Faculty
Dr. Rebecca Meisenbach researches issues of marginalized identity and ethics in organizational life. She has researched identity negotiations among higher education fund-raisers, community choir members, working moms, female breadwinners, and pageant participants. Most recently she has been exploring stigma as an intersectional communication process operating at individual and organizational levels. Her theory of Stigma Management Communication focuses on the interactions of stigma attitudes and stigma management strategies.
She currently serves on four editorial boards, is past Editor-in-Chief of the flagship journal for research on organizational communication, Management Communication Quarterly. and is a past associate editor of the journal Culture and Organization. Her research has been published in a variety of disciplinary journals including: Communication Monographs, Health Communication, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, and Sex Roles.
Dr. Meisenbach founded the Department of Communication’s summer study abroad program and teaches courses in organizational communication, communication theory, and qualitative research methods.
Identity Negotiation
Organizational Ethics
Stigma Management
Strategic Communication
Comm 3050 - Introduction to Communication
Comm 3460 - Organizational Advocacy
Comm 4476 - Organizational Communication
Comm 8130 - Seminar on Qualitative Methods –Phenomenology and Ethnography
Comm 8410 – Introductory Graduate Seminar in Organizational Communication Theory
Villamil, A., Branton, S. & Meisenbach, R. J. (2024). Inclusion and equity in organizational communication. In V. D. Miller & M. S. Poole (Eds.), Handbook of organizational communication science. De Gruyter.
Meisenbach, R. J., & Pringle, M. S., (2024). Phenomenological approaches to qualitative organizational communication research. In B. H. J. M. Brummans, B. C. Taylor, & A. Sivunen (Eds.), SAGE Handbook of qualitative research in organizational communication. SAGE.
Valiavska, A., & Meisenbach, R. (2023). Racialized scripts of silence: How whiteness organizes silence as a response to social protest about racism in the United States. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 51(6), 582–601. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2023.2169888
Ranjit, Y. S., Das, M., & Meisenbach, R. (2023). COVID-19 Courtesy stigma among healthcare providers in India: A study of stigma management communication and its impact. Health Communication, 38(13), 2833–2842. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2122279
Meisenbach, R. J., & Hutchins, D. (2020). Stigma communication and power: Managing inclusion and exclusion in the workplace. In M. Doerfel and J. Gibbs (Eds.) Organizing inclusion: Moving diversity from demographics to communication processes (pp. 25-42). Routledge.
Meisenbach, R. J., Rick, J. M., & Brandhorst, J. (2019). Managing occupational identity threats and job turnover: How former and current fundraisers manage moments of stigmatized identities. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 29(3), 383-399. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21332
Meisenbach, R. J. (2010). Stigma management communication: A theory and agenda for applied research on how individuals manage moments of stigmatized identity. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38, 268-292.
Meisenbach, R. J. (2010). The female breadwinner: Phenomenological experience and gendered identity in work-family spaces. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 62 (1&2), 2-19.
Dr. Stephen A. Klien serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Communication. He teaches courses in introduction to communication, argumentation, political communication, and rhetorical studies. He also has professional experience in faculty development and is a current Faculty Fellow for MU’s Teaching for Learning Center (T4LC) specializing in the evaluation of teaching. His current work is focused on the development of training resources for improving the collection, interpretation and use of student feedback survey data by faculty. His other research interests lie in the criticism of contemporary political rhetoric, with particular attention paid to the constitution of public character and citizen agency. This work has focused on the rhetorical construction of ideology and agency by conservative popular media, as well as on the constitution of citizen agency in post-9/11 war films.
Comm 2500 – Introduction to Communication
Comm 3572 – Argument and Advocacy
Comm 4491 – Political Public Address
Comm 4573 – Political Communication
Comm 4940 – Internship
Klien, S.A. (2015). Cinematic simulacra and the prospect for public agency: Constructing the citizen-soldier in post-9/11 war films. In E. Sahlstein Parcell and L.M. Webb (Eds.), A communication perspective on the military: Interactions, messages, and discourses (pp. 373-390). New York: Peter Lang.
