Research

Abstract: In a polarizing media environment increasingly fraught with misinformation, disinformation, contradicting information, and rumor, it is tougher than ever for brands and agencies to correct the record or make their voices heard. While misinformation has been examined more extensively from the perspective of journalism, information technology, and politics (Anderson & Rainie, 2017), there is […]

Abstract: The proliferation of news sources and user-generated content, which is flooded by misinformation (Southwell, Thorson, & Sheble, 2018), present an urgent need for research that investigates audiences’ information consumption behavior in current media environment. In the past decade, one of the key tasks for crisis and risk scholars was to study the “social mediated […]

Abstract: As Heath and O’Hair (2009) defined, crisis is when risk is manifested. The urgency and uncertainty of crisis can induce more complexity to organizations (Seeger, Sellnow, & Ulmer, 1998). Public health crisis and risk communications are tasked to communicate about risks that can harm public health and persuade the public to adopt healthier and […]

Abstract: To better understand how uncertainty influences publics’ risk perception and responses, this study introduced risk tolerance as a new concept to public relations literature and then investigated how publics react to health risks with different temporal distances: climate change and foodborne illness. Through an online survey, this study found out that uncertainty induced by […]

Poster presented at the World Congress of Pain of the International Association for the Study of Pain, September 12-16, Boston, MA.

Abstract: A between-subjects experiment tested the effects of medium (location-based) and high (individually tailored) personalized advertising on online news readers, half of whom also paid attention to a podcast while reading. Results showed that the main effect of multitasking was not significant, suggesting that no significant difference in attitude toward the ad emerged between the […]

Abstract: This chapter offers a “diffractive” consideration (Barad 2003) of posthumanist and cyberfeminist theory, masculinity studies, and research on gender and gaming, that views digital play between straight white men as a form of homosexual contact via cyborg bodies, one that is mediated by the material and semiotic apparatuses of gaming, but no less real […]

Abstract: In this article, I consider the role of affect in the popular app game Neko Atsume. Neko Atsume is a “cat collector” game where players leave food and toys out for cats. The game’s success is strongly linked to its ability to deploy a kind of affect on players – it relies entirely on […]

Abstract: This chapter explores how video games interact with individual characteristics to afford unique opportunities for behavior change. It first considers how video games differ from traditional media, and more specifically how they create virtual situations that may be perceived differently from those naturally occurring in reality. In this regard, the concept of situational affordance […]