Instructor of record
COM 102: Public Speaking in the Digital Age (Summer 2018)
COMM 101: Media and Society (Summer 2019)
Teaching Assistant
COMM 102, Public Speaking in the Digital Age (Fall 2017 – Spring 2019)
Alex is a PhD candidate (ABD) in Murrow College. Their research focusses on communicating science, health, and the environment. They are currently involved in research projects related to health and environmental communication among indigenous populations, and studies concerning misinformation and “fake science”. Their dissertation research investigates media dependency and public perceptions of, and information sharing about, artificial intelligence. Alex currently serves as instructor of record for senior-level classes Communicating Science and Technology, and Computer Mediated Communication.
They have worked as a science communicator for Robohub.org and The Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at Washington State University. For many years, Alex worked for the British Army and various police services in the United Kingdom before returning to higher education and obtaining a BSc (honors) in Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology from Lancaster University, England. They went on to obtain an MSc (distinction) in Science Communication from the University of the West of England where their thesis investigated the effects of communication science through narrative transportation. Alex is scheduled to graduate with their PhD in Spring 2022.
Education:
MSc (Distinction) in Science Communication, 2017
Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences
University of the West of England, UK
Thesis: Space for stories project: Transporting online millennials into the realm of space science
BSc (Honors) in Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, 2014
Department of Physics
Lancaster University, UK
Publications:
Kirkpatrick, Alex W. (invited, expected 2022). Media, misconceptions and the spread of fake science. In Faintuch MD, Joel. (Ed.), Fraud, misconduct and fake news in the academic, medical and social environment. Springer.
Kirkpatrick, Alex W., Park, Mina., Domgaard, Shawn., Zhao, Wenqing., Steinberg, Christina. & Hsu, Yingchai. (2021). Vaccine videos and information sharing: The effects of framing, evidence type and speaker expertise. Journal of Health Communication, 26 (9), pp. 608 – 617. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1983892
Kirkpatrick, Alex W. (2021). The spread of fake science: Lexical concreteness, proximity, misinformation sharing, and the moderating role of subjective knowledge. Public Understanding of Science, 30 (1), pp. 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520966165
Hmielowski, Jay D., Kirkpatrick, Alex W. & Boyd, Amanda D. (2020). Understanding public support for smart meters: Media attention, misperceptions, and knowledge. Journal of Risk Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1863844
Select Refereed Conference Presentations
Kirkpatrick, Alex W., Boyd, Amanda D., Pirkle, Catherine., Lemire Mélanie., Avard, Ellen., Ricard, Sylvie., Gauthier, Marie-J., Ayotte, Pierre & Furgal, Chris. (2021, December). Results of the evaluation of a communication campaign on mercury, country foods, and pregnancy among Inuit women in Nunavik, Quebec. Accepted to: ArcticNet Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting 2021. Virtual Event.
Kirkpatrick, Alex W., Hmieloski, Jay D. & Boyd, Amanda D. (2021, December). The indirect effects of episodic-thematic framing on information sharing about the economic threat of artificial intelligence. Accepted to: The Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Virtual Event.
Kirkpatrick, Alex W., Boyd, Amanda D. & Hmielowski, Jay D. (2021, August). Close Enough to Share? The Effect of Technology media-system dependency on proximity to the impacts of artificial intelligence, and online information sharing. The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 104th Annual Conference. Virtual Event.
Kirkpatrick, Alex W. (2020, December). The spread of false science: Lexical concreteness, proximity, misinformation sharing and the moderating role of subjective knowledge. The Society for Risk Analysis Annual Meeting. Virtual Event.
Kirkpatrick, Alex W. & Hmielowski, Jay D. (2020, August). The effect of advanced technology on jobs: Attention, income, worry, and support for a basic income. The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 103rd Annual Conference. Virtual Event.