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ICYMI: Today's episode is a great one as we catch up with Dr. Mary Meares, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. Have you ever traveled outside of the country, especially to a place where your native language wasn't being spoken? How did it make you feel? Were you challenged by the experience in a good one or did you find yourself looking for something familiar? In addition to having lived and worked abroad, her research dives into the effects of culture. When you think about how we learn what the world is and how we learn about other people, that learning comes from so many different places--personal experiences, what you might learn in the classroom and even from the media. Mary's research looks at all of these things as a mechanism of understanding intercultural competence and ways it can be taught to others. Fun fact: she is reading a book--Gullah Geechee--Lessons from the Matriach--by Emily Meggett from Edisto Island and that's where Mary's ancestors are from! This is such a fun conversation and it really is going to push you to think about how we learn about others the next time you travel. Don't miss it!

Falling Backwards Into Things–The Path to Research in Identity, Stigma and Organizing

I say this about every episode but I definitely have to say it about this one---YOU DO NOT WANT TO MISS TODAY'S EPISODE. 

Wow. We cover a lot of territory with Dr. Peter Jensen, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Communication & Information Sciences. But first, fun fact: Peter is the first guest we have ever had who said he actually dreamed of being a professor as a young child, and this inspiration came from watching Indiana Jones films where Indiana Jones was in a classroom teaching!! 

But, on to the real stuff. Dr. Jensen studies organizational communication, but what he really looks at it why we organize the way we do, and the communicativeness of the process. What does that really mean? It means he studies things like stigma within an organization and how underlying stigma about topics such as incarceration carry over into decisions that are made, the ways individuals are interacted with and treated, and ultimately the structural issues related to stigma. Peter has worked with and studied individuals who have been incarcerated and who then are trying to re-engage with the world and return to the identity they might have had prior to serving time in prison. Peter is an ethnographer, which means he works in the field and he works directly with the population he is studying as well as the organizations working to help them (or not). 

We cover so much territory in today's conversation, and it certainly sheds light on the breadth and depth of the work being done in the broad area of communication research. 

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

ICYMI: Don't miss episode #7 of Season 6 of Revise and Resubmit as we catch up with Dr. Kaitlin Miller, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. Learn more about how 6th grade Kaitlin had a big dream of working in broadcast journalism and how that dream became a reality for her after finishing her master's degree in broadcast journalism. Kaitlin tells us about her time working as a broadcast journalist in Bozeman, Montana where she essentially was a one-stop shop for all of the stories she worked on--setting up the camera, the lights, the audio, doing the reporting, doing the editing and packaging it all together. But, then she tells us about how the workplace for her and other women in the felt was challenging, isolating, and at times, filled with harassment. Her professional experiences tie directly into what she does now as a professor of journalism and guide much of the research she does on journalistic practices, the intersectionality of oppression and identity specific to gender and race, but how she firmly believes that journalism matters. We talk about her approach to teaching her own journalism students and how she inspires them (our words not hers) to follow their dreams and passions as storytellers. And, throughout today's conversation we hear so many funny stories about her professional work in broadcast journalism. Let's just say a bear enters this conversation! You don't want to miss today's episode as we catch up with Dr. Kaitlin Miller!

In today’s episode, we are catching up with another former guest in our What’s New With series, and I say this every time, but again, today’s episode is SO MUCH FUN!!! Dr. Kenon Brown, an associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public relations actually gave us an answer to one question that we had never heard before–what he wanted to be when he grew up. But, I’m not going to spoil it now! You’ll just have to tune in!

When we last caught up with Dr. Brown, we were in the height of the pandemic and lock down and he was doing a lot of research on athletes and image repair because there’s always one or two who isn’t making the best decisions, but today, he tells us how his research has shifted a little to focus on the WHY AND HOW of audience perceptions about athletes. What traits are most important in helping us identify more and resonate more with specific athletes? He breaks it all down for us!

