Communication Research Works
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Item Are you prepared for the next storm? Developing social normsmessages to motivate community members to perform disasterrisk mitigation behaviors(Wiley, 2022-06-14) Lim, JungKyu Rhys; Liu, Brooke Fisher; Atwell Seate, AnitaPreparing for natural disasters and adapting to climate change can save lives. Yet, minimal research has examined how governments can motivate community members to prepare for disasters (e.g., purchasing flood insurance or installing water barriers in homes for floods and hurricanes). Instead, studies have focused on how to communicate actions individuals should take during disasters, rather than before disasters. This study develops messages targeting social norms, which are promising approaches to motivate community members to adopt disaster risk preparedness and mitigation behaviors. Specifically, we developed a variety of messages integrating descriptive norms (i.e., what others do), injunctive norms (i.e., what others believe should be done), and a social norms-based fear appeal, or social disapproval rationale (i.e., a negative social result of [not] taking behaviors). Then, we tested these messages through two between-subject factorial online experiments in flood- and hurricane-prone U.S. states with adult samples (N = 2,286). In experiment 1 (i.e., purchasing flood insurance), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced behavioral intentions. In experiment 2 (i.e., installing water barriers), the injunctive norms message using weather forecasters, the injunctive norms message using neighbors, and the social disapproval rationale message significantly increased social norms perceptions, which in turn influenced mitigation intentions. However, the descriptive social norms message was not effective in increasing social norms perceptions. We provide some of the first empirical evidence on how organizations’ risk communication can empower community members to prepare and mitigate the impact of disasters.Item Maternal Health Information Disparities Amid Covid-19: Comparing Urban and Rural Expectant Mothers in Ghana(2023) Khamis, Sahar; Agboada, Delight JessicaThe Covid-19 pandemic disrupted mothers’ access to credible and reliable health information from their healthcare providers. However, the impact of the pandemic on maternal health information access among rural and urban mothers has not been studied, especially in the Global South. Guided by the channel complementarity theory, we examined the sources of maternal health information rural and urban Ghanaian mothers used during the pandemic. Specifically, we analyzed the role access to technology plays in determining the quantity and quality of maternal health information expectant mothers had during the pandemic. Through purposive and snowball sampling techniques, we recruited and conducted in-depth interviews with 15 mothers, eight from rural communities and seven from urban communities in Ghana. We thematically analyzed the data and found that rural and urban mothers used medical and non-medical sources to obtain maternal health information. While medical sources remained the most credible information source even amid the pandemic, the mothers equally appreciated the immense benefits of other sources, particularly the internet. Our findings also suggest that the motivations for using maternal health information sources complementarily were not limited to the mothers’ functional needs, level of interest, and source characteristics but also covered the mothers’ location, resources, and health information literacy levelsItem The Evolving Weather Service: Relationship Dimensions that Drive Strong Partnerships(2020) Liu, Brooke; Seate, Anita AtwellSince the tragic tornado outbreaks in Central Alabama and Joplin, Missouri in 2011, the National Weather Service (NWS) has increasingly emphasized the importance of supporting community partners who help protect public safety. Through impact-based decision support services (IDSS), NWS forecasters develop relationships with their core partners to meet their partners’ decision-making needs. These core partners include broadcast meteorologists, emergency managers, and trained storm spotters. As part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s VORTEX-SE program, we conducted a survey in 2019 to examine how NWS forecasters and managers assess their relationships with core partners. Here we present the survey instrument from this project, which can be used by forecasters and others to assess the strength of their relationships with core partners.Item How Forecasters Decide to Warn about Tornadoes: Multi-Sited Rapid Ethnography Training Guide(2019) Liu, Brooke; Atwell Seate, AnitaSocial scientists are prolific in their recommendations on how to better warn about tornadoes. However, social scientists rarely work in partnership with operational forecasters, begging the question of