Fall 2023 Faculty Publications, Conferences, and Grants

December 13, 2023

Harrington faculty members have continued to conduct cutting-edge research that they have published, presented, or received awards for this semester. Here are some of the highlights from their work:

Emily Diamond, assistant professor of communication studies and marine affairs

Emily Diamond, assistant professor of communication studies and marine affairs, presented results from “Framing the wind: Media coverage of offshore wind in the Northeastern U.S.,” a media content analysis of newspaper coverage of offshore wind in the Northeast. It was included in the Top Paper Panel for the Environmental Communication Division of the National Communication Association.


Presentations:

  • Diamond, Emily, Nikol Damato, David Bidwell, Tiffany Smythe. “Framing the wind: Media coverage of offshore wind in the Northeastern U.S.” Paper presented at the 2023 Annual Meeting of the National Communication Association (Top Paper panel), November 16-19, National Harbor, MD.
Renee Hobbs, professor of communication studies

Renee Hobbs, professor of communication studies, published an article regarding the use of media literacy training for law enforcement and how to develop these programs. She and her co-author, Anne Kringen, used the research to train 34 police trainers from the  Austin Police Department. They presented their findings at the International Communication Association Conference in May.

 

Publications:

Presentations

  • “Reframing the Uses of Video in Police Training: Media Literacy Education for Law Enforcement Officers” Renee Hobbs, U of Rhode Island, Anne Kringen, Austin Police Academy, Brienz Edwards, Austin Police Academy. Paper presentation at the 73rd annual International Communication Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, May 28, 2023.
Ammina Kothari, professor of journalism and director of the Harrington School

Ammina Kothari, professor of journalism, recently published two papers, one focusing on the relationship between social media and attitudes about mental healthcare and another on approaches to multimodal storytelling.

She also presented multiple research papers at national and international conferences, with some focusing on perceptions of generative AI by news audiences and African journalists and the implications of integrating AI tools in newsrooms. Another co-authored project with Professor Joon Kyoung Kim explored the impact of media representation of LGBTQ+ on heterosexual young adults’ attitudes and behaviors towards people who identify as LGBTQ+.

Publications:

  • Shackelford, L. Kothari, A., and Van Meenen, K. (2023). Gathering Stories: Creating Spaces for Young Women to Connect and Build Community through Multimodal Storytelling. Social Science, 12(9), 481. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090487
  • Godleski, S.A., Kothari, A., and Haraden, D. (2023). The impact of social media use on attitudes toward mental healthcare: The role of emotional connectedness and routine integration of social media. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-023-00337-y

Presentations:

  • Kothari, A., Orama, A*., Miller, R*., Peeks, M*., Bailey, R., and Alm, C. (2023). “News Consumption Helps Readers Identify Model-Generated News”. IEEE Western New York Image and Signal Processing Workshop, Rochester, NY.
  • Cruikshank, S., and Kothari, A. (2023). “African Journalists’ Perceptions of Generative AI Use in Newsrooms”. International Communication Association in AFRICA Conference, Cape Town, South Africa.
  • Kothari, A., and Cruikshank, S. (2023). “African Journalists and Social Media Use: How Editorial Policies and AI Knowledge Inform News Reporting”. Future of Journalism Annual Conference, University of Cardiff, Wales, UK.
  • Kothari, A., and Josiowicz, A. (2023). “Discourse on Artificial Intelligence in Latin America: A Netnography of Portuguese and Spanish Language Tweets”. The inaugural International Netnography Conference, University of Salford, Manchester, UK.
  • Kothari, A. (2023). “Illuminating Teen Voices Through Multimodal Storytelling”. 11th International Digital Storytelling Conference, Maryland.
  • Kim, J. K., Kothari, A., and Godleski, S. (2023). “Relationship between Media Representation of LGBTQ+ People and Heterosexual Young Adults’ Attitudes and Behaviors towards LGBTQ+ People”. International Communications Association (ICA) Conference, Toronto, Canada.
Yan Ma
Yan Ma, professor of library and information studies

Yan Ma, professor of library and information studies, recently had her paper “Paradigm Shift, Expansion, and Inclusion: Visual Literacy Research for the Field of Information” published in the larger collection Connecting & Sharing: The Book of Selected Readings. Ma gave a presentation on the paper at the 10th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science.

She was also invited to chair a special session of a conference and the Keynote Speaker Selection Committee at two conferences next year.

Publications:

  • Ma, Yan. (2023). Paradigm Shift, Expansion, and Inclusion: Visual Literacy Research for the Field of Information. In J. Lee, W. Huang, X. Chen, F. Rodrigues, L. Okan, S. Beene, C. Huilcapi-Collantes (Eds.), Connecting & Sharing: The Book of Selected Readings 2023 (pp. 114-127). International Visual Literacy Association. https://doi.org/10.52917/ivlatbsr.2023.018

Presentations:

  • Ma, Yan. (2023). Presented Online “Visual Literacy Research Spectrum: Paradigm Expansion for the Field of Information” 10th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science as part of the 10th Annual International Conference on Social Sciences, Athens, Greece, 24-27 July 2023. 
  • Ma, Yan. (2024). Invited to Chair the special session of “Visual Literacy and Global Media” at the 11th Annual International Conference on Library and Information Science, Athens, Greece, July 29 to August 1, 2024.
  • Ma, Yan. (2023). Chair of the Keynote Speaker Selection Committee of the 2024 International Visual Literacy Association Conference, San Diego, CA, October 3-5, 2024. 
 

Stephanie West-Puckett, assistant professor of professional and public writing and director of first-year writing, published a paper and presented her research at a conference this year. Her article “Engaging Assessment Counterstories through a Cultural Rhetorics Framework” offers a set of practical and theoretical tools for writing teachers, program administrators, and campus assessment leaders to nurture and sustain human-centered ecologies of writing in the age of machine-assisted composing.

At the Computers and Writing Conference, West-Puckett presented research about how three-dimensional thinking and modeling in both physical and digital forms can reorient writing assessment toward more relational, material, and embodied practices.

Publications:

  • West-Puckett, Stephanie et al. (2023, September). Engaging Assessment Counterstories through a Cultural Rhetorics Framework. College Composition and Communication, 75.1, 186-203.

Presentations:

  • West-Puckett, Stephanie (2023, June). Unflattening Assessment: Three-dimensional Thinking, Modeling, and Mapping for Classrooms and Writing Programs. Presented at the Computers and Writing Conference in Davis, CA.

For more information about this research or any other faculty research, check out our faculty profiles on the Harrington School website and keep an eye out for more research highlights.