Political/Mass Communication

Faculty in the OU Department of Communication pursue the study of political and mass communication with a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches. The department is also the home of the Political Communication Center, which holds the world’s largest archive of political advertising. Mass communication research typically concerns the production, content, audiences, reception, and/or effects of messages transmitted via the mass media. Because contemporary politics is largely (but not exclusively) mass mediated, political communication research often addresses these same concerns with regard to political campaigns, issues, ideology, and power.

Comm 5363 Communication and Technology
Comm 5383 Survey of Political Communication
Comm 5553 Persuasive Communication Campaigns
Comm 6373 Seminar in Mass Communication
Comm 6463 Media and Political Behavior
Comm 6473 Communication and Public Opinion
Comm 6483 Media and Civic Life
Comm 6023 Communication Research Task Groups
Comm 6960 Directed Readings

Lindsey Meeks
Pat Meirick
Jill Edy
Justin Reedy
Norman Wong

Hammonds, Kyle. (2023). An American knightmare: Joker, fandom, and malicious meaning-making with movies.

Hubbard, Caleb. (2023). Fanship scale development.

Shpeer, Maria. (2023). Evaluations of intersectional identity traits and their effects on voting behaviors in U.S. congressional elections.

Cortes Quantip, Reinaldo. (2022). Mythologies of the migrant caravans: Religion, ideology, and migration.

Hurst, Elizabeth H. (2021). Navigating political identity and identity politics in the big red dot: political conversations among rural Oklahoman college students.

Maiorca, Cheryl. (2019).For every action there is a story: Narratives of Oklahoma teachers about the 2018 walkout and teaching In Oklahoma. 

Adams, T. & Edy, J. A. (2021) How the past becomes the past: The temporal positioning of collective memory. British Journal of Sociology. Online advance: doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12881

Anderson, C., & Reedy, J. (2019) Compensatory Control Theory and Public Opinion on Nuclear Policy: Developing an Experimental Measure in an Applied Environmental Context. Frontiers in Communication (Science and Environmental Communication). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00027/full

Austin, J.T. & Edy, J.A. (online advance). Narrating the past on fairer terms: Approaches to building multicultural public memory. Critical Studies in Media Communication. doi: 10.1080/15295036.2022.2049616

Austin, J. A., Wong, N., & Owens, A. (2022). The hashtag heard around the world: Social media users’perceptions and responses to the #MeToo hashtag. Atlantic Journal of Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2022.2083136

Blacksher, E., Hiratsuka, V. Y., Blanchard, J. W., Lund, J. R., Reedy, J., Beans, J. A., Saunkeah, B., Peercy, M., Byars, C., Yracheta, J., Tsosie, K. S., O’Leary, M., Ducheneaux, G., & Spicer, P. G. (2021). Deliberations with American Indian and Alaska Native People about the Ethics of Genomics: An Adapted Model of Deliberation Used with Three Tribal Communities in the United States. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 12:3, 164-178. https://doi.org/10.1080/23294515.2021.1925775

Edy, J. A. (2021). Let’s find a usable past. In Hart, R. P. (Ed.) Fixing American Politics: Civic Priorities for the Media Age. New York: Routledge.

Edy, J.A. & Austin, J.T. (2022). Generating more inclusive public memory: The limits and possibilities of news archives. Media, Culture & Society 44(4), 802-819. doi:10.1177/01634437211065700

Edy, J. A. & Castleberry, G. (2021). The political economy of global memory: Collective memory of global conflict in Captain America: The First Avenger. Memory Studies 14(2): 521-534. doi: 10.1177/1750698019843957

Edy, J. A. & Meirick, P. C. (2019). Consensus without focus: Why news agenda setting expands the public agenda. The Agenda Setting Journal, 3 (2), 108-122.  https://doi.org/10.1075/asj.18026.mei

Edy, J. A. & Meirick, P.C. (2018). The Fragmenting public agenda: Diversity and volatility in responses to the ‘most important problem’ question.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(4), 661-685. ​doi:10.1093/poq/nfy043

Fischer, K., Reedy, J., Piercy, C., & Thapaliya, R. (2022). A Typology of Reasoning in Deliberative Processes: A Study of the 2010 Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review. Journal of Deliberative Democracy, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.951

Gastil, J., Ársælsson, K.M., Knobloch, K.R., Brinker, D.L., Richards, R.C. Jr., Reedy. J., Burkhalter, S.M. (2023). Deliberative panels as a source of public knowledge: A large-sample test of the Citizens’ Initiative Review. PLoS ONE, 18(7), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288188

Gastil, J., Knobloch, K., Reedy, J., Henkels, M., & Cramer, K. (2018). Assessing the electoral impact of the 2010 Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review. American Politics Research, 46, 534-563. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1532673X17715620

