
Deanna SellnowUniversity of Central Florida | UCF
Deanna Sellnow
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (89)
During the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges at higher education institutions (HEIs) in managing public health crises were revealed globally. The literature on HEIs has focused on Western/Northern countries and lacks theoretically grounded studies of internal instructional risk communication. This article reports the results of interviews with HEI comm...
Risk communication is a keystone in crisis prevention and mitigation. For that purpose, many institutions worldwide have the task of translating scientific risk information into actionable messages for public safety. As a collaboration among international risk and crisis communication scholars and practitioners, we sought to identify what risk comm...
The IDEA Model: A best practice for data-driven strategic risk and crisis communication
Professors of Strategic Communication Dr. Deanna D. Sellnow and Dr. Timothy L. Sellnow explore strategic risk and crisis communication using the IDEA Model, a theoretically grounded tool for effective communication. Nearly four decades have gone by since Beck (1...
As COVID-19 raged through the United States, Americans were inundated with messages from multiple and competing sources, some based on political ideologies, fueled by misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation via cable and social media. This study uses the IDEA model for effective instructional risk and crisis communication to examine the...
When industries fail to address warnings adequately, risk situations may manifest into crises. Although the U.S. swine industry planned thoroughly for potential infectious disease outbreaks among the animal population, COVID-19 highlighted a planning gap: What happens if the humans working to keep the industry operational can no longer work? This o...
This study analyzed the escalation of catastrophic mudslides in the Bududa District of Uganda in Africa as an instructional communication failure. The study applied the IDEA model for risk and crisis communication to the concerns expressed in interviews with residents who survived mudslides in three villages. The IDEA model focuses on internalizati...
Background
Effective biosecurity communication of transmission risks and associated protective behaviors can reduce the impacts of infectious diseases in US animal agriculture. Yet, more than 1/5 of animal production workers speak a language other than English at home, and more than 40 percent are less than fluent in English. Communicating with the...
One Health is a framework focusing on the dynamic intersections between humans, animals, and ecosystems regarding health systems and practices. As human decisions and actions are the locus of One Health challenges, it is critical to understand how people perceive and act on these connections. Fundamentally, the literature in this area is based in t...
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues worldwide, it has become increasingly clear that effective communication of disease transmission risks associated with protective behaviors is essential, and that communication tactics are not ubiquitously and homogenously understood. Analogous to Covid-19, communicable diseases in the hog industry result in milli...
Instructional communication is a vital component of the risk communication process. Without adequate instruction, individuals are less likely to understand, value, and follow guidelines for protecting themselves and their loved ones. The IDEA model (internalization, distribution, explanation, and action), applied successfully in crisis communicatio...
Guided by the IDEA model, this pilot study analyzes the perceptions about coronavirus (COVID-19) messages created to be distributed to the Latinx community in the United States. This study has been conducted to test the research questions proposed and the instruments so a second study can be executed based on Latinx populations in Florida communiti...
Animal disease costs the livestock industries billions of dollars annually. These costs can be reduced using effective biosecurity. However, costs of biosecurity are steep and benefits must be weighed against the uncertain infection risks. Much effort has gone into determining efficacy of different biosecurity tactics and strategies. Unfortunately,...
Technological advancements in education have turned the idea of machines as teachers into a reality. To better understand this phenomenon, the present study explores how college students develop expectations (or anticipations) about a machine teacher, particularly an AI teaching assistant. Specifically, the study examines whether students’ previous...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Integrated Marketing Communications in Risk and Crisis Contexts is part of the Lexington Books Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) series. The authors present a culture centered model for examining risk and crisis communication within the context of IMC to provide a more robust understanding of myriad cultural variables affecting the perceptio...
Disease and its consequences result in social and economic impacts to the US animal livestock industry, ranging from losses in human capital to economic costs in excess of a billion dollars annually. Impacts would dramatically escalate if a devastating disease like Foot and Mouth Disease or African Swine Fever virus were to emerge in the United Sta...
This study focuses on the critical role instructional communication plays in effective risk and crisis communication. More specifically, we examined efforts made by the United States’ swine industry to teach biosecurity practices in response to the African Swine Fever virus, a highly contagious novel disease. To do so, researchers interviewed 14 re...
Although a good deal of research has been published that compares the effectiveness of communication courses delivered in face-to-face and online formats, much less is known about the comparative effectiveness of fully online versus hybrid (a.k.a. blended, mixed mode) courses. Thus, this research project examined student perceptions of teaching eff...
