Communications | Penn Today

A person sitting outside on a silver metal bench wearing a black and white skirt, a white shirt, and blue blazer. Plants are visible to the right and to the left.

Coding the emotions that anti-tobacco ads evoke

Sophomore Oulaya Louaddi and junior Gabriela Montes de Oca interned this summer with Annenberg’s Andy Tan, helping the research team design and test culturally appropriate anti-smoking campaigns for young women who identify as sexual minorities.

The Tucker Carlson fans who got vaxxed

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said shows like “Tucker Carlson Tonight” foster distrust in the COVID-19 vaccine by perpetuating viewers’ assumptions. “If you hear the word lie tied to Anthony Fauci, and Anthony Fauci now comes on in a completely different venue, the assumption is, you can’t trust Anthony Fauci,” she said.

Jennifer Aniston and other celebrities endorse vaccines. Experts say their pleas may not help

Damon Centola of the Annenberg School for Communication said high-profile celebrities are better at marketing products and raising awareness than convincing their followers to embrace more complex ideas. “The way we’re using social influence is a little outdated,” he said. “Giving some groups a vehicle for talking about it and supporting each other in the communities is key.”

empty street of a small town Main Street with a church on one side of the street.

In rural America, religious attendance reduces compassion regarding opioids

Rural areas—particularly those in Appalachian and Midwestern states—are hard hit by the opioid epidemic. However, many individuals in those same states do not support policies scientifically proven to help, like medically aided treatment and syringe exchanges.

Person making marginalia in a journal in front of a laptop with graphs on paper on the desk.

Women are undercited and men are overcited in communication

An analysis of citations in 14 communication journals found that men are overcited and women are undercited, especially in papers authored by men.

Glass door entrance of a cafe with signs indicating free Wifi, Open 24 hours, no dogs allowed.

How racial bias can limit internet access for people of color

A new study finds that the quality-of-life policing is used by powerful institutions and privileged people to keep those with less privilege, including people of color, from accessing resources like the internet.

Vaccine misinformation spreads to every kind of media

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said the spread of online misinformation has less to do with a particular platform’s features than distrust in key institutions like the CDC. “The credibility around some of these institutions has been called into questions in ways that's not helpful when we need to trust those institutions to give us information," she said.

How to turn the tide on vaccine hesitancy: Apply an algorithm that actually works

Damon Centola of the Annenberg School for Communication wrote an opinion piece about the best strategies for promoting COVID-19 vaccination. “It takes time to digest an idea with substance to it; it takes repeatedly seeing an idea successfully adopted by others for it to be accepted, take hold and become a norm, and that kind of messaging is most effective when an idea works its way from the outside in,” he said.

Want to go viral? Influencers won’t be much help if you’re trying to spread a complex idea

Damon Centola of the Annenberg School for Communication spoke about findings from his recent study showing that social influencers may be ineffective when it comes to changing people’s beliefs and behaviors. Rather, he said, “every network has a hidden social cluster in the outer edges that is perfectly poised to increase the spread of a new idea by several hundred percent.”

A black-and-white drawing of a head with lines signifying the person is speaking.

The intonation Black/biracial men use to speak about race

In a study of college-educated biracial men, ages 18 to 32, sociolinguist Nicole Holliday found that, when asked about race, this group frequently brought up law enforcement unprompted and discussed the subject using vocal tone more generally associated with white speakers.

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