Klien, S.A. (2013). O’Reilly’s war on the “war on Christmas”: Diatribe, culture war and conservative ideology. In C. Rountree (Ed.), Venomous speech: Problems with American political discourse on the right and left (pp. 269-298). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Klien, S.A., and Farrar, M.E. (2009). The diatribe of Ann Coulter: Gendered style, conservative ideology, and the public sphere. In J.L. Edwards (Ed.), Gender and political communication in America: Rhetoric, representation, and display (pp. 63-85). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Klien, S.A. (2007). Complexity and ideology in televisual war rhetoric: The air war over Iraq in Campaign 2004. In D. Zarefsky and E. Benacka (Eds.), Sizing up rhetoric (pp. 181-199). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Klien, S.A. (2005). "Leave no man behind": The construction of public character, institutional legitimacy, and citizen agency in Black Hawk Down. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 22, 427-449.
Ph.D., 2015, Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A., 2007, Speech Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Christopher S. Josey (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is an Assistant Teaching Professor within the Department of Communication. His research resides at the intersection of new technology, media effects, and media stereotyping. Dr. Josey’s work examines how persons of color are framed stereotypically within news and the effects that such portrayals have on media consumers. His research has been published in Communication Research, Discourse and Society, among others. His most recent investigations examine the role of stereotype and counter-stereotype endorsement in the consumption, evaluation, sharing, and internalization of news content.
Media Communication in Society (COMM 2100)
New Technologies and Communication (COMM 4638)
Race and the Media (COMM 4701)
William T. Kemper Fellow, 2023
Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year, 2022
PhD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2012)
Dr. Haley Kranstuber Horstman researches how families communicate to make sense of their adversity and diversity. She grounds much of her work in narrative theorizing and methodology. Currently, she is working in the contexts of miscarriage, adoptive families, family storytelling and resilience, and pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her work has been published in top-ranked peer-reviewed journals and been awarded more than fifteen Top Paper Awards at international, national, and regional conferences. She has received the 2019 New Scholar Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association.
Dr. Horstman has been granted and consulted on several university- and nationally-funded grants, including those funded by the NIH, MU’s Research Council, MU’s Tri-Continental (3C) Partnership Grant, and MU South Africa Exchange Program Grant, which funded her research in Cape Town, South Africa on parent-child communicated sense-making about apartheid. Dr. Horstman was awarded the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award for the 2021-2022 academic year to research family storytelling and resilience in Warsaw, Poland with the Polish Institute of Advanced Studies. Dr. Horstman is a blogger for Psychology Today.
Dr. Horstman is the director of international programs in the department and the former program director for the Communication and Culture study abroad program, located in Siena, Italy (https://communication.missouri.edu/undergrad/abroad).
COMMUN 3561 – Relational Communication
COMMUN 3422 – Communication Research Methods
COMMUN 8310 – Seminar in Interpersonal Communication
COMMUN 9280 – Seminar in Communication Theory
COMMUN 9310 – Seminar in Family Communication
COMMUN 9330 – Special Topics in Interpersonal Communication – Narratives in and about Personal Relationships
*Indicates graduate student author
Horstman, H. K., *Morrison, S. M., McBride, C., & Holman, A. (2021). How men integrate others’ messages into their miscarriage story: The role communicated narrative sense-making in memorable message theorizing. Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1973718
Colaner, C. W., *Bish, A., *Butauski, M., *Hays, A., & Horstman, H.K., *Nelson, L. R. (2021). Communication privacy management in open adoption relationships: Negotiating co-ownership across in-person and mediated communication. Communication Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650221998474
*Charvat, E., Horstman, H. K., *Jordan, E., *Leverenz, A., & *Okafor, B. (2021). Navigating pregnancy during a pandemic: Pregnant women’s communicated narrative sense-making and received social support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Family Communication, 21(3), 167-185. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2021.1932503
Horstman, H.K., Holman, A., & *Johnsen, L. (2021). Fathers’ parental role strain loss after miscarriage: How men seek support and manage stress. Southern Communication Journal, 86(3), 256-276. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794X.2021.1919918
