Research

Research

Research Consortium

In the HSC research consortium faculty across four disciplines work to analyze communication practices, rhetoric, and language to better understand scientific controversies, clinical problems, and public health strategies. 

We are experienced collaborators who have partnered with researchers at academic medical centers and in STEM disciplines to secure funding, conduct quantitative, qualitative, and rhetorical research, and analyze and publish results. 

See the ongoing projects to learn more about opportunities for collaborating with HSC faculty.

Ongoing Projects

Joy Cypher - Medical education: Embodied struggles between competence and empathy

Long term, phenomenological study of medical education. This work follows students through their medical school training using in depth interviews each semester to better gauge their experiences of the potentially contrasting objectives of competency and compassion.  Pilot study stage

Joy Cypher - Handbook of Disability and Communication—co-editor

Updated handbook for scholarship on communication studies and disability. The edited collection is bringing together work from across the Communication Studies discipline that has its particular focus on disability and discourse. Submission review stage.

Miles Coleman - Adventures on #FlatEarth

"Adventures on #FlatEarth: Using Automation to Engage Misperceptions of Science on Twitter.” First author with John Feaster (Communication Studies, Rowan University). In pilot stage.

Miles Coleman - Emergent Sonification

“Emergent Sonification: Byrd Bot and Using Computational Media to Communicate the Anthropocene,” First author with Charles Schutte (Environmental Science, Rowan University). In development.

Dianne Garyantes - Local Climate Change Reporting Project

A climate change reporting project designed to enhance local news coverage of climate change in the Southern New Jersey. The project featured collaboration between Rowan journalism students and professional news organizations to create news articles, social media outreach, and multimedia packages about climate change in the Atlantic City region. All of the content is being posted to a Rowan University-based website, South Jersey Climate News (sjclimate.news).

Amy Reed - Stigma in Medical Communication

Dr. Reed's current research analyzes the role of stigma in medical communication--including stigma about Down syndrome in prenatal testing discourse and stigma about addiction in substance use disorder discourse. In her work, she aims to identify concrete strategies for reducing stigma (and perceived stigma) and facilitating better communication between medical professionals and patients.

Rui Shi - Nicotine Misinformation Correction

This project examines smokers’ existing misperceptions of the health risks associated with nicotine per se, and with three nicotine products, namely electronic cigarette, nicotine replacement therapy, and reduced nicotine content cigarettes. Health communication messages that aim at addressing these misperceptions are developed and tested. Findings from the study can inform the FDA about potential communication strategies to improve smokers’ understanding of nicotine products.

Rui Shi - Misinformation and Uncertainty in the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 is not only a pandemic, but also an infodemic. The abundance of misinformation in the public communication environmentcalls for an urgent intervention. This project examines persuasive strategies that could effectively correct misinformation and encourage compliance to health guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In addition, the study explores how to help the scientific community communicate uncertainty to the general public while promoting health behaviors.

Ongoing grants

Dianne Garyantes and Mark Berkey-Gerard received a $40,000 grant for the South Jersey Climate News project to provide local news coverage of climate change. The grant from the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium will support student reporting, content partnerships with local news outlets, and trainings.

Cypher, J.M. [Principle Investigator] Medical education: Embodied struggles between competence and empathy. Rowan University Seed Funding Grant (Co-Investigators: J. Niel Rosen, Seran Schug and Jay Chaskes).

Garyantes, D. [Co-Recipient] Local Climate Change Reporting Project. CCCA STORI Fund, 2018-2020. College of Communication and Creative Arts, Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ

Reed, A. [Principle Investigator] Informed Patients Lead to Healthy Communities: Patient Understandings of Prenatal Testing. Camden Health Research Initiative Fund. 2019 - 2021.

Recent publications

2023

Coleman, M. C., & Mari, W. (2023). Networks in Motion: The Alliances of Information Communication Technologies and Mobility Technologies During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Mobile Media & Communication, [Online Preprint]

2022

Miles C. Coleman, “Attempting to Stop the Spread: Epistemic Responsibility and Platformed Responses to the COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’.” Social Media Ethics and COVID-19: Well-Being, Truth, Misinformation, and Authenticity, edited by Berrin Beasley and Pamela Zeiser (Lexington Books, 2022).​

Kidanu, A. W., Shi, R., Cruz-Cano, R., Feldman, R. H., Butler III, J., Dyer, T. V., ... & Clark, P. I. (2022). Visual Attention to Health Warning Labels on Waterpipe Venue Menus in Immersive Virtual Reality. Nicotine and Tobacco Research, 24(9), 1469-1477.

2021

Howell, T. (2021). Early Ecology and Climate Change in the Future Histories of HG Wells and Olaf Stapledon. Modernism and the Anthropocene: Material Ecologies of Twentieth-Century Literature, 115.

Shi, R., Liu, J., & Cappella, J. N. (2021). Influence of online comments on smokers’ E-cigarette attitude: Opinion climate, review fraud, and resistance to persuasion. Psychology & Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2021.1893320

Kidanu, A., Shi, R., Cruz-Cano, R., Feldman, R., Butler, J., Dyer, T., … Clark, P. (2021). Health information on waterpipe lounge menus to educate young adults: Pilot study findings. Health Education & Behavior. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rowan.edu/10.1177/10901981211020990

2020

Coleman, M.C. & Cypher, J.M. (2020). The digital rhetorics of AIDS denialist networked publics. First Monday.  www.firstmonday.org

Coleman, M. C. (2020). Comparative Rhetorics of Technology and the Energies of Ancient Indian Robots. In The Routledge Handbook of Comparative World Rhetorics (pp. 365-373). Routledge.

Reed, A. R., & Meredith, S. (2020). Shaping Contexts and Developing Invitational Ethos in Response to Medical Authority: An Interview Study of Women Down Syndrome Advocates. Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, 3(3), 258-292.

Shi, R., Feldman, R., Liu, J., & Clark, P. I. (2020). The Dilemma of Correcting Nicotine Misperceptions: Nicotine Replacement Therapy versus Electronic Cigarettes. Health Communication, 1-11.

2019

Garyantes, D. M., & Murphy, P. (2019). The cultural competence of health journalists: Obesity coverage in four urban news organizations. Health Communication, 34(2), 191-200.

2018

Garyantes, D. M. (2018). Community journalism for the 21st century: Cultural competence and student reporting in urban neighborhoods. Community Journalism, 6(1), 21-47.

Reed, A. R. (2018). Building on bibliography: Toward useful categorization of research in rhetorics of health and medicine. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 48(2), 175-198.

Reed, A. R. (2018). Building on bibliography: Toward useful categorization of research in rhetorics of health and medicine. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 48(2), 175-198.

Liu, J., & Shi, R. (2018). How do online comments affect perceived descriptive norms of e-cigarette use? The role of quasi-statistical sense, valence perceptions, and exposure dosage. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 24(1), 1-20.

Sanders, A., Robinson, C., Taylor, S., Post, S., Goldfarb, J., Shi, R., Hunt, Y., Augustson, E. (2018) Using a Media Campaign to Increase Engagement with a Mobile-based Youth Smoking Cessation Program. American Journal of Health Promotion, 32(5),1273-1279.

2017

Cypher, J.M. (2017). Disability studies in the communication ethics classroom: Pedagogies of justice and voice. In M. S. Jeffress (Ed.), Pedagogy, disability and communication (pp.1-10). New York:  Routledge Press.

Reed, A. R., & Berrier, K. L. (2017). A qualitative study of factors influencing decision-making after prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome. Journal of genetic counseling, 26(4), 814-828.