video games. Dr. Ivory's research is primarilty conducted in the VT G.A.M.E.R. Lab (Virginia Tech Gaming and Media Effects Research Lab), part of the Communication Research Facility on the Virginia Tech campus. Recent publications include:
Kalyanaraman, S., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). Enhanced information scent, selective discounting, or consummate breakdown: The psychological effects of Web-based search results. Media Psychology, 12, 295-319.
Ivory, J. D., Williams, D., Martins, N., & Consalvo, M. (2009). Good clean fun? A content analysis of profanity in video games and its prevalence across game systems and ratings. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 12, 457-460. Sample Copy (PDF)
Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). The virtual census: Representations of gender, race, and age in video games. New Media and Society, 11, 815-834. Sample Copy (PDF)
Ivory, J. D., & Magee, R. G. (2009). You can't take it with you? Effects of handheld portable media consoles on physiological and psychological responses to video game and movie content. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 12, 291-297.
Ivory, J. D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2009). Video games make people violent – Well, maybe not that game: Effects of content and person abstraction on perceptions of violent video games’ effects and support of censorship. Communication Reports, 22, 1-12.
Holz Ivory, A., Gibson, R., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). Gendered relationships on television: Portrayals of same-sex and heterosexual couples. Mass Communication and Society, 12, 170-192.
Ivory, J. D. (2009). Technological developments and transitions in virtual worlds. In D. Heider (Ed.), Living virtually: Researching new worlds (pp. 11-22). New York: Peter Lang Publishing Group. Sample Copy (PDF) (Buy the book in hardcover or paperback from Amazon)
Ivory, J. D. (2008). The games, they are a changin': Technological advancements in video games and implications for effects on youth. In P. Jamieson & D. Romer (Eds.), The changing portrayal of adolescents in the media since 1950 (pp. 347-376). New York: Oxford University Press. Sample Copy (PDF) (Buy the book from Oxford or Amazon)
Ivory, J. D., & Kalyanaraman, S. (2007). The effects of technological advancement and violent content in video games on players' feelings of presence, involvement, physiological arousal, and aggression. Journal of Communication, 57, 532-555. Unofficial Author Copy(PDF) (See www.blackwell-synergy.com for the definitive version of this article.)
Ivory, J. D. (2007). Sneak peeks at insurrection: Portrayals of the Irish Republican Army in film trailers. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 15, 214-229. Sample Copy (PDF)
Ivory, J. D. (2006). Still a man's game: Gender representation in online reviews of video games. Mass Communication and Society, 9(1),103-114. Sample Copy (PDF) |
Media Convergence Applications
Biography of Jerry West |
"Mortality salience and cognitive processes."
"Mortality salience and negative affect reconsidered."
"Source credibility in an online environment." (with S. Kalyanaraman and R. Rocklin)
"Aesthetics and Web credibility." (with J. Szczesniak)
"Values and worldviews: Their effect on decision-making referents."
“Persuasion and argument type.” |
Apprehension Reduction in Communication Centers
E-Portfolios in the Basic Course
Assessment of Oral Communication and Communication Centers |
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a 2-volume reference work, "Notable African-Amerrican Media Figures," for Greenwood Press. It will contain 250 biographical entries on people working in the various news media. The manuscript is nearly complete (as of Sept. 1, 2006), and the books should appear in 2007.
Am converting my conference paper, written with Gary Selnow of San Francisco Sate, for journal submission. The topic college students' ability to recognize news figures as pictured in Time and Newsweek.
Am considering editing a reference work on the topic of celebrity in American life.
Have just written a substantial piece for someone else's book; the topic is the atractions of column and commentary writing.
Have submitted an article on "Faces in the News" to a new journal in England.
Have had a conference paper accepted inSan Francisco (March 2008) for a presentation on "Temporary Celebrity in American Life."
Am putting together a panel for a May 2008 conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on "Short-Form Literary Journalism."
Have gathered material for a trade book on temporary celebrity in American life. Will seek a publisher when time permits.
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Self Identity in Gay College Men
Stereotypes in Person Perception and Advertising
2004 Presidential Campaign Issues in Comic Strips |
Dr. Tedesco is a national coordinator for Uvote. Uvote is an international team of scholars joined in an effort to study voting, political information, political attitudes, and engagement behavior among young adults. While Dr. Tedesco's research spans most forms of mediated campaign communication, his current projects include web interactivity and mobilization effects, controlled campaign message effects, and candidate agenda building. Tedesco, along with Dr. Mitchell McKinney of the University of Missouri-Columbia, edited a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist focused on media, young voters, and political engagement.
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Dr. Waggenspack's scholarship involves women and their rhetorical efforts. Recent critical essays include analysis of the persuasive communication of American First Ladies (Helen Herron Taft, Eleanor Roosevelt) to women who argue for social change, such as children's rights activist Marian Wright Edelman and women's rights advocates Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Lucretia Mott. Her analysis of the contributions of women to the span of rhetorical theory and history are featured in The Rhetoric of Western Thought (eighth edition), a leading textbook on rhetorical theory.
Works in progress:
Deception Narratives in the 2008 Presidential Campaign for Robert E. Denton, ed. Studies of Identity in the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Lexington Books
Policy Brief, Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute http://www.adoptioninstitute.org/index.php Topic: Adoption and the Media
Currently working on an article about Dorothy Fuldheim, one of the earliest television female political pundits. She also conducts research into the communication of adoption issues via language and the media. |
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