In this paper, we first frame Sprague’s vision in the historical context from which it emerged. From there, we explore some contemporary concerns instructional communication researchers must grapple with, and then propose some practical next steps for envisioning instructional communication research as a platform for meaningful contributions throug...
Inconsistent, unclear, and inaccurate messages can dissuade audiences from engaging in appropriate crisis response behaviors. Thus, message convergence is both a priority and a persistent challenge for crisis communicators. In 2013, the Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv) caused substantial losses in the U.S. swine industry. This study examines...
Disease in U.S. animal livestock industries annually costs over a billion dollars. Adoption and compliance with biosecurity practices is necessary to successfully reduce the risk of disease introduction or spread. Yet, a variety of human behaviors, such as the urge to minimize time costs, may induce non-compliance with biosecurity practices. Utiliz...
Students rarely question the relevance of most communication courses. For example, most students realize that courses focused on improving public speaking and interpersonal skills will benefit them personally and professionally after graduation. Convincing them that a rhetorical theory and criticism course is equally empowering can be a bit more ch...
Prior to the 2009 L’Aquila event, earthquake forecasting and early warning research focused specifically on earthquakes as the crisis events. Although this is still true, the manslaughter convictions of six earthquake scientists and one public official for failed risk communication in 2009 served as a catalyst for expanding these goals to also inte...
Emergency managers are very often the key spokespersons charged with instructing people to take appropriate self-protective actions during natural disasters and other extreme events. Doing so successfully poses unique challenges including, for instance, convincing people to pay attention, translating complex information intelligibly to non-scientif...
Communicating to publics at risk can be challenging for spokespersons during crises. Knowing what content to include in such messages can be instrumental in achieving effective behavioural results among disparate publics and may differ across cultures. Whereas the IDEA model has demonstrated itself to be an effective framework for designing instruc...
The uncertainty inherent in crises can create a narrative space that is often filled by multiple interpretations about both what is happening and what steps should be taken to resolve the crisis. As more information becomes known, these competing crisis narratives gradually merge into a dominant narrative about the crisis, lessons learned from it,...
This study presents the IDEA (internalization, distribution, explanation, action) model as an easy-to-use and situationally generalizable framework for quickly developing effective messages instructing people on how to protect themselves before and during high-risk events, crises, disasters, and other emergencies. The model consists of four element...
The scientific community of earthquake experts has long grappled with how to communicate earthquake probabilities successfully to non-scientific publics. Perhaps most central to their concern is the widely held belief that scientists can actually predict earthquakes when, in fact, they cannot. The potential consequences of this miscommunication pro...
Communication Perspectives on Popular Culture brings together communication experts with diverse backgrounds, from interpersonal communication, business and organizational communication, mass communication, media studies, narrative, rhetoric, gender studies, autoethnography, popular culture studies, and journalism. The contributors tackle such topi...
With the increasing popularity of online learning in higher education comes a need to examine students’ perceptions about classroom climate in these environments. This two-part study proposes the online learning climate scale (OLCS) for doing so. Informed by both instructional communication and education, the scale consists of several variables rel...
The bulk of instructional communication research to date examines communication among teachers and students in conventional classroom contexts. Although past and present research is prolific and informative, it is also somewhat limiting. With a specific unifying focus on affective, cognitive, and behavioral learning as outcome variables, we begin t...
Social media are quickly becoming the channel of choice for disseminating emergency warning messages. However, relatively little data-driven research exists to inform effective message design when using these media. The present study addresses that void by examining terse health-related warning messages sent by public safety agencies over Twitter d...
Much research has informed the development of a valuable series of sender-focused best practices for effective crisis communication. Relatively little crisis communication research, however, focuses on receiver-focused best practices as related to eliciting appropriate actions before, during and after crisis events. Because effective instructional...
This study explored the responses of receivers of risk messages that included all elements of the Internalization-Distribution-Explanation-Action (IDEA) learning cycle model to determine if culture, sex, and socioeconomic status had any impact on receptivity and behavioral intention. Using a pre-and post-measures experimental design, 746 participan...
Drawing on past pedagogical and scholarly lines of inquiry, this article advances—in a dialogic form—several questions for future research and practice in areas of communication, teaching, and learning. The dialogic form of this article offers a metamessage, inviting colleagues to consider creative approaches to inquiry and collaboration in the 21s...