To follow Kenon on Twitter: @KenonABrown

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

In the third of our of "What's New With..." series, we have the great opportunity to catch up with Dr. Cynthia Peacock, now an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies within C&IS. When we last spoke with Cynthia, she was telling us about the time she took her students to attend the Iowa Caucuses, and about all of her work in political communication. She's been busy these last two years, and in today's episode, we get to hear all about it. She is currently working on a study about relational communication when individuals do not share the same political ideology--can you imagine the potential drama? But, she's also looking into issues such as the changes in the online environment, including social media, and how these changes will affect political engagement and opinion exchange. I don't want to give away too much here, but I will just say, this is another really fun one!! As a fun fact about Cynthia, she wanted to be a criminal psychologist or a National Geographic photographer when she was growing up, and her pathway to academia is an interesting (but cool) one!

To follow Cynthia on Twitter: @CynPeacock

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

You might read this title and think, what? What in the world are they talking about? What we are talking about are things that many of us will be using in our daily lives? Do you use Siri or Alexa? Do you  have apps on your phone that are tailored to you and can help you out in a virtual way? If you use any of these things, you use virtual assistants. But what you might not have thought about is how they actually work and how they do (or do not) respond to more subjective things like feelings or an inability to quickly process questions being asked by the virtual assistant. Our next guest in our "What's New With" series studies all of these things and is making a significant impact on the way AI technologies are merging with user experiences. Dr. Miriam Sweeney is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies, part of the College of Communication and Information Sciences. She is a renowned scholar in this area and is taking intentional steps to look beyond the service and better understand how user experiences can be improved.  This is a fun one! Don't miss it!

You don't want to miss the 5th in our series of "What's New With..." where we get an opportunity to catch up with previous guests and learn all about the research they have done since we last talked to them. When we last spoke with Dr. Shaheen Kanthawala, an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media, we talked about her research very broadly in the area of media effects through the lens of health communication. Shaheen has been very busy these last two years developing new projects and studies that dive more into the functions and features of health apps and how they can be helpful (or not). We talk a lot about individual differences (demographic factors, cognitive functioning) and how those factors influence not only our use of health apps but how much the health app can influence us.  We also dive into a conversation about TikTok and discuss how much, if at all, TikTok can be used in helpful and positive ways specific to our own health. How do we know if the information we are getting from TikTok is correct or not? And do we care? We dive into all of this in today's conversation, and you don't want to miss it!! Tune in to catch some of Shaheen's recommendations for viewing and reading--we aren't going to spoil it here! 

To follow Shaheen on Twitter: @ItsShaheenK

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama

Have you ever experienced a natural disaster like a tornado or a hurricane or a house fire? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where maybe you were not fully prepared but didn't know that until the disaster hit? Today's guest tells us about experiencing 9/11 from the lens of a viewer watching it unfold on global television changed the trajectory of her career and how watching the crisis with communication on that day led her to not only gain incredible experience working as a volunteer for the Red Cross and other humanitarian companies but also led to her path as a graduate student and now a scholar in the area of crisis communication. Dr. Suzanne Horsley is an associate professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Alabama and has studied crisis communication from a variety of angles. She tells us today that one of the most interesting things in her work is learning about those who actually want to step in and help out. She said that so many factors motivate people to want to volunteer and help, but without proper training in all kinds of areas, sometimes that help isn't as useful as one would hope. We talk about the disaster that struck our own city of Tuscaloosa--the tornado of 2011--that took lives all over the state and literally brought our city to a screeching halt. Suzanne was here for that and she was able to apply all that she knew from her personal experiences as well as her research that helped her teach others about effective ways to contribute.  If you tune in, you'll also learn more about the reality show she thinks she'd be great at--but we aren't going to spoil it! We cover so much ground in today's episode, and we learn so much. Don't miss today's conversation with Dr. Suzanne Horsley! 

To follow her department on Twitter: @BamaAPR

To follow us on Twitter: @ICIRAlabama