Health & Risk, Environment & Science Communication
Nearly a third of our faculty are engaged in projects that promote healthy people and a healthy planet. By using new and emerging technologies to promote health behavior change and facilitate decision making, we aim to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. Our work includes studying the design and implementations of health and environmental information, ways in which health decision-making happens and how behaviors are adopted.
Health & Risk Communication Center
The Health and Risk Communication Center supports the work of over 50 affiliate faculty members who study the role of communication in health behavior change and risk reduction.
It serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research connections, provides methodological resources (such as surveys, focus groups, message production and statistical analysis), and serves as a go-to for specialized knowledge and expertise on all aspects of the health and environment risk process.
Featured Research
We're working on a global scale to study and promote socially beneficial behaviors in the context of health, risk, science and the environment.
Lapinski Named International Communication Association Fellow
Maria Lapinski has been named a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA). She is appointed as a professor in the Department of Communication, with a secondary appointment with MSU AgBioResearch. Lapinski accepted this prestigious honor during the 74th Annual ICA Conference held June 20-24, 2024 in Australia. Her two teenage sons accompanied her to celebrate her achievement.
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Centers and Labs
The Communicative Sciences and Disorders research facilities are located in the ComArtSci and the Oyer Speech & Hearing buildings on the Michigan State University campus. There are eight research laboratories, as well as shared research spaces for faculty and student use. These communication labs have several sound-treated booths, an anechoic chamber, as well as a highly reverberant room. All laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software to enable researchers in conducting the highest quality research. The department also provides several opportunities, space and resources for students (undergraduate and graduate) to participate in research.
The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism teaches student and professional journalists how to better report on the issues affecting the environment.
Media and Advertising Psychology Lab is focused on the study of media and advertising using biopsychological approaches, methods and theories.
The Theoretical and Applied Research on Media Affect and Cognition (TARMAC) lab is a state of the art media psychology lab featuring four separate areas including: a welcome room, a room with 12 computers for web-based and reaction-time studies, a “living-room” area for television and video game research, and a virtual reality and gaming area with four computers equipped with eye-tracking and Oculus Rift headgear
Current studies include research on virtual reality and entertainment, games and violence, the social appeal of movies, and the role of motivation in media appeal.
Programs
Master of Arts in Health and Risk Communication
Ph.D. in Communicative Sciences and Disorders
Linked Bachelor's - Master's Degree in Health and Risk Communication
Master of Arts in Communication
Ph.D. in Communication
Linked Bachelor's - Master's Degree in Communication
Ph.D. in Information and Media
Featured Faculty
Faculty
Sandi Smith
University Distinguished ProfessorDepartment
CommunicationSandi W. Smith is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University.
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Faculty
Maria Lapinski
ProfessorDepartment
CommunicationDr. Maria Lapinski is joint-appointed as a Professor in the Department of Communication and Michigan Ag-Bio Research at Michigan State University (MSU).
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Faculty
Bree Holtz
Associate ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsDr. Holtz's research explores the adoption, perceptions, and outcomes of telemedicine, mobile phone health apps (mhealth), consumer grade sensors (i.e., Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc.), electronic medical records, AI, and social media for health topics.
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Faculty
Wei Peng
ProfessorDepartment
Media & InformationWei Peng is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University. She is affiliated with the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) lab and the Health and Risk Communication Center.
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Faculty
J. Scott Yaruss
ProfessorDepartment
Communicative Sciences & DisordersJ. Scott Yaruss, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-F, F-ASHA, is a speech-language pathologist and board-certified specialist in fluency disorders whose research, teaching, and outreach are focused on helping speech-language pathologists improve their ability to provide meaningful and lasting support for people who live with stuttering.
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Faculty
Anastasia Kononova
Associate ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsAnastasia Kononova studies media multitasking behaviors and effects in persuasive communication
Faculty
Fashina Aladé,
Assistant ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsFashina (Shina) Aladé is an Assistant Professor of Advertising & Public Relations, and also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Her work lies at the intersection of media effects, developmental psychology, and early childhood education, with a focus on young children’s comprehension of and learning from educational media.
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Faculty
Saleem Alhabash
ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsSaleem Alhabash is an Associate Professor of Public Relations and Social Media at the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, studying the persuasive effects of social media.
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Faculty
Young Argyris
Associate ProfessorDepartment
Media & InformationI earned a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Beginning from my master’s thesis, I published in premier journals, including MIS Quarterly, ISR, Communications of the ACM, and ACM Transactions on CHI, which are cited over 1,700 times (as of August 2022, Google Scholar).
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Faculty
John Besley
Ellis N. Brandt Professor of Public RelationsDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsDr. Besley studies public opinion about science and scientists' opinions about the public in the context of trying to help science communicators be more strategic. He wants to understand how views about decision-makers and decision processes affect perceptions of science and technology (S&T) with potential health or environmental impacts. This focus includes consideration of both mediated exposure through newspapers, television programs and web content, as well as face-to-face public engagement exercises (e.g., public meetings).
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Faculty
Lucinda Davenport
University Distinguished ProfessorDepartment
JournalismDr. Lucinda D. Davenport is a University Distinguished Professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University and heads the Graduate Program in Journalism. She recently stepped aside as Director of the School of Journalism after 10 years. Before that, she was the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research for the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
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Faculty
Eric Freedman
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism Chair and ProfessorDepartment
JournalismEric Freedman is Professor of Journalism and former Associate Dean of International Studies and Programs. During his 20-year newspaper career, he covered public affairs, environmental issues and legal affairs for newspapers in New York and Michigan, winning a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a legislative corruption scandal.
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Faculty
Stephanie Jordan
Assistant ProfessorDepartment
Media & InformationContact
Faculty
Serena Miller
Associate ProfessorDepartment
JournalismSerena Miller (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Associate Professor at Michigan State University, former Methodology Associate Editor for Review of Communication Research, and a former Associate Editor for Journalism Studies. She previously worked as faculty member at Arizona State University and Bloomsburg University. Informed by mixed methods research, her general research interests include social science theory building; philosophy of science; scale development and validation; metascience; and alternative forms of journalism. She enjoys targeting concepts in need of conceptual and empirical specification. Miller teaches scale development and validation; mixed methods; graduate studies; survey research; content analysis; social science theory building; storytelling; data journalism; and digital, multimedia, data, and digital journalism. Before becoming a teacher-scholar, Miller is a veteran who served in the mechanic's platoon in the U.S. Army and she worked as a television news reporter and videographer. Miller, as a first-generation scholar, approaches knowledge-making by writing narratives that seek to clearly explain concepts, logic, methodological steps, and solutions to help readers learn about the practice of science due to her struggles navigating academia. Her upbringing also influenced her desire to address how scholarly communities socially maintain the boundaries of their field including defining and limiting what is and what is not knowledge.
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Faculty
Maria Molina
Assistant ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsContact
Faculty
