Ben Warner
Ben Warner

Dr. Benjamin (Ben) R. Warner (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication and co-director of the Political Communication Institute. He is interested in the effects of partisan media, presidential debates, campaign ads, social media, and political humor. Much of Dr. Warner’s research explores the antecedents, consequences, and remedies of political polarization. In pursuit of these objectives, he draws on theories of persuasion, intergroup processes, and media psychology. He is co-editor of An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the 2016 Campaign and has published in Communication Monographs, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and a variety of other outlets.
Graduate
Comm 9630 – Political Advertising
Comm 8610 – Survey of Political Communication Research
Comm 8170 – Quantitative Methods in Communication 2
Comm 8160 – Rhetorical Criticism
Comm 8120 – Quantitative Methods in Communication 1
Comm 8001 – Structural Equation Modeling
Comm 8001 – Survey of Persuasion
Comm 8001 – Politics and New Media
Comm 8001 – Political Polarization
Undergraduate
Comm 4474 – Theory and Research in Persuasion
Comm 4473 – Political Communication
Comm 3572 – Argumentation & Advocacy
Warner, B. R., Bystrom, D. G., McKinney, M. S., &Banwart, M. C. (Eds.) (2018). An unprecedented election: Media, communication, and the electorate in the 2016 campaign. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Warner, B. R., McKinney, M. S., Bramlett, J., Jennings, F. J., & Funk, M. (forthcoming). Reconsidering partisanship as a constraint on the persuasive effects of debates. Communication Monographs.
Warner, B. R., Villamil, A. (2017). A test of imagined contact as a means to improve cross-partisan feelings and reduce attribution of malevolence and acceptance of political violence. Communication Monographs, 84(4), 447-465. doi: 10.1080/03637751.2017.1336779
Warner, B. R. (2018). Modeling partisan media effects in the 2014 U.S. midterm elections. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly. doi: 10.1177/1077699017712991
Warner, B. R., Jennings, F., Coker, C. R., Bramlett, J. C., Reed, J. L., Bolton, J. P. (2018). A multi-media analysis of persuasion in the 2016 presidential election: Comparing the unique and complimentary effects of political comedy and political advertising. Mass Communication & Society.doi: 10.1080/15205436.2018.1472283