Koenig Kellas, J., *Baker, J., *Cardwell, M. E., *Minniear, M.C., & Horstman, H. K. (In press). Communicated perspective-taking (CPT) and storylistening: Testing the impact of CPT in the context of friends telling stories of difficulty. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. [online publication first] doi:10.1177/0265407520955239
*Butauski, M., & Horstman, H. K. (2020). Parents’ narrative sense-making of their children’s coming out experiences. Journal of Family Communication, 20(4), 345-359. doi:10.1080/15267431.2020.1794872
Warner, B., Horstman, H. K., & Kearney, C. (2020). The effects of a narrative writing intervention on young adults’ perspective-taking of the political opposition. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 48(4), 459-477. doi:10.1080/00909882.2020.1789195
Trask, S. J., Horstman, H. K., & Hesse, C. (2020). Deceptive affection across relational contexts: A group comparison of romantic relationships, cross-sex friendships, and friends with benefits relationships. Communication Research. 47(4), 623–643. doi:10.1177/0093650219841736
Horstman, H. K., Holman, A., & McBride, C. (2019). Expanding the communicated sense-making model: Men’s use of metaphors to make sense of their spouse’s miscarriage. Health Communication, 35, 538-547. doi:10.1080/10410236.2019.1570430
Shaffer, V.A., Bohanek, J., Focella, E.S., Horstman, H. & Saffran, L. (2019). Encouraging perspective-taking: Using narrative writing to induce empathy for others engaging in negative health behaviors. PLOS ONE, 14, e0224046. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0224046
Holman, A., & Horstman, H. K. (2019). Similarities and dissimilarities in spouses’ narratives of miscarriage: A dyadic analysis of communicated narrative sense-making and well-being. Journal of Family Communication, 19(4), 293-310. doi:10.1080/15267431.2019.1628763 [lead article]
Horstman, H. K. (2019). Young adult women’s narrative resilience in relation to mother-daughter communicated narrative sense-making and well-being. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 36, 1146–1167. doi:10.1177/0123456789123456
Horstman, H. K., Schrodt, P., Warner, B., Koerner, A., *Maliski, R., *Hays, A., & Colaner, C. W. (2018). Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns: The development and validation of an expanded conformity orientation scale. Communication Monographs, 65, 157-180. doi:10.1080/03637751.2018.1428354
Horstman, H.K., Colaner, C.W., *Nelson, L.R., *Bish, A., & *Hays, A. (2018). Communicatively constructing the birth parent relationship in open adoptive families: Naming, connecting, and relational functioning. Journal of Family Communication, 18, 183-152. doi:10.1080/15267431.2018.1429444
Colaner, C. W., Horstman, H.K., & Rittenour, C. R. (2018). Negotiating adoptive and birth shared family identity: A social identity complexity approach. Western Journal of Communication, 82, 393-415. doi:10.1080/10570314.2017.1384564
Debbie S. Dougherty (Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2000) is Professor of Communication at University of Missouri and the Editor in Chief for the Journal of Applied Communication Research. She has served as the Associate Dean of Research for the College of Arts and Science, Interim Chair for the Department of Communication, and as a Faculty Fellow for the Vice Chancellor for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity. Her research program explores the relationship between power and organizing, particularly as related to both sexual harassment and social class. She is most widely recognized for her research on the relationship between organizational culture and sexual harassment with numerous publications on this topic in national and international journals. She has provided training and development on sexual harassment with organizations such as the U.S. Army, the National Park Service, and PFS Brands and provides professional support to other organizations seeking information about sexual harassment. She has had a number of speaking engagements on sexual harassment and has been extensively utilized as a resource for news sources such as the New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, and the Oprah Magazine.
Her research has been published in journals such as Harvard Business Review, Human Relations, Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Sex Roles. She is currently the editor for Journal of Applied Communication Research and sits on the editorial board for seven scholarly journals. She has received numerous awards for her research and community projects including 10 top paper awards, The Jack Kay Award for Engaged Research, the Management Communication Quarterly Article of the Year Award, the Norman K. Denzin Qualitative Research Award, the Excellence in Education Award, and the Gold Chalk Award for graduate student mentoring.
Organizational power, especially as it relates to sexual harassment
Emotion in organizations
Feminist standpoint theory
Com 4476 - Organizational Communication
Com 4974 - Senior Capstone
Com 8110 - Introduction to Graduate Study in Communication
Com 8130 - Seminar on Qualitative Methods
Authored Books
Dougherty, D. S. (2011). The Reluctant Farmer: An Exploration of Work, Social Class, and the Production of Food. Troubador Publishing.
