The fourth annual Media and Information Studies (MIS) Ph.D. Research Symposium brought together 12 Ph.D. students last Friday, Nov. 6, to present their most resent work in front of a diverse panel of judges.
The event awards an overall prize and a junior prize based on the quality of research and the quality of presentation. This year, the overall prize was split between two students: Syed Ali Hussain and Wonkyung Kim. The junior prize was awarded to Ruth Shillair.
“It’s good to share my research with colleagues and the symposium allowed me to make contacts with other professors and researchers,” Hussain said.
The panel of judges included Nora Rifon, Professor in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations; Casey O’Donnell, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Information; and Bruno Takahashi, Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the School of Journalism and Department of Communication.
The MIS Ph.D. Research Symposium is a joint project between Associate Professor Rick Wash and Assistant Professor and AT&T Scholar Emilee Rader and supported by the MIS Ph.D. program and AT&T Endowment.
“I often present my research at specialized forums where everyone is interested in a specific topic or discipline,” “The MIS Ph.D. Symposium was a unique opportunity to share my research to a group of scholars with a diverse range of interests,” Shillair said. “And it was a wonderful opportunity to hear what my peers are doing in their research projects.”
Overall Prize Winners
Syed Ali Hussain, “Historical Thinking of Communication Theories and Concepts”
“Nostalgia allows people to recreate memories of better times in their mind. Advertisers use this to evoke emotion in people, to help sell their products. My study looks at how we can use nostalgia in health communication,” Hussain said. “Health communication is not selling a product, it’s selling a behavior. I looked at how using nostalgia could help send a more positive message to smokers about quitting. I created a commercial and tested it on smokers.”
Wonkyung Kim, “Understanding the Impact of Negative Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Consumer: The Role of Emotional Intensity and Tie-Strength”
“We encounter a lot of complaints in social media, from lots of different sources. Sometimes we see complaint tweets from mere acquaintances or total strangers, and sometimes from very close friends,” Kim said. “My study investigated the role of the emotional intensity of negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and the tie strength between source and receiver, on consumer response to eWOM.
“I found a very interesting result that an angry tweet did not have a powerful impact unless it was from a close friend.”
Junior Prize Winner
Ruth Shillair, “Primed for Taking Risks: Previous Experiences with Online Security Breaches and Attitudinal Differences”
“Cyber safety is an area of increasing importance, and many individuals have personally experienced the results of a cyber threat,” said Shillair, Media and Information Ph.D. student. “My study looked at how experiences with a wide variety of online threats affected users attitudes and beliefs in protecting themselves. My hope is that we can design communication that will teach and motivate individuals to have good digital hygiene habits.”
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