This study examines the utility of service-learning pedagogy in the general education basic communication course to meet service-learning outcomes, with an emphasis on civic engagement. Results of the data suggest that students in both a one-time service site and multiple-site condition indicated that the service experience enhanced three of the fo...
This study employs instructional communication and crisis communication theoretical frameworks to experimentally examine messages tailored to learning style preferences to determine their effect on receivers’ perceived efficacy to take self-protective measures during a crisis event. In the first phase of the study, participants (N=254) viewed manip...
This study employs instructional communication and crisis communication
theoretical frameworks to experimentally examine messages tailored to learning style
preferences to determine their effect on receivers’ perceived efficacy to take self-protective
measures during a crisis event. In the first phase of the study, participants (N=254)
viewed manip...
This article explores the nature of instructional communication in responding to crisis situations. Through the lens of chaos theory, the relevance of instructional messages in restoring order is established. This perspective is further advanced through an explanation of how various learning styles impact the receptivity of various instructional me...
In 1989, the National Research Council affirmed for the scientific community the long-standing mantra of many communication scholars: risk communication can and should function as a dialogue among organizations, government agencies, and all relevant stakeholders. While this dialogue is certainly relevant to all forms of risk, crisis situations crea...
Computer‐mediated communication pervades society today. Higher education is no exception. Recently in the USA, a debate has emerged regarding online administration of student ratings of instruction (SROIs). Since these end‐of‐semester messages offered by students are used to influence merit, promotion and tenure decisions, the utility of administer...
This study extends the compliance-gaining literature by comparing the behavior alteration techniques (BATs) used by new Chinese and American teaching associates. Students in an American institution reported their perceptions of teacher compliance-gaining behaviors using items from the Kearney et al. (1984) and Lu (1997) instruments developed from C...
This study extends the teacher effectiveness, teacher power, and teacher socialization literature by examining compliance-gaining strategies used by new Chinese and new American teaching associates. The two groups of new teachers did not differ significantly overall with regard to the frequency of behavior alteration technique (BAT) use. Moreover,...
Technology supplements to college textbooks, such as self-guided quizzes and exercises available over the Internet, have become commonplace. The current study examined student perceptions regarding the utility of technology supplements that accompanied a public speaking fundamentals textbook. At semester's end, students reported the supplements to...
This PBL approach to the Public Speaking Fundamentals course was developed and assessed as part of Dr. Ahleldt's dissertation under the direction of Dr. SellnowObjective: The objectives are to foster critical thinking and teamwork skills, which result in more depth and breadth of content than is typically observed in beginning speakersCourse: Publi...
Previous research suggests that college students bring gender biases to their evaluations of male and female instructors. Increasingly, college oral communication classes are utilizing peer evaluation of student speeches. This study of 330 student evaluators at a Midwestern university examined gender bias in student peer evaluations of public speec...
–The illusion of life rhetorical perspective increases our understanding about how discursive linguistic symbols and non-discursive aesthetic symbols function together to communicate and persuade in didactic music. We argue that lyrics and music work together to offer messages comprised of both conceptual and emotional content through the construct...
This volume of an annual collection presents seven essays relating to instruction in the basic communication course. The essays are: "The Effects of Praise on Student Motivation in the Basic Communication Course" (B. Scott Titsworth); "The Relationship between a Required Self-Disclosure Speech and Public Speaking Anxiety: Considering Gender Equity"...
This essay examines the rhetorical strategies Mary Chapin Carpenter employs in her attempt to persuade listeners to reject hegemonic masculinity through song. “He Thinks He'll Keep Her” is used as a case study because it marks a turning point for female popular music artists and the messages they may espouse through their music. Three general impli...
This essay analyzes certain aspects of the music of Bruce Springsteen to determine the impact of rhetorical strategies of continuity and change on musical artists’ appeal over time. Three general observations emerged from this analysis. First, Bruce Springsteen's musical stories and styles have undergone several disjunctive shifts during the course...
This study examines the communicative potential of music void of lyrical content. Specifically, John Corigliano's Grammy award winning “Symphony No. 1” is analyzed to explicate its communicative value for the AIDS crisis. This essay contends that music void of lyrical content can serve as, or contribute to, an argument by functioning as a form of e...
Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Dakota, 1991. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 172-180). Microfiche. s
Questions
Question (1)
My student is seeking whether a coach's leadership style (via several likert-type questions) is related to (a) perceived communiation competence (likert-type questions) and (b) student athlete motivation to perform (several likert-type questions). What would be the best way to measure these relationships?