Sample Publications in Peer Reviewed Journals
Dougherty, D. S. & Goldstein Hode, M. (2016). Binary Logics and the Discursive Interpretation of Sexual Harassment Policies. Human Relations.
Krone, K. J. & Dougherty, D. S. (2015). From emotional labor to critical emotional agency. The Electronic Journal of Communication. Volume 25, http://www.cios.org/getfile/025302_EJC
Bisel1, R. S., Barge, K. J., Dougherty, D.S. Lucas, K. & Tracy, S. J. (2014). A round-table discussion of “Big” data in qualitative organizational communication research. Management Communication Quarterly, 28, 625-649.
Dixon, J., & Dougherty, D.S. (2014). A Language Convergence/Meaning Divergence Analysis Exploring How LGBTQ and Single Employees Manage Traditional Family Expectations in the Workplace. Journal of Applied Communication Research 42, 1-19
Denker, K, & Dougherty, D.S. (2013). Corporate colonization of couples' work-life negotiations: Rationalization, emotion management, and silencing conflict. Journal of Family Communication, 13, 242-262.
Smith, F., & Dougherty, D. S. (2012). Retirement and the American dream: A master Narrative. Management Communication Quarterly, 26, 453-478. Winner of the Management Communication Quarterly Article of the Year.
Dougherty, D. S., *Mobley, S., & *Smith, S. (2010). Language Convergence and Meaning Divergence: A theory of intercultural communication. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 3,164-186.
Dougherty, D. S., Kramer, M. W., *Klatzke, S. R. & *Rogers, T. K. K. (2009) Language convergence and meaning divergence: A meaning centered communication theory. Communication Monographs.76, 20-46.
Dougherty, D. S., & *Drumheller, K. (2006). Sensemaking and emotions in organizations: Accounting for emotions in a rational(ized) context. Communication Studies 57, 215-238.
*McGuire, T., & Dougherty, D. S., & *Atkinson, J. (2006). “Paradoxing the dialectic”: The impact of patients’ sexual harassment in the discursive construction of nurses’ caregiving roles. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 416-450.
Dougherty, D. S., & *Atkinson, J. (2006). Competing ethical communities and a researcher’s dilemma: The case of a sexual harasser. Qualitative Inquiry, 12, 292-315.
B.A. University of Missouri - Film Studies (2013)
Currently Pursuing an M.A. in Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia
Michael A. Coleman (B.A., University of Missouri) is an artist and a filmmaker working across narrative, non-fiction, commercial, and experimental forms. He recently produced To Love the Void, a feature length documentary, that had it’s world premiere at Brooklyn International Film Festival. His own short film DV Footage Log 2014-2020 showed at Film Diary NYC 2.0 and he is currently in production on, Tower of Silence, his first feature documentary as director. He also co-founded Generic Moving Images, a boutique production company in Columbia.
Intro to Digital Media Production
Digital Production 1
Digital Production 2
Dr. Colleen Colaner's research examines how communication shapes and sustains relationships in complex, diverse, and modern family structures and experiences. A major focus of her research is communication in adoptive families, examining how adoptive parents’ communication with and about birth families sustains adoptee wellbeing. Colleen also researches links between family communication and diverse social identities, such as religion and political identification. In this work, Colleen focuses on children’s communication experiences and abilities, with an aim to understand children’s unique perceptions of their family relationships.
Colleen takes an applied approach to scholarship by translating family communication research to families in the community. Colleen serves as a family communication educator, partnering with mental health professionals in Columbia to provide families with strategies for connecting and coping. Her research is solution-focused to provide families with communication processes to support relational health and personal wellbeing.
Colleen's work has been published in Communication Monographs, Communication Research, Sex Roles, Journal of Family Communication, and Adoption Quarterly in addition to regional and specialty journals. She has also presented her work and received top paper awards at a number of regional and national conferences. Colleen’s work has been supported with grants from the Organization for Research on Women and Communication as well as the University of Missouri (Research Board, Research Council, Arts and Science Alumni Organization Faculty Incentive Grant, and the Richard Wallace Alumni Fund). She was also the recipient of a University of Missouri College of Arts and Science fellowship in 2015. Colleen is on the editorial board of Journal of Family Communication, Western Journal of Communication, and Southern Communication Journal. Colleen is active in the family and interpersonal divisions of the National Communication Association.
