Research in the School of Communication

Our faculty and students conduct research on a broad range of issues that impact strategic and social communication from all angles of the communication process.  Grounded in the diverse multicultural global media market, and the evolving role of digital technologies in communication with mass publics, we study audiences, technologies, messages, consumers, and media systems.  Our research is about public relations and advertising, and it also informs the practice of advertising and public relations by contributing to the social science literature that guides strategic communication by individuals, organizations, corporations, governments, and social movements.

Our research can be divided into nine general areas of inquiry.  There are: (1)  Advertising and Consumer Behavior; (2) Health, Science and Environment Communication; (3) Multicultural and International Communication; (4) Technology in Strategic Communication Practice; (5) Media and Communication for Social and Cultural Change (6) Family Communication; (7) Computer Mediated Communication; (8) Organizational Conflict; and (9) Interpersonal

Below are our faculty’s publications in these areas:

Advertising and Consumer Behavior

• Berman, Margo. (2012). The Copywriter’s Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Strategic Advertising Copy. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Berman, Margo and Blakeman, Robin (2009) The Brains Behind Great Ad Campaigns: Creative Collaboration between Copywriters and Art Directors. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Berman, Margo. (2014). tactikPAK™ – Patented Learning System (U.S. Patent No. 5,927,987)
• Berman, Margo. Street-Smart Advertising: How to Win the Battle of the Buzz. Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006, 250 pages (Now in the United Kingdom, India, and Russia, in Russian).

• Segev, S., Fernandes, J., & Hong, C. (2015). Is Your Product Really Green? A Content Analysis to Reassess Green Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 1-9.
• Segev, S. (2015). Modeling household conservation behavior among ethnic consumers: The path from values to behaviors. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 39 (3), 193-202.
• Shoham, A., Gavish, Y., & Segev, S. (2015). Impulsive and compulsive buying behaviors among Israeli and USA consumers: The influence of trait compulsiveness and impulsiveness and cultural values. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 27 (3), 187-206.

• Segev, S., Liu, Y., & Villar, M. E. (2015, January). Exploring Hispanics’green Consumption: Applying The Cognitive-Affect-Behavior Model. In American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings (Online) (p. 77). American Academy of Advertising.
• Segev, S., Shoham, A., & Gavish, Y. (2015). A closer look into the materialism construct: The antecedents and consequences of materialism and its three facets. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 32 (2), 113-124. Segev, S., Ruvio, A., Shoham, A., & Velan, D. (2014). Acculturation and consumer loyalty among immigrants: A cross-national study. European Journal of Marketing, 48 (9/10), 1579-1599. Segev, S. (2014). The effect of acculturation on ethnic consumers’ decision-making styles: An empirical analysis of Hispanic consumers. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 26 (3), 168–184.
• Segev, S., Villar, M. E., & Liu, Y. (2015). Hispanics and Green Consumption: Exploring the Green “Attitude-Behavior Gap”. Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old (p 99). Springer International Publishing.
• Segev, S., Fernandes, J., & Wang, W. (2015). The effects of gain vs. loss message framing and point of reference on consumer responses to green advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 36(1), 35-51. doi:10.1080/10641734.2014.912600
• Segev, S. (2014). Environmental Awareness, Perceived Influence of Green Advertising and Green Behavior: A Comparison between Non-Hispanics and Acculturating Hispanics. In L. Kahle & E. Gurel Atay (Eds.), Communicating Sustainability for the Green Economy, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 104-121.
• Segev, S., Fernandes, J. & Wang, W. (2012). Advertising in blogs: Effects of ad-context congruence, product involvement and issue involvement on responses to banner ads. Proceeding of the 2012 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, p. 174.
• Segev, S., Fernandes, J., & Wang, W.(2013). Loss for me or loss for the environment? The effect of message framing and point of reference on responses to green advertising. Proceeding of the 2013 Conference of the American Academy of Advertising, p. 92.
• Segev, S., Fernandes, J., & Wang, W. (2015). The effects of gain vs. loss message framing and point of reference on consumer responses to green advertising, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 36(1)
• Segev, S., Wang, W., & Fernandes, J. (2014). The effects of ad-context congruency on responses to advertising in blogs: Exploring the role of issue involvement. International Journal of Advertising, 33(1), 17-36.
• Shoham, A., Gavish, Y., & Segev, S. (2012). Drivers of Customers’ Reactions to Service Failures: The Israeli Experience. International Journal of Psychological Studies, 4 (1), 76-90.
• Tsai, W. S., Yang, Q., & Liu, Y. (2013). Young Chinese Consumers’ Snob and Bandwagon Luxury Consumption Preferences.Journal Of International Consumer Marketing, 25(5), 290-304.
• Wang, W., Segev, S., & Liu, Y. The use of social networking sites for product communication: A comparative study of Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites. Paper submitted to Computers in Human Behavior (8/24/2014).

