Communication Studies Newsletter—Sept. 2003
New Professor Joins Faculty
Joining our faculty this fall is Dr. Maria Brann. Maria earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from Purdue University. She recently received her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Kentucky. This last summer, she successfully defended her dissertation, titled “Assessing the Health Care Context in which Confidentiality Breaches Occur: Understanding the Effect of Illness, Relationships, and Strategies on Disclosure of Confidential Health Information.”
In her dissertation, Maria found that physicians often talk too much with family members about patients medical conditions. Many physicians are aware that they are not supposed to discuss patients conditions without the permission of the patients themselves, but physicians believe they are acting in the best interest of their patients, even if by disclosing confidential information, they are breaking the law.
Maria’s main areas of teaching and research involve health and interpersonal communication. Maria plans to continue to investigate the role of relatives in the health communication relationship between a physician and a patient. This spring on campus, Maria will be teaching a Graduate Seminar in Health Communication. Maria is also experienced in qualitative research and will be teaching a graduate course in qualitative research methods in the future.
Maria has published several articles in professional journals, including Communication Studies, Health Communication, and Health Care Analysis. She has also been very active in service for the National Communication Association and the Central States Communication Association.
Maria lives with her husband Matt and their dog Maris, who share her passion for the great outdoors.”I love outdoor activities, and West Virginia is a great place to go hiking and running.” Maria is also currently participating in classes involving kickboxing, self-defense, and yoga. “I am really glad to be at WVU. My colleagues are very friendly and helpful and have really made me feel at home.”
Welcome Maria, we are fortunate to have you as a member of our faculty.
Communication Students put their Skills to the Test in the Morgantown Community
Last spring, twelve students from Andrea Weber’s Presentational Speaking course decided to put their new found public speaking skills to the test. This group participated in a joint venture between Communication Studies and the WVU-After School for All Coalition Technical Assistance and Service Learning (TASL) project funded by the C.W. Benedum Foundation where they were asked to present information about their own interests and hobbies to elementary students in local after-school programs. Ms. Weber explained the goal of the project, “This opportunity provided Communication Studies students the chance to get involved with the community by exposing local elementary school kids to college life, while allowing our students to try out their newly developed public speaking skills.”
This select group of WVU students chose to present their final speech to this “real world” audience to gain presentational experience outside the classroom setting. After choosing a topic to introduce to the K-5 age groups, students practiced their speeches in class to receive feedback from their colleagues, instructor and TASL representatives before heading off to after school sites, including programs at the Shack Neighborhood House and Kaleidoscope Community Learning Center.
Speech topics ranged from WVU football, friendship, exercise, and chess to careers in Journalism and the Military. Regardless of the topic, most of the WVU students were surprised by the children’s reactions to their presentations. “The experience that I had with the children wasn’t what I expected because these children were well informed about the game of chess.this made me amend my speech some, but if I learned (anything) from this class it’s that you must adapt to your audience,” explained Ahmoad Ware of his presentation about chess to the North Elementary School Kaleidoscope Program. Adam Cumpston, a WVU sophomore, said, “I think that we used the skill of adapting to an audience that (was) taught in class none of us really did what we had planned on when we walked in the door.”
Despite the challenge, the reaction from the kids and administration was overwhelmingly positive. “I think (the) students did an awesome job with the difficult audience and faired well under stressful circumstances,” said Alexis Gainor, Program Assistant for the WVU Office of Service Learning and campus liaison with the TASL project. Donnie Sines, the TASL project’s agency liaison with the United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties was pleased with the audience response as well, “They did a good job of involving the students in their presentations and they did a good job answering questions that the kids had for them. They were a big hit with the kids.”
The WVU student participants seemed pleased with the outcome as well. One student, DaLynn Wright, taught the students how to Step?. Sarah Arias, a WVU Senior said of DaLynn’s presentation, “He even had the teacher trying to Step it shows how interesting his speech was and how you could relate the subject to someone of almost any age.”
According to Arias, “All in all I think everyone’s speeches went well and we were happy that (the kids) were interested. They were a fun group of kids and very willing to raise their hands to answer or ask questions and participate, which also made the speeches flow more smoothly. (WVU Students) in our group used some of the strategies (we learned in class) to grab and motivate our audience. We used personal stories and everyday examples to help relate what we were talking about to something our audience would know about and be interested in.”
Ware summarized his thoughts about this experience, “I would say I have a different outlook on speaking. The interaction that you have with your audience will definitely play a role in how they embrace your words and in some cases even your topic. I incorporated many things that I learned in class such as: repetition, humor, visual aids, associations, and my own personal anecdotes to establish (immediacy). Overall this was a great experience and it was well worth not going home (over Spring Break) to give some children a new outlook on an old game, and have fun and smile with them while doing so.”