Family diversity; Identity in family and personal relationships; Discourse dependence; Adoptive families; Interfaith families; Intergroup theorizing; Social identity difference; Children’s communication; Family communication training
COMMUN 4520 Family Communication
COMMUN 4701 Children’s Communication
COMMUN 9310 Seminar in Family Communication
Colaner, C. W., *Elkhalid, A., *Bish, A., *Butauski, M., *Nelson, L., & *Rick, J. (2021). Communicatively constructing godparenthood: Relational maintenance and relational closeness. Journal of Family Communication.
Colaner, C. W., *Bish, A., *Butaski, M., *Hays, A., Horstman, H., & Nelson, L. R. (2021). Managing private information in open adoption relationships: The role of face-to-face and mediated communication. Communication Research.
Hernandez, R. & Colaner, C. W. (2021). “This is not the hill to die on. Even if we literally could die on this hill”: Examining communication ecologies of COVID-19 uncertainty, family communication, and healthcare. American Behavioral Science.
McQuillan, J, Greil, A. L., Rybinska, A., Tiemeyer, S., Shreffler, K., & Colaner, C. W. (2020). Is a dyadic stressor experienced as equally distressing by both partners? The case of perceived fertility problems. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Warner, B., Colaner, C. W., *Park, J. (2020). Political difference and polarization in the family: The role of (non)accommodating communication for navigating identity differences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
*Nelson, L. R., & Colaner, C. W. (2020). Fostering “family”: Communication orientations in the foster parent-child relationship. Western Journal of Communication, 84(4), 476-498.
Horstman, H., Schrodt, P., Warner, B. E., *Hays, A., *Maliski, R., Koerner, A., & Colaner, C. W. (2018). Expanding the conceptual and empirical boundaries of family communication patterns: The development and validation of an expanded conformity orientation scale. Communication Monographs, 85, 157-180.
Horstman, H.K., Colaner, C. W., *Nelson, L.R., *Bish, A., & *Hays, A. (2018). Communicatively constructing the birth parent relationship in open adoptive families: Naming, connecting, and relational functioning. Journal of Family Communication, 18, 138-152. doi:10.1080/15267431.2018.1429444
Nelson, L. R., & Colaner, C. W. (2018). Becoming a transracial family: Communicatively negotiating divergent identities in families formed through transracial adoption. Journal of Family Communication, 18, 51-67. doi: 10.1080/15267431.2017.1396987
Colaner, C. W., Horstman, H. K., & Rittenour, C. E. (2018). Negotiating adoptive and birth shared family identity: A social identity complexity approach. Western Journal of Communication, 82, 393-415. doi: 10.1080/10570314.2017.1384564
Dr. Elizabeth (Lissa) Behm-Morawitz (Ph.D., Arizona) is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication. Dr. Behm-Morawitz takes a media psychology approach to examining the effects of media such as video games, television, social media, and virtual reality (VR). Specifically, her research examines how media influences people's perceptions and experiences of identity (e.g., gender, race, sexuality), stereotyping, prosocial behaviors, and well-being. Dr. Behm-Morawitz also studies media literacy and how identity intersects with how people perceive media messages.
The primary aims of Dr. Behm-Morawitz’s research are to (1) improve theoretical understanding of how mediated social identities affect individuals’ cognitions and behavioral intentions, (2) explore such media effects in contemporary media (e.g., virtual and interactive) contexts, and (3) increase media industry and public awareness of the problematic as well as promising effects of media culture. Her research has been published in journals such as Computers in Human Behavior, Media Psychology, Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, and Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
- media psychology and media effects
- virtual reality, video games, television, film, streaming, social media
- social identity, stereotyping, and intergroup bias
- prosocial media effects and media literacy
- media influence on health beliefs, behaviors, and well-being
Undergraduate Courses
Media Communication in Society (COMM 2100)
Mass Media Theory (COMM 3490)
Contemporary Issues in Mass Communication (COMM 3636)
Persuasion (COMM 4474)
New Technologies and Communication (COMM 4638)
Graduate Courses
Persuasion (COMM 7474)
New Technologies and Communication (COMM 7638)
Seminar in Content Analysis (COMM 8140)
Seminar in Mediated Communication Theory (COMM 8510)
Seminar in Media Processes and Effects (COMM 9520)
Behm-Morawitz, E., Luisi, T., & Pennell, H. (2022). Parent-child communication about gender and race through the films Black Panther and Wonder Woman: The roles of parental mediation and media literacy. Psychology of Popular Media, 11(4), 382–394.
