I began my term as Interim Director of the School of Communication in July 2021, which also marked the end of Dr. Mike Slater’s four-year term. I think I speak for everyone at the school when I say how much I appreciate Dr. Slater’s leadership over a period of truly breathtaking challenges. The school is better for his efforts.
In my inaugural letter, I want to share a bit about the exciting research happening here at the school. If you are reading this, you probably know firsthand how committed our faculty are to teaching and mentorship. But our faculty also produce world-class research, tackling communication topics that are relevant to many of the biggest challenges facing our society today. Let me highlight just a few examples of the important COVID-related work we’ve done over the past two years.
In addition to his work as Director, Dr. Slater worked with faculty and staff at OSU to help craft effective messaging about the university’s public health response to the pandemic. He is also consulting with researchers at University of Leeds in the UK on a National Health Service-funded project studying effective pandemic communication.
In a pair of papers, Dr. Hillary Shulman has documented how Americans’ approach to information about the pandemic has changed over time. The first study, conducted in early 2020, found that Americans were highly motivated to think carefully about COVID-related information, even when that information was very complicated. In a follow-up study published this year, Dr. Shulman has documented Americans’ information fatigue as the pandemic has worn on. People are no longer processing COVID-related information as carefully as they once did.
Another COVID-related project was funded by the National Science Foundation and includes several faculty members in the School of Communication (Drs. Robert Bond, Graham Dixon, Shelly Hovick, and me) working in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Psychology and at other universities. Researchers on this project have tracked Americans’ beliefs about information about the pandemic—both accurate and inaccurate—that was most widely shared on Facebook over several months in 2021. The project has several goals, including understanding the causes and consequences of COVID beliefs.
This is only just a small sample of scholarship happening in the school. In 2020 alone, our faculty produced more than 80 research articles, published in some of the most influential journals in the field of communication and beyond. The faculty are doing important research, and I am honored that my colleagues have entrusted me to lead during these challenging times.
Interim Director, School of Communication