Theses of 2002-2003 Master Students
This past school year, seven master students successfully completed and defended a thesis. Starting several years ago, West Virginia University started posting theses and dissertations on the library website so individuals within and outside the university would have better access to these documents. Below the seven students are listed, along with the title of each thesis and the thesis advisor.
Sara Banfield: The effect of teacher misbehaviors on teacher credibility and affect. (Advisor: Dr. Virginia Richmond)
Leeanne Bell: Instructors’ message variables and students’ learning orientation/grade orientation and affective learning (Advisor: Dr. Scott Myers)
Andy Dohanos: Fraternity and sorority member perceptions of homophily, supportive communication, and group behavior as a function of control expectancies. (Advisor: Dr. Theodore Avtgis)
Andy Merolla: The impact of past dating relationship solidarity on commitment, satisfaction, investment, and maintenance in current relationships. (Advisor: Dr. Keith Weber)
Marissa Rodgers: The influence of birth order on verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness. (Advisor: Dr. Scott Myers)
Abby Sopko: Communication apprehension and accuracy of decoding nonverbal signals: A replication and extension of Schroeder and Ketrow (1997). (Advisor: Dr. Matthew Martin)
Alicia Vandine: The effects of cancer on interpersonal relationships. (Advisor: Dr. Melanie Booth-Butterfield)
Conducting Applied Research while Potentially Saving Lives
Dr. Keith Weber and his students in COMM 401: Advanced Communication Research Methods have been working on answering the very practical and important question: how do you get individuals to consider being an organ donor? According to the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) group, there are over 80,000 people waiting for organ transplants. While people are often asked if they would like to be an organ donor when they renew their driver licenses, Dr. Weber and his students were interested in what type of messages would be most effecting in influencing people to commit to organ donation.
Dr. Weber and his students found that numerous myths surrounding organ donation appear to keep people from signing up as potential donors (e.g., that medical personnel would not attempt to save a severely injured person who is an organ donor). “My students agreed that we should work towards clarifying these myths.” Thus, they designed messages to eliminate objections based on the common myths.
In an experiment, individuals were exposed to one of several messages. Dr. Weber found that the most effective message for college students was a message that took a humorous approach. Over 40% of students actually signed a donor card after hearing the humorous message. “The least effective message was making an emotional appeal, or in other words, trying to make the individual feel guilty.”
Since this initial study, Dr. Weber has conducted another study involving organ donation. Dr. Matthew Martin, Chair of the Department, declared that “Dr. Weber’s research is very applied. This is an area of research where the findings of these studies can change people’s lives. These findings can possibly save some people’s lives. Besides being a great teacher and mentor to students, Dr. Weber is a do-gooder. He does good things.”
Although the study was labor intensive on the part of the students and Dr. Weber and required significant work outside of the classroom, both Dr. Weber and the students found the experience to be rewarding. “I gained an understanding of health communication and methods of conducting an experiment,” said Maren McNeill, a student in the class and now a WVU graduate. “We actually got people to sign their organ donor cards, so we saw an immediate response. It was an interesting class, and Keith is great. He is a really good teacher.”
International Students Get Help Adjusting to Culture Shock
At the beginning of each semester, international students who have recently arrived to the United States begin the exciting yet harrowing challenge of assimilating to a new environment. These students often begin classes with a limited knowledge of the English language, and a feeling of euphoria bordering on the edge of extreme culture shock. Most universities offer programs to help international students adjust to the sometimes-overwhelming new stimuli, as well as assist with capturing the numerous nuances of American culture and slang. One such program at WVU is the Intensive English Program (IEP).
Typically, the IEP at WVU has approximately 70 new international students that arrive each semester. To assist the IEP, students from the Department of Communication Studies’ intercultural communication class have been serving as conversation partners and unofficial tour guides for more than a decade. The partnerships help the international students to adjust to a different culture while allowing the American students to experience first hand the benefits and challenges of intercultural communication. The interdisciplinary affiliation is a win-win situation.
“My students love this part of the course,” states Michael Corrigan (Intercultural Communication Instructor). “They make a new friend from a far off land, do a good deed, and receive course credit. Only in America!”
The partnership began this semester with an introductory meeting (held on Friday, August 22) where the international students were introduced to their American conversation partners. The sight of a hundred students from all over the world interacting was inspiring.
“I was very impressed by the interactions going on between the American and IEP students at the Welcome Reception. Sometimes it can be difficult for them to get conversations started, but the large turnout and some icebreaking activities created by Ben Haymond, the Conversation Partner Coordinator, led to conversations that will continue through out the semester,” stated Helen Huntley, Director of IEP.