Health and Science Communication

• Hinnant, A., Subramanian, R., Ashley, R. R., Perreault, M., Young, R., & Thomas, R. J. (2017). How journalists characterize health inequalities and redefine solutions for Native American audiences. Health Communication, 1-9. doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2017.1405482
• Wang, W., & Ahern, L (2015). Acting on surprise: Emotional response, multiple-channel information seeking and vaccination in the H1N1 flu epidemic. Social Influence, Online First. doi:10.1080/15534510.2015.1011227
• Wang, W., & Liu, Y. (2015). Communication message cues and opinions about people with depression: An investigation of discussion on Weibo. Asian Journal of Communication, 25(1), 33-47. doi:10.1080/01292986.2014.989238
• Wang, W., & Yu, N. (2014). Coping with a new culture: Predicting online health information seeking among Chinese immigrants in the United States. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, Online First. doi:10.1007/s10903-014-0106-8

• Wang, W. (2014). Writing about health problems online: An investigation of frame selection and the cognitive effects of health disclosures. International Journal of Communication, 8, 2222-2242.
• Wang, W. & Ahern, L. Acting on Surprise: Emotional Response, Information Seeking and Vaccination in the H1N1 Flu Epidemic. Paper submitted to Social Influence (first submitted on 4/21/2014, R&R received on 7/16/2014, R&R required by 10/14/2014).
• Wang, W., & Shen, F. Getting the Most out of Reciprocal Communication in Online Health Support Groups: Effects of Message Format and Social Support on Individual Responses toward Health Issues. Paper submitted to Computers in Human Behavior (7/22/2014).
• Wang, W., & Villar, M. E. Ethnic identification, social dominance orientation and HIV stigma: A comparative study of Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanics. Paper submitted to Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (9/6/2014).
• Villar, M.E. & Bueno, Y. (2013). Disparate Health News Frames in English- and Spanish-Language Newspapers in Two U.S. Cities. Howard Journal of Communications, 24(1), 57-70.
• Villar, M.E, & Pinto, J. (2013). Climate Change coverage in Spanish-language U.S. Newspapers: does language change the message? Journal of Spanish Language Media. 6,42-60.
• Villar, M.E., Concha, M., & Zamith, R. (2012). Health beliefs and attitudes of Latino immigrants: Rethinking acculturation as a constant. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 14 (5), 885-889.
• Villar, M.E. & Zamith, R. (2011). Comparing frequency of online news coverage, worldwide mortality and perceived risk of leading diseases and injuries: Challenging paradigms in the new media landscape. Journal of Health & Mass Communication, 3(1-4), 192-205.
• Pessin, E. & Villar, M.E. (under review). Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Explain Hispanics Perception of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for Mental Health. Presented at 2014 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, Atlanta, GA, August 19-21
• Villar, M.E., & Bauduy, L.P. (under review). “Fotonovelas (graphic stories) for Mental Health Stigma Reduction Among Latinos.” Presented at 2014 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, Atlanta, GA, August 19-21
• Villar, M.E., & Farber, L. The Role of Mass Media on Infectious Disease Perceptions and Policies. In S. Porcelain (Ed.), US Foreign Policy and Global Public Health: The Nexus of Infectious Disease.
• Villar, M.E., Zamith, R., Farber, L. & Cal. Y. (2010). Comparing Frequency of Online News Coverage, Worldwide Mortality and Perceived Risk of Leading Diseases and Injuries: Challenging Paradigms in the New Media Landscape. National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, August 17-19, 2010, Atlanta, GA.
• Webb, L. M. & Amason, P. (2014). STD and HIV prevention. In T. L. Thompson (Ed.), The encyclopedia of health communication (Vol. 3, pp. 1250-1254). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [ISBN-10: 1452258759 & ISBN-13: 978-1452258751]
• Yang, Q., Millette, D., Zhou, C., Beatty, M., Carcioppolo, N., & Wilson, G. (2019). Does interactivity help? A meta-analytic review of web-based interactive health interventions. Revised and resubmitted to Health Communication.
• Yang, Q., Yang, F., & Zhou, C. (2015). What health-related information flows through you every day? A content analysis of microblog messages on air pollution. Health Education.
• Zhou, C., Occa, A., Kim, S., & Morgan, S. (2019). A meta-analysis of narrative-based serious games for promoting healthy behaviors. Revised and resubmitted to Journal of Health Communication.
• Zhou, C., Kim, S., & Morgan, S. (2018). Examining the effects of the two types of narrative-based interactivity for digital health games. Paper presented at the National Communication Association (NCA).

