June 19, 2024 • Jonathan McVerry

Ethics is not a game, but it can be. Page Center scholars Lewen Wei, University of New South Wales, and Nahyun Kim, Drexel University, are leading a study that will apply elements of gamification to ethics training. Their idea is to create a learning experience that teaches ethics in an engaging, informational and, yes, fun way. They are first-time Page Center scholars, but both researchers worked on Center projects as graduate students. Kim was the Page Center… More

June 12, 2024 • Jonathan McVerry

Two Page Center scholars from Michigan State University are leading a study that addresses a gap in disability-focused ethics training in the public relations industry. They will study ethical dimensions of accessibility and accommodation within the industry, making it both compliant in its rules, but also genuinely empathetic in its culture. First-time Page Center scholar Edward Timke and three-time Center scholar Chuqing Dong hope in-depth interviews and focus groups will help them set the stage for other fields… More

June 11, 2024 • Jonathan McVerry

For communication professionals, misinformation and disinformation are serious threats that can have long-lasting implications. Unfortunately, there is a critical gap in applying an ethical framework and a lack of training resources for handling false information. A team of scholars from the University of Alabama is conducting a study to identify ethical standards that will help practitioners prepare and react to the perils of (mis/dis)information. The researchers are two-time Page Center scholar Courtney Boman and first-time Center scholars Laura… More

May 22, 2024

By Weiting Tao, University of Miami and Yeunjae Lee, Colorado State University

In today’s environment, employee engagement and relationships with their organizations have become particularly fragile. Drastic changes to the workplace in the post pandemic world (e.g., teleworking, relocation, restructuring) have induced psychological stress on employees, leaving them in a vulnerable state.

This has made organizational care for employees a top priority of public relations practice. Meanwhile, global concerns around problematic organizational practices, exemplified by increasing sexual… More

April 26, 2024

By Juan Liu and Lingling Zhang, Towson University

In today’s polarized world, corporate sustainability has become more than just a buzzword; it has become an essential aspect of a corporation’s identity and success. As many corporations show an increasing commitment to a more sustainable behavior, media and public expectations about a corporation's sustainability efforts and operations have increased.

A business that pursues “sustainability” becomes, in the media’s eyes, a “green” company. There is as much media coverage… More

April 23, 2024

By Weiting Tao, University of Miami; Juliana Fernandes, University of Florida; and Yi Grace Ji, Boston University

In the current political and saturated media environment, people are constantly exposed to messages on controversial sociopolitical issues such as immigration, LGBTQ rights, climate change and racial tension.

These messages can appear in different formats such as a story describing humanistic aspects of an immigrant’s life (i.e., narrative format) or a report listing statistics about undocumented immigration (i.e., numeric format).… More