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Villamil, A. (2019). The roles of ingroup identification and implicit bias in assessing the effectiveness of an online diversity education program. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 47, 505-526.
Behm-Morawitz, E., Aubrey, J. S., Pennell, H., & Kim, K-B. (2019). Examining the effects of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on adolescent girls’ sexual health: The implications of character affinity, pregnancy risk factors, and health literacy on message effectiveness. Health Communication, 34, 180-190.
Behm-Morawitz, E., Pennell, H., & Speno, A. G. (2016). The effects of virtual racial embodiment in a gaming app on reducing prejudice. Communication Monographs, 83, 396-418.
Behm-Morawitz, E., Lewallen, J., & Miller, B. (2016). Real Mean Girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 5, 340-355.
Behm‐Morawitz, E. (2013). Mirrored selves: The influence of self-presence in a virtual world on health, appearance, and well-being. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 119-128.
Click, M., Aubrey, J. S., & Behm-Morawitz, E. (Eds.) (2010). Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, & the Vampire Franchise. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2009). Effects of the sexual objectification of female characters in video games on gender stereotyping and female self-concept. Sex Roles, 6, 808‐823.
Behm-Morawitz, E., & Mastro, D. (2008). Mean girls?: The influence of gender portrayals in teen movies on emerging adults' gender-based attitudes and beliefs. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 85, 31-46.
J. Brian Houston, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Missouri and is Director for the Disaster and Community Crisis Center (DCC) at the University of Missouri. He is Core Faculty in the University of Missouri Master of Public Health Program.
Houston's research focuses on communication at all phases of disasters and on the mental health effects and political consequences of community crises. Recent and current research projects have examined the impact of media coverage of terrorism on children and adults, the role of new media during disasters, and the capacity for using information communication technologies to increase community resilience. These projects are located at the intersections of the literatures addressing disasters, communication, media, public health, mental health, and political socialization.
Houston's work has been supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institute for Nursing Research (NINR), and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Disasters. Public, mental, and behavioral health. Resilience. Communication ecologies. Media effects. Persuasion.
Comm 2500 - Introduction to Communication
Comm 3580 – Crisis Communication
Comm 9610 – Disaster, Risk and Crisis Communication
First, J. M., & Houston, J. B. (2022). The mental health impacts of successive disasters: Examining the roles of individual and community resilience following a tornado and COVID-19. Clinical Social Work Journal. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-021-00830-y
Houston, J.B., Thorson, E., Kim, E.A. & Mantrala, M.K. (2021). COVID-19 communication ecology: Visualizing communication resource connections during a public health emergency using network analysis. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(7), 893-913. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221992811
First, J., Yu, M., & Houston, J.B. (2021). Development and validation of the disaster adaptation and resilience scale (DARS): A measure to assess individual disaster resilience. Disasters, 45(4), 939-967. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12452
Houston, J.B., Thorson, E., Kim, E.A. & Mantrala, M.K. (2021). COVID-19 communication ecology: Visualizing communication resource connections during a public health emergency using network analysis. American Behavioral Scientist, 65(7), 893-913. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764221992811
Houston, J.B., First, J., & Danforth, L. (2019). Student coping with the effects of disasters media coverage: A qualitative study of school staff perceptions. School Mental Health: A Multidisciplinary Research and Practice Journal, 11, 522-534. doi: 10.1007/s12310-018-9295-y
Houston, J.B., Spialek, M.L., & First, J. (2018). Disaster media effects: A systematic review and synthesis based on the differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 68, 734-757. doi: 10.1093/joc/jqy023