Technology in Strategic Communication Practice

• De la Llama, V., Barreto, C., Trueba, I., Voges, C. & Park, D. (2012). At Face(book) value: Uses of Facebook in hiring processes and the role of identity in social networks. International Journal of Work Innovation, 1(1) 114-136. Per FIU’s policy with research collaborations with graduate students (as indicated by *), faculty mentors are to be considered the first author. (6% acceptance rate).
• Marsh, E. & Villar, M.E. (2012). Demographic or disciplinary digital divide?: A comparison of technological proficiency and employment expectations of mass communication students. Media Education Research Journal, 3(1), 63-78.
• Ramaprasad, J., Liu, Y., & Garrison, B. (2012). Ethical use of new technologies: Where do Indian journalists stand? Asian Journal of Communication, 22, 98-114.
• Segev, S., Villar, M.E., & Fiske, R. (2012). Understanding Opinion Leadership and Motivations to Blog: Implications for Public Relations Practice. Public Relations Journal, 6 (5).

Multicultural and International Communication

• Ashley, R. R. (in press). Sudan. In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.
• Mislán, C., & Ashley, R. R. (2018). Black(er)face and post-racialism: Employing racial difference and “progressive” primitivism online. Communication, Culture & Critique, 11(2), 247-264. doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcy007
• Ashley, R. R., & Jung, J. (2017). #BlackBodiesMatter: Cross cultural examination of Black women’s motivation to engage in body modification. Journal of Black Studies, 48(3), 235-255. doi.org/10.1177/0021934716686022
• Ashley, R. R. (2017). Representation of Darfur Conflict in diasporic media. In O. Ogunyemi (Ed.), Media, Diaspora and Conflict (pp. 155-171). Cham: Springer Nature.
• Bilge, N. & Marino, M.I. (Eds.) (2018). Reconceptualizing New Media and Intercultural Communication in a Networked Society. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.
• Concha, M. Villar, M.E., Tafur-Salgado, R. & Ibanez, S. (2016) Fatherhood from a Cultural Perspective Evolving Roles and Identities, Journal of Latinos in Education, 15 (4) forthcoming October 2016
• Concha, M., Sanchez, M., Rojas, P., Villar, M. E., & De La Rosa, M. (2015). Differences in Acculturation and Trajectories of Anxiety and Alcohol Consumption Among Latina Mothers and Daughters in South Florida. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 1-10.

• Garrison, B. & Liu, Y. (2013). “Is it politics or just business? News framing of the Shanghai World Expo 2010. International Communication Research Journal, 48, 1-2, 25-49.

• Kanamori, M., De La Rosa, M., Weissman, J., Rojas, P., Villar, M. E., Trepka, M. J., … & Jaramillo, M. (2015). Associations between drug/alcohol use and emotional abuse: Who perpetrates emotional abuse against Latina women?. Journal of Epidemiological Research, 2(1), 95.