how applicable their recommendations are to the “real world.” As part of a two-year project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) with the goal of better understanding how forecasters decide to warn about tornadoes, we conducted a multi-sited rapid ethnography (along with telephone interviews and a cross-sectional survey of forecasters and managers). Here we archive our ethnography training guide should other researchers conduct similar research.Item Leadership under fire: How governments manage crisis communication(2019) Liu, Brooke Fisher; Iles, Irina A.; Herovic, EminaCrisis leadership is fundamental to preventing, preparing for, managing, and learning from crises. Despite leadership during crises being heavily reliant on communicative processes, the research record predominantly reduces crisis communication leadership to managing organizations’ images. To contribute to limited knowledge on leadership communication during crises, we interviewed 24 U.S. government leaders and conducted a content analysis of U.S. government communication leadership during a major wildfire. We find that crisis communication leadership involves crisis perceptiveness, humility, flexibility, presence, and cooperation. We offer a message catalog of crisis response options for government leaders, and show how leaders employed some of these messages in response to a large-scale wildfire. This study expands the state of the art in crisis communication leadership research with implications for theory and practice.Item The Vietnam Veteran: A Victim of the War's Rhetorical Failure(1988-02-22) Hollihan, Thomas A.; Klumpp, James F.Argues that from defense and media coverage of the Vietnam War, an image of the character and activities of those fighting the war emerged. Within the defense of the war two justifications fought for dominance: a romantic call to idealism and a pragmatic materialist call to complete a task started. These contradictory motivations for the war colored the image of the soldier who fought the war as he became a concrete symbols caught in the contradiction. After the war, survivors had to then struggle with this image produced to defend the war.Item Transcendence in the Barnyard or, From the Barnyard to the Elysian Fields(2012-11) Klumpp, James F.Explores the state of divided politics in 2012, positing the virtue of disagreement but seeing it as potentially productive or destructive. Identifies the characteristics of productive disagreement.Item Another Episode in the Great American Adventure: A Fictional Play (based on a speech by Richard Nixon "The Cambodia Strike," April 30, 1970(Moments in Contemporary Rhetoric and Communication, 1972) Klumpp, James F.A fictional representation of the writing of the speech in which Richard Nixon justified to the Nation the incursion into Cambodia.Item The Public Sphere and the Political Sphere: Rhetorical Interconnections(2002) Klumpp, James F.Exploration of the relationship between the public sphere and the political sphere. Key rhetorical concepts that mediate the relationship between them are explored.Item Report of the Seminar on Communication and Culture(1990) Klumpp, James F.; and othersReport of a seminar held at the Second Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society, New Harmony, IN, May 1990. Records topics and outcomes for the seminar. Includes ideas about how to use Kenneth Burke's ideas and methods to understand the relationship between Communication and Culture.Item Motive and New Rhetorics(1973) Klumpp, James F.Analysis of the uses made of the Attica prison revolt by various groups in society in support of the motivations which drove their own efforts. Contains critique of rhetorical theory and the place of motives in rhetorical theory.Item Wading into the Stream of Forensics Research: The View from the Editorial Office(National Forensics Journal, 1990) Klumpp, James F.Commentary on the state of research in debate and forensics in 1990.Item Richard Nixon's Anti-Impeachment Campaign: America's Paradise Lost(Fred McMahon, 1974-05-01) Brock, Bernard; Klumpp, James F.Analysis of Richard Nixon's April 29, 1974, speech during the Nixon impeachment crisis. Interprets the speech as a quest narrative.Item The Unconsumated Flirtation: Contextualist Approaches to Argument(1990-06) Klumpp, James F.Contextualism's influence on the 20th century was profound. This was true also of argumentation studies. But argumentation scholars reached the limits of their engagement of contexualism falling back into formal study of argument. This essay illustrates this argument with studies of the narrative rationality of Walter Fisher and the public sphere theory of Jurgen Habermas.Item Symbolic Power as a Dimension of Public Life(1991-11) Klumpp, James F.Argues for a reconceptualization of citizenship built around participation in the symbolic life of a political community. Ties revisions in political theory into revisions in rhetorical theory.