Gastil, J., Reedy, J., Wells, C. (2018). Knowledge distortion in direct democracy: A longitudinal study of biased empirical beliefs on statewide ballot measures. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 30, 540–560. https://academic.oup.com/ijpor/article/doi/10.1093/ijpor/edx012/4210390/Knowledge-Distortion-in-Direct-Democracy-A

Gastil, J., Anderson, C., Black, L., Burkhalter, S., Han, S-H., Reedy, J., Richards, R., Rountree, J. (2022). Convening a Minipublic During a Pandemic: A Case Study of the Oregon Citizens’ Assembly Pilot on COVID-19 Recovery. Digital Government: Research & Practice. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3524064 (Invited)

Gonzalez O'Brien, B., Hurst, E., Reedy, J., & Collingwood, L. (2019). Framing Refuge: Partisanship, Crime, and Media Coverage of Sanctuary Cities. Mass Communication & Society, 22, 756-778. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15205436.2019.1685106

Hiratsuka, V., Beans, J., Blanchard, J., Reedy, J., Blacksher, E., Lund, J., Spicer, P. (2020) An Alaska Native community’s views on genetic research, testing, and return of results: Results from a public deliberation. PLOS ONE. 15(3): e0229540.  https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229540

Hiratsuka, V., Beans, J., Reedy, J., Yracheta, J., Peercy, M., Saunkeah, B., Woodbury, R., O’Leary, M., Spicer, P. (2019). Fostering Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research in Tribal Communities: The Center for the Ethics of Indigenous Genomic Research. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, Online ahead of print. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1556264619872

Hurst, E.H., Trujillo-Falcón, J., Reedy, J., Anderson, C.* (2021). Citizen deliberation at South Carolina’s ‘Our Coastal Future Forum’: Talking through risk related to climate change. Journal of Risk Research, 25(6), 764-777. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13669877.2021.2020882

Kanihan, S. F., Meirick, P. C. & Segjin, C. M. (2020). Thinking, knowing, or thinking you know: The relationship between multiscreening and political learning. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. DOI: 10.1177/10776990209600

Lees, J., Banas, J. A., Linville, D., Meirick, P. C.,  & Warren, P.  (2023). The Spot the Troll Quiz game increases accuracy in discerning between real and inauthentic social media accounts. PNAS Nexus, 2 (4), pgad094. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad094

Lookadoo, K., Hubbard, C., Nisbett, G., & Wong, N. (2021). We’re all in this together: Celebrity influencer disclosures about COVID-19. Atlantic Journal of Communication. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2021.1936526.

Lookadoo, K. L., & Wong, N. C. H. (2019). “Hey guys, check this out!”: Investigating media figure-user relationships and celebrity endorsements on Twitter. Journal of Social Media in Society, 8(1), 178-210.

Massey, Z., Wong, N., & Barbati, J. (2021). Meeting the trans(parent): Test of parasocial contact with transgender characters on reducing stigma toward transgender people. Communication Studies, 72(2), 232-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2021.1876125.

Meeks, L. (2023). Promising a greener Paris: Anne Hidalgo’s framing of environmental issues in her mayoral campaigns. Environmental Communication, 17(6), 550-565. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2023.222656

Meeks, L. (2023). “Mask up. Pony up. Vote.” Examining university e-mails surrounding the 2020 U.S. elections. Communication and Democracy, 57(1), 119-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/27671127.2023.2179518

Meeks, L. (2023) Blue bird in a coal mine: How 2020 Democratic presidential candidates framed climate change on Twitter. Journal of Information Technology & Politics. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 20(2), 169-183. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2022.2069182

Meeks, L. (2022). When two become one? Examining Kamala Harris and Joe Biden’s campaign themes from primary to general election. Presidential Studies Quarterly, 52(2), 313-339. http://doi.org/10.1111/psq.12759 

Meeks, L. (2021). Conservatives and women. In Jarvis, S. (Ed.), Conservative political communication: How right wing media and messaging (re)made American politics. (Ch. 6, pp. 102-118). Routledge.

