What's New:

The Bloomsburg University Xi Omega chapter of Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Honor Society, has been named the 2019 Chapter of the Year by the National Communication Association.

Featured Student

Sydney Rimmer

My name is Sydney Rimmer, and I am currently a senior at Bloomsburg, double majoring in Communication Studies with a Leadership and Public Advocacy focus and Political Science with a Legal Studies focus, as well as a minor in Public Relations. This summer, I am beyond grateful to have participated in an internship at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in the Senate Republicans Communications Office, as it was an incredibly fulfilling experience.
The office had a group of employees designated to each area of communications. There were teams of employees for areas such as speech writing, webmasters, photography, film, social media, and others. I got to shadow and help complete assignments in each of these areas, and gain an appreciation for the importance of each specialty. This offered a unique opportunity to understand “a day in the life” of the employees in this office and their responsibilities, and it also gave me an opportunity to meet people outside of the office, and experience things many other people will never experience. Seeing the behind the scenes of these events was so interesting.
The brunt of my work was done in June, as that is when the Senate is in session and the budget is being passed. Once the budget passed, July slowed down and there were significantly less events occurring, therefore less events for me to shadow, as the Senators stay in their district offices as opposed to coming to the Capitol. This gave me an accurate representation of the job, both the hustle and bustle of June, and the relaxed nature of July.
This internship has also proven to be a vital step in my networking. I received a follow up luncheon with the lobbying firm who encouraged me to intern in the Capitol, as well as encouragement from my office to look for a career in the Senate when I graduate. I got a chance to work with several Senators, thereby networking with them, which was a personal goal of mine for the summer. Another strength of my internship was the bond I formed with my coworkers. I was the only intern in my office, however I fit in perfectly with the full time employees despite us being in all different walks of life. I had anticipated forming relationships with my coworkers, but I had not foreseen how close I would grow with them. I am so blessed to now call many of my coworkers my friends. We have spent time together in both the office, as well as our free time, and I am elated they have taken me under their wings, and I still stay in touch with many of them despite being many months post internship.
My internship was a wonderful experience, and truly turned out to be a highlight of my summer. I am able to walk away from this office confident that I completed assignments efficiently and to the best of my ability. I have grown from this experience, and I am excited to see how the things I have learned and the connections I have made will apply to my future endeavors.

Department News:

Summer 2018 News

Awards:
In May, Dr. Chernichky-Karcher was the recipient of the 2018 International Communication Association Interpersonal Communication Division’s Outstanding Dissertation Award. The division competitively selects one dissertation each year that represents outstanding scholarship. Dr. Karcher’s dissertation explored how families battling parental cancer communicated and how this communication impacted family coping throughout the cancer trajectory.

Publications:
Anderson, L.B., Morgan, M., Shorter, S. & Britt, B. C. (2018). Working with a difficult client: Examining the tensions experienced while developing the Halo Syndrome campaign. In J. Saint John, III, D. K. Martinelli, R. S. Pritchard, & C. Spaulding (Eds.), Cases in Public Relations Strategy (pp. 114-118). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Anderson, L.B., Morgan, M., Shorter, S. & Britt, B. C. (2018). A strategic view: The halo campaign and building a positive client relationship. In J. Saint John, III, D. K. Martinelli, R. S. Pritchard, & C. Spaulding (Eds.), Cases in Public Relations Strategy (p. 119). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hopeck, P. (2018). Care providers' integration of family requests in end-of-life communication: Understanding what to do and why to do it. Health Communication, 33, 1277-1283. doi:10.1080/10410236.2017.1351273

Huang, S. (2018). Beyond the sex-love-marriage alignment: Xinghun among queer people in mainland China. In M. Yarbrough, J. N. DeFilippis, & A. Jones (Eds.), Queer families and relationships after marriage equality. New York, NY: Routledge.

Kuang, K. (2018). Reconceptualizing uncertainty in illness: Commonalities and variations in the literature, and the multidimensional nature of uncertainty. Annals of the International Communication Association, 42, 181-206. doi: 10.1080/23808985.2018.1492354

Kuang, K. (2018). A “fast and frugal approach” to risk judgment and decision making and its implications for natural disasters. In V. Fletcher & J. Lovejoy (Eds.), The really big one: Risk, health, and environmental communication (pp. 121-145). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Petre, E. A. (2018). Encouraging identification with the larger campaign narrative: Grassroots organizing texts in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Communication Quarterly, 66, 283-307, doi: 10.1080/01463373.2017.1378242

Conference Presentations:
Green, R. J. & Hopeck, P. (2018, May). The micropolitics of voice: How Brittany Maynard rejuvenated the Death with Dignity Movement. Interactive poster presented at the 68th annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Prague, Czechia.

King, M. E. (2018, July). Maternal experiences of unplanned pregnancy: Relationship change, relational uncertainty, and partner interference. A paper presented at the meeting of the International Association for Relationship Research, Fort Collins, CO.

Kuang, K. (2018, May). The many forms and meanings of illness uncertainty: Processes of problematic integration among patients with chronic illness conditions. Paper presented at the 68th International Communication Association’s Annual Convention, Prague, Czech Republic.

Kuang, K., & Gettings, P. E. (2018, May). Testing the theory of motivated information management across three contexts: Theoretical and practical implications. Paper presented at the 68th International Communication Association’s Annual Convention, Prague, Czech Republic.

Featured Talks:

Drs. Skye Chernichky-Karcher, Paula Hopeck, and Kai Kuang were invited to present their research programs at the Conference of Academy at Bloomsburg University. The presentations were well received among scholars from different disciplines on campus.

Dr. Shuzhen Huang presented the featured talk at School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing University (China) on June 4th. Her talk was titled “Negotiating Performances of ‘Real’ Marriage in Chinese Queer Xinghun.”

Dr. Shuzhen Huang presented the talk on Chinese queer marriage for Ph.D. students at School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University (China) on June 5th.