• Li, C., & Liu, Y. (forthcoming). To Walk in Two Worlds: The Impact of Social Media Consumption on Chinese Residents’ Acculturation into the American Society. In Jia, W. (Ed) Intercultural Communication for an Evolving Global Order. Cognella Press.
• Marino, M. I. & Bilge, N. (2018). New Media and Intercultural Communication:An Introduction. In N. Bilge & M. I. Marino (Eds.) Reconceptualizing New Media and Intercultural Communication in a Networked Society,Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.
• Marino, M. I. & Bilge, N. (2018). Future of New Media and Intercultural Communication. In N. Bilge & M.I.Marino (Eds.) Reconceptualizing New Media and Intercultural Communication in a Networked Society. Hershey, PA: IGI-Global.
• Maria I. Marino (2017). Tweet for support, blog for peace, Communication Teacher, doi: 10.1080/17404622.2017.1400676
• Park, D., Deshpande, S., Cova, B., Pace, S. (2008). Cross border consumption and community. European Advances in Consumer Research, 8, 31-32.
• Park, D. J. & Villar, M.E. (2011). “I want to act like people on TV”: Effect of perceived realism, character admiration and frequency of sitcom and reality TV viewing among African-American students. American Journal of Media Psychology, 4(1-4), 80-100.
• Park, D., & Villar M.E. (2015). Comparing Frequency of TV and Internet Use among African-American Students and Their Effects on Material Values and Sociability. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 5(1), Jan 2015.
• Segev, S. (2014). The Effect of Acculturation on Ethnic Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles: An Empirical Analysis of Hispanic Consumers.Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 26 (3), 168–184.
• Segev, S., Ruvio, A., Shoham, A., & Velan, D. (2014). Acculturation and Consumer Loyalty among Immigrants: A Cross-National Study.European Journal of Marketing, 48 (9/10),
• Snell, K. & Zhou, C.* (2015). Predicting acculturative orientations of American college students toward others. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. (equal contribution)
• Villar, M. E., Ai, D., & Segev, S. (2012). Chinese and American Perceptions of Foreign-Name Brands. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 21 (5), 341-349.
• Villar, M.E. & Concha, M. (2011). Sex education and cultural values: Experiences and attitudes of Latina immigrant women. Sex Education, 12(5), 545-554.
• Villar, M.E., Bauduy, L.P., & Pessin, E. (2014). Authentic Community Based Participatory Research with Ethnic Communities to Address Stigmatized Issues. Presented at 2014 National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media, Atlanta, GA, August 19-21
• Wang, W., & Yu, N. (in press). Coping with a new culture: Predicting online health information seeking among Chinese immigrants in the United States. Paper submitted to Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health (accepted on 9/5/2014). doi:1007/s10903-014-0106-8
• Zhou, C. & Mastin, T. (2014). Chinese, U.S. Newspapers differ in use of news frames. Newspaper Research Journal.

Media and Communication for Social and Cultural Change

• Liu, J., Liu, Y., & Feng, M. (2014). Mobilizing Guanxi: Mobile Phone and Collective Action Mobilization in Contemporary China. Journal of Mobile Media & Communication.
• Liu, Y. & Yang, Q. (2015). A Framing Analysis of Chinese Independent Candidates’ Strategic Use of Microblogging for Online Campaign and Political Expression. In Marolt, P. and Herold, D. K. (Eds) Online China: Locating society in online space. Routledge.
• Liu, Y., & Li, C. (2012). Bridging people, building knowledge sharing – An exploratory study of Asians’ use of Wikipedia. Paper presented at the annual conference of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago, August 2012.

• Park, D. J., & Villar, M. E. (2015). Comparing Frequency of TV and Internet Use among African-American Students and Their Effects on Material Values and Sociability. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 5(1), 21.

• Park, D. & Richardson, L. (2013). Advancing a pedagogy of social change in Post-Katrina New Orleans: Participatory communication in a time of crisis. In J. Servaes (Ed.) Sustainability and Culture in Communication. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
• Park, D.J. (2009). Conglomerate rock: The music industry’s quest to divide music and conquer wallets. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (A Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.).  Paperback edition.
• Seelig, M. I., Millette, D., Zhou, C. & Huang, J. (2019). A new culture of advocacy: An exploratory analysis of social activism on the web and social media. Atlantic Journal of Communication.

• Wang, W., & Liu, Y. (2015). Discussing mental illness in Chinese social media: The impact of influential sources on stigmatization and support among their followers. Health Communication. doi:10.1080/10410236.2014.957376
• Yang, Q., & Liu, Y. (2014). What’s on the Other Side of the Great Firewall: Uses and Gratifications of Chinese Web Users’ Bypassing the Internet Censorship. Computers in Human Behavior, 37, 249-257.