Meeks, L. (2020). Believing Black women. US Election Analysis 2020: Media, Voters and the Campaign. Report published by Centre for Politics and Media Research and the Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community at Bournemouth University, UK. https://www.electionanalysis.ws/us/president2020/section-2-voters/believing-black-women/

Meeks, L. (2020). Defining the enemy: How Donald Trump frames the news media. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(1), 211-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699019857676

Meeks, L. (2020). Undercovered, underinformed: Local news, local elections, and U.S. sheriffs. Journalism Studies, 21(12),1609-1626.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1781546

Meeks, L. (2019). Owning your message: Congressional candidates’ interactivity and issue ownership in mixed-gender campaigns. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 16(2), 187-202. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2019.1620149

Meeks, L. (2019). Voicing voters’ concerns? Examining 2018 mixed-gender Senate candidates’ issue agendas. In Moy, P. and Matheson, D. (Eds.), Voices: Exploring the shifting contours of communication. (Ch. 10, p. 177-200). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Meeks, L. (2018). Appealing to the 52%: Exploring Clinton and Trump’s appeals to women voters during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. International Journal of Communication, 12, 2527-2545. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8763/2377

Meeks, L. (2018). Questioning the president: Examining gender in the White House press corps. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 19(4), 519-535. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916669737

Meirick, P. C. (2023). News sources, partisanship, and political knowledge in  COVID-19 beliefs. American Behavioral Scientist, online first, April 2023. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642231164047

Meirick, P.C. (2022). Television news, political comedy, party, and political knowledge in global warming belief: Evidence from a large-scale panel survey. Science Communication, 44(4), 494-513. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470221119839

Meirick, P.C. & Franklyn, A.E.* (2022). Seeing and believing fake news: The interacting roles of news sources, partisanship, and education. International Journal of Communication, 16, 3379-3401. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18579/3824

Meirick, P.C. & Edy, J.A. (2022). Beyond polarization and priming: Public agenda diversity and trust in government. Social Science Quarterly, 103(4), 934-944. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13165

Meirick, P. C., G. S. Nisbett, K. J. Harrison, L. A. Harvell, M. D. Jefferson, T. Kim, & M. W. Pfau. (2018). To tell the truth: Ad watches and the accuracy, tone, and focus of political advertising. Political Communication, 35 (3), 450-69. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10584609.2017.1414089

Orr, R., Reedy, J., Livingston, D., Spicer, P. (2022). American Indian Genes in the Media: Representations of the Havasupai Indian Tribe in Their Case Against Arizona State University. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 45(2): 65–80. https://meridian.allenpress.com/aicrj/article-abstract/45/2/65/480944/American-Indian-Genes-in-the-Media-Representations

Reedy, J., Gonzalez O'Brien, B., Hurst, E. (2023). Pandemic Politics: Immigration, Framing, and Covid-19. Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 8(2), 246-266. https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2023.14

Reedy, J., Anderson, C., & Conte, P. (2021). Citizen deliberation as a correction: The role of deliberative mini-publics in addressing political misperceptions. In The Politics of Truth in Polarized America, Edited by David Barker & Elizabeth Suhay, Oxford University Press.

Reedy, J., Blanchard, J., Lund, J., Byers, C., Peercy, M., Saunkeah, B., Spicer, P., Blacksher, E. (2020). Deliberations about Genomic Research and Biobanks with Citizens of the Chickasaw Nation. Frontiers in Genetics, 11:466. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2020.00466/full  

Reedy, J., Orr, R., Spicer, P., Blanchard, J., Hiratsuka, V., Ketchum, T.S., Saunkeah, B., Wark, K., Woodbury, R.B. (2020). Deliberative Democracy and American Indian/Alaska Native Political Decision-making Practices. Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. 7:16. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-0506-4

Rountree, J., Anderson, C., Reedy, J., Nowlin, M. (2022). The Internal Dynamics of Scaling Up Deliberative Mini-Publics. Communication and the Public, 7(3), 146-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473221106025

Ruminski, E.L., Reedy, J., & Black, L.W. (2021) Communication for development through dialogue, deliberation and civic media: How deliberative democracy and civic capital support social justice. In Handbook of Communication and Development, Melkote, S.R. & Singhal, A. (Eds.) Edward Elgar.

Schmierbach, M., Andsager, J., Banning, S., Chung, M., Lyons, B., McLeod, D. M., Meirick, P. C., Pan, Z., Rojas, H., & Sun, Y.  (2023). Another point of view: Scholarly responses to the state of third-person research. Mass Communication and Society, 26(3), 359-383, DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2023.2193512

Spheer, M. & Meeks, L. “The stiletto in Putin’s side”: Analyzing Russian media coverage of the only female presidential candidate in 2018. International Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. Online Advance. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2021.1896023

Wong, N. C. H., Massey, Z., Barbati, J., Bessarabova, E., & Banas, J. A. (2022). Theorizing prejudice reduction via mediated intergroup contact: Extending the intergroup contact theory to media contexts. Journal of Media Psychology, 34(2), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000338  

Wyant, M.H., Hurst, E.H. & Reedy, J. (2020) Political Socialization of International Students: Public-Issue Discourse and Discussion on the College Campus, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 49:4, 372-393, DOI: 10.1080/17475759.2020.1785529