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Edward R. Murrow College of Communication

Murrow Center for Media and Health Promotion Research

 

The Edward R. Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University examines how individuals and health professionals use media most effectively to facilitate informed and healthy decisions. The Center facilitates multi-methodological communication science research across a full range of media platforms to examine how to improve quality of life and mitigate the effects of misinformation.

About the center

Mission: The Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research facilitates multi-methodological communication science research across a full range of media platforms to examine how to improve quality of life and mitigate effects of misinformation.

Specialties: Center faculty investigate how individuals use media sources, platforms and content in their decision making; evaluate the impact of health promotion campaigns; and examine how message design and platform delivery strategies facilitate informed and healthy communities.

Available methodologies: Virtual reality lab; psychophysiological measurements of attention and emotion; social network analysis; surveys; online, lab and field experiments; focus groups and in-depth interviews; mhealth-based interventions; content and message perception analysis.

We Are an Interdisciplinary Group of Scholars

The Murrow Center is comprised of faculty and students from Communication, Prevention Science, Human Development, and Nutrition. Center faculty are top-ranked nationally by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship for research on advertising effects, substance abuse prevention, and media literacy. Faculty are also ranked as members of a top 10 communication program for research focused on media and children, media and sexuality. Center faculty have also been awarded a number of federal, state, and private grants.

We Serve as A Research Training Center for Students

Our graduate students benefit from hands-on, mentored research training that prepares them to successfully perform in research-intensive academic or industry positions. Students regularly meet with Center faculty to gain insight on the research process. Through their participation in a variety of research projects, students gain research skills that have tangible value in academic and professional industries. Graduate students also often coauthor conference papers and refereed journal articles with expert faculty.

Our Research focus Areas

 

  • Media literacy (digital, information, health, news);
  • Substance abuse prevention (alcohol, tobacco, cannabis);
  • Sexual health and sexual assault prevention;
  • The role of media in civic and political engagement;
  • Nutrition promotion;
  • Uses and effects of digital and social media;
  • Environmental communication; and
  • The role of communication in well-being of underrepresented and marginalized groups.

 

Directors:

  • Erica Austin – Founding Director
  • Stacey J.T. Hust – Associate Director

Related Faculty:

  • Erica Austin
  • Paul Bolls
  • Porismita Borah
  • Amanda Boyd
  • Rebecca Cooney
  • Traci Gillig
  • Stacey Hust
  • Yoon Joo Lee
  • Yen-I Lee
  • Chelsea Newman
  • Somava Pande
  • Mina Park
  • Wei Peng
  • Jessica Willoughby
  • Kathleen Rodgers, Human Development
  • Bruce Austin, Department of Kinesiology and Educational Psychology, College of Education
  • Sterling McPherson, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

 

Contact our team

Murrow Center for Media & Health Promotion Research
Goertzen 250
PO Box 642520
Pullman WA 99164-2520
Email: murrow.center@wsu.edu

Center Office Graduate Assistants
Leti Couto | l.coutofazioalbuque@wsu.edu
Soojung Kang | soojung.kang@wsu.edu
Danielle Lee | kalai.lee@wsu.edu
Di Mu | di.mu@wsu.edu
Shawn Domgaard | shawn.domgaard@wsu.edu

Administration
Erica Austin (Founding Director) eaustin@wsu.edu 509-338-8840
Stacey Hust (Associate Director) sjhust@wsu.edu 509-335-3696