Research
My research focuses on how media may affect health attitudes and behaviors. Through an ongoing research program, I aim to explore multiple variables articulating the process by which media, whether campaigns, news, or entertainment programs, can have an impact on individuals, groups, and societies at large. In particular, I am interested in how public health organizations produce and disseminate their messages and what the potential impacts of such messages are. For my dissertation, I used social network analysis and hierarchical linear modeling to examine social norms in work groups around the issue of H1N1 influenza.
I am currently working with Sheila Murphy, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, and colleagues at USC on two NCI grants examining cervical cancer disparities and campaigns.
I have worked with three research teams at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The links below provide more information on the projects:
Additionally, I have consulted on content analysis projects for the USC Center for Public Diplomacy relating to the Alhurra broadcast station and the United Nations Messenger of Peace Program. I recently completed a research project in conjunction with the Norman Lear Center - Office of Hollywood, Health, & Society and other colleagues at Annenberg on the use of domestic primetime television for entertainment education.