Houston, J.B. (2018). Community resilience and communication: Dynamic interconnections between and among individuals, families, and organizations. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 46, 19-22. doi: 10.1080/00909882.2018.1426704
Houston, J.B., & Buzzanell, P.M. (2018). Communication and resilience: Concluding thoughts and key issues for future research. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 46, 26-27. doi: 10.1080/00909882.2018.1426691
Spialek, M.L., & Houston, J.B. (2018). The development and initial validation of the citizen disaster communication assessment (CDCA). Communication Research, 45, 934-955. doi: 10.1177/0093650217697521
Houston, J.B., Spialek, M.L., First, J., Stevens, J., & First, N.L. (2017). Individual perceptions of community resilience following the 2011 Joplin tornado. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 25, 354-363. doi:10.1111/1468-5973.12171
Houston, J.B., First, J., Spialek, M.L., Sorenson, M.E., Mills-Sandoval, T., Lockett, M., First, N.L., Nitiéma, P., Allen, S.F., & Pfefferbaum, B. (2017). Randomized controlled trial of the resilience and coping intervention (RCI) with undergraduate university students. Journal of American College Health, 65, 1-9. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2016.1227826
Houston, J.B., First, J., Spialek, M.L., Sorenson, M.E., & Koch, M. (2016). Public disaster communication and child and family disaster mental health: A review of theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. Current Psychiatry Reports, 18:54, 1-9. doi: 10.1007/s11920-016-0690-5
Houston, J.B., Spialek, M.L., & Perreault, M.F. (2016). Coverage of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the New York Times, 1950-2012. Journal of Health Communication, 21, 240-248. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1058441
Houston, J.B., Hawthorne, J., Perreault, M.F., Park, E.H., Goldstein Hode, M., Halliwell, M.R., Turner McGowen, S.E., Davis, R., Vaid, S., McElderry, J.A., & Griffith, S.A. (2015). Social media and disasters: A functional framework for use in disaster planning, response, and research. Disasters, 39, 1-22. doi: 10.1111/disa.12092
Houston, J.B., & Franken, N.J. (2015). Disaster interpersonal communication and posttraumatic stress following the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 20, 195-206. doi: 10.1080/15325024.2013.848614.
Houston, J.B. (2015). Bouncing forward: Assessing advances in community resilience assessment, intervention, and theory to guide future work. American Behavioral Scientist, 59, 175-180. doi:10.1177/0002764214550294
Houston, J.B., Spialek, M.L., Cox, J., Greenwood, M., & First, J. (2015). The centrality of media and communication in fostering community resilience: A framework for assessment and intervention. American Behavioral Scientist, 59, 270-283. doi: 10.1177/0002764214548563
Houston, J.B. (2013). Long-term sociopolitical effects of 9/11 television viewing, emotions, and parental conversation in U.S. young adults who were children in 2001. Communication Research Reports, 30, 183-192. doi: 10.1080/08824096.2013.806251
Houston, J.B., Pfefferbaum, B., Sherman, M.D., Melson, A.G., & Brand, M.W. (2013). Family communication across the military deployment experience: Child and spouse report of communication frequency and quality and associated emotions, behaviors, and reactions. Journal of Loss and Trauma, 18, 103-119. doi: 10.1080/15325024.2012.684576
Houston, J.B., Pfefferbaum, B., & Rosenholtz, C.E. (2012). Disaster news: Framing and frame changing in coverage of major U.S. natural disasters, 2000-2010. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 89, 606-623. doi:10.1177/1077699012456022
Houston, J.B. (2012). Public disaster mental/behavioral health communication: Intervention across disaster phases. Journal of Emergency Management, 10, 283-292. doi: 10.5055/jem.2012.0106
Houston, J.B., Hansen, G., & Nisbett, G.S. (2011). Influence of user comments on perceptions of media bHouston, J.B., Spialek, M.L., & First, J.* (2018). Disaster media effects: A systematic review and synthesis based on the differential susceptibility to media effects model. Journal of Communication, 68, 734-757. doi: 10.1093/joc/jqy023ias and third-person effect in online news. Electronic News, 5, 79-92. doi: 10.1177/1931243111407618
Houston, J.B. (2009). Media coverage of terrorism and traumatic stress: A meta-analytic assessment. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 86, 844-861 .
Houston, J.B., Pfefferbaum, B., Sherman, M.D., Melson, A.G., Jeon-Slaughter, H., Brand, M.W., & Jarman, Y. (2009). Children of deployed National Guard soldiers: Perceptions of parental deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Psychiatric Annals, 39, 805-811.