Family Communication

• Gibson, D. M., & Webb, L. M. (2013). Encounters with attractive strangers: A metaphor analysis of memorable questions in initial interactions. Pennsylvania Communication Annual, 69, 83-101.
• Holt, S. I., Webb, L. M., Kropp, P. L., Hans, M. L., Conty, M., Chorley, S. K., & Wilson, M. L. (2013). Marital communication of needs, wants, and desires: Requests that function as effective and ineffective persuasive strategies. The Forensic of Pi Kappa Delta: The Art of Persuasion, Beautiful and Just, 98(2), 21-41.
• Lee, B., S., & Webb, L. M. (2014). Mommy bloggers: Who they are, what they write about, and how they are shaping motherhood in the 21^st century. In A. R. Martinez & L. J. Miller, Eds., Gender in a transitional era: Changes and challenges (p. 41-57). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (Division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishing).
• Pennington, D. C., & Webb, L. M. (2013). Decision making in dual-career couples: A replication and extension. In S. Marrow & D. Leoutsakas, Eds., More than blood: Today’s reality and tomorrow’s vision of family (pp. 70-82). Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt.
• Stiffler, E. E., Webb, L. M., & Duvall, A. C. (2013). The effects of family communication environment on viewers’ identification with and evaluation of television family communication models. In D. Macey & K. M. Ryan, Eds., Television and the self: Knowledge, identity and media (pp. 99-118). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Warford, E. M., & Webb, L. M. (2014). Mothers’ reports of challenging conversations with their adopted children: Performing motherhood in talk. In A. E. Kinser, K. Freehling-Burton, & T. Hawkes, Eds., Performing motherhood (p. 209-228). Bradford, ON: Demeter Press. [see http://www.demeterpress.org/PerformingMotherhood.html]
• Webb, L. M., Ledbetter, A., & Norwood, K. M. (2014). Families and technologically-assisted communication. In L. H. Turner & R. West, Eds., Sage handbook of family communication (p. 354-369). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Webb, L. M., & Toller, P. W. (2013). Communicative coping with ambiguous death: The search for answers, consolation, acceptance. In E. D. Miller, Ed., Stories of complicated grief: A critical anthology (pp. 174-193). Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers Press.
• Webb, L. M., Ledbetter, A., & Norwood, K. M. (2014). Technologically-assisted family communication. In L. H. Turner & R. West, Eds., Sage handbook of family communication (pp. 354-369). Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.

Computer Mediated Communication

• Boupha, S., Grisso, A. D., Morris, J., Webb, L. M., & Zakeri, M. (2013). How college students display ethnic identity on Facebook. In R. A. Lind, Ed., Race/Gender/Media: Considering diversity across audiences, content, and producers (3^rded.) (pp. 107-112). Boston, MA: Pearson.
• Webb, L. M., & Wang, Y. X. (2013). Techniques for analyzing blogs and micro-blogs. In N. Sappleton, Ed., Advancing research methods with new technologies (p. 183-204). Hershey, PA: IGI Global Publishers.
• Webb, L. M., Ledbetter, A., & Norwood, K. M. (2014). Technology. In M. J. Coleman & L. H. Ganong (Eds.), The social history of American families: An encyclopedia (pp. 1322-1326). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. [ISBN-10: 1452286167 & ISBN-13: 978-1452286167]
• Webb, L. M., Gibson, D. M., Wang, Y. X., Chang, H. C., & Thompson-Hayes, M. (2015). Selecting, scraping, and sampling big data sets from the Internet: Fan blogs as exemplar. SAGE Research Methods Cases. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/978144627305014558403
• Webb, L. M., & Wang, Y. W. (2013). Techniques for sampling on-line data sets. In W. C. Hu & N. Kaabouch, Eds., Big data management, technologies, and applications (pp. 95-114). Hershey, PA: IGI Global Publishers.
• Webb, L. M. (2013). Foreword to User behavior in ubiquitous online environments, edited by J. E. Pelet and P.Papadopoulou (pp. xii-xiii). Hershey, PA:  IGI Global Publishing.

Organizational Conflict

• Hopeck, P., Desrayaud, N., Harrison, T., Imboden, K. (2014). Deciding to use organizational grievance processes: Does conflict style matter? Management Communication Quarterly, 28, 561-584.
• Harrison, T., Hopeck, P., Desrayaud, N., Imboden, K. (2013). The relationship between conflict, anticipatory procedural justice, and design with intentions to use ombudsman processes. International Journal of Conflict Management, 24, 56-72.
• Tyler, J. M., Connaughton S. L., Desrayaud, N., & Fedesco, H. N. (2012). Organizational Impression Management: Utilizing Anticipatory Tactics. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 34, 336-348.

Interpersonal Communication

• Bell, E., & Blaeuer, D.  (2006). Performing gender and interpersonal communication research.  In J. Wood & B. Dow (Eds.), The gender and communication handbook (pp. 9-24). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Theiss, Sue L., & Webb, Lynne M. (2016). Workplace bullying: U.S. Academic managers’ intervention strategies. In Eletra Gilchrist-Petty & Shawn D. Long, Eds., Contexts of the Dark Side of Communication (p. 59-74). New York: Peter Lang Publishing. [ISBN 978-1-4331-2749-6]