Innovations and Implications of Persuasive Narrative

Sara Champlin is an assistant professor in the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. She received her Ph.D. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on using strategic communication campaigns to promote beneficial health outcomes. She is specifically interested in health literacy—a person’s abilities to find, understand, use, and communicate about health information. Within this context she is interested in the emergence of risky behaviors and ways in which communication around these issues can be promoted. Similarly, she aims to determine the factors that impact health information seeking.

Josh Compton is Associate Professor in the Institute for Writing and Rhetoric at Dartmouth College. His research explores image at two points: before an image attack (inoculation theory) and after an image attack (image repair theory). He has been named Distinguished Lecturer by Dartmouth College, has won the Outstanding Professor Award from the National Speakers Association, and has twice won the L. E. Norton Award for Outstanding Scholarship. His work appears in such journals as Journal of Communication, Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, PLOS One, and Health Communication.

Laura Crosswell is an assistant professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. As a media scholar focused on persuasive health communication, her work deconstructs the implications of message framing as it relates to citizenry, society, and human behavior. Through interdisciplinary scholarship, she explores marketing models in the digital age; specifically as they relate to public trust and personal efficacy. Laura’s work is published in peer-reviewed journals such as Critical Public Health, Perspectives in Public Health, the International Journal of Interdisciplinary Organizational Studies. Her work can also be found in the Handbook of Applied Communication Research and Risk & Health Communication in an Evolving Media Environment. She recently published her book Politics, Propaganda, and Public Health: A Case Study in Health Communication and Public Trust. Laura earned her doctorate degree in Media & Public Affairs from the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University.

Ran Duan is a visiting assistant professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests span the areas of environmental, science and visual communication. Her current work particularly focuses on the use of animation in environmental news, visual communication of natural disasters, risk perception and the implications of these areas for journalism practice. Duan has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Climatic Change, Environmental Communication, Environment and Behavior, Human Ecology Review, Social Science Quarterly and International Communication Gazette. Her research has been supported by national and local funding agencies such as the National Geographic Society, Michigan State University’s Environmental Science and Policy Program and University of Nevada Reno’s Center for Advanced Media Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in media & information, a doctoral specialization in environmental science and policy and a master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

Karen C. Freberg (@kfreberg) is an Associate Professor in Strategic Communications at the University of Louisville. Freberg is also a research consultant in social media and crisis communications and has worked with several organizations and agencies such as Firestorm Solutions, Hootsuite, The Breeders’ Cup, IMC Agency, DHS, CDC, National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD), Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates, and the Colorado Ski Association. This experience led her to be a 2015 Plank Center Fellow for General Motors (GM), where her responsibility was to work with the PR and social media teams forming best practices and recommendations on social media measurement strategies and influencer marketing practices. In addition, Freberg has written three books including The Roadmap in Teaching Social Media (Amazon, self-published), Digital Media Writing for Strategic Communication (TopHat with Emily Kinsky and Amber Hutchins) and Social Media for Strategic Communications: Creative Strategies and Research-Based Applications (with SAGE).

Alicia Mason is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Pittsburg State University. Her research explores social influence and persuasion in risk, crisis, health and environmental contexts. She teaches in the Strategic Communication track and is the Director of the Pittsburg State Communication Research Lab (CRL). Her work appears in journals such as the Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Corporate Reputation Review, Communication Monographs and Communication Quarterly.

Natalie Pagenstecher graduated in 2020 from the University of Delaware with her B.A. in Communication, B.S. in Health Behavior Science, and a Minor in Dance. As an undergraduate, she conducted research focused in the areas of health communication, risk perception, and women’s health. Natalie presented her dance minor capstone research “Embodying the Medicalization of Infertility Through Dance” at the National Dance Education Organization Conference. She is the recipient of the College of Health Sciences’ Contribution to Health Award for her active and extensive involvement in health promotion efforts both within the Department of Behavioral Health and Nutrition and at the community level. She has also been named a Woman of Promise by the University of Delaware for her dedication to academic excellence and pursuit of personal goals and challenges. In her free time, Natalie enjoys reading science fiction novels and rooting for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team.