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Overview Faculty Courses Summary of Department Research Contact


Overview

The USC Annenberg School for Communication offers a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in communication with one track in interpersonal/health communication.   Students may simultaneously arrange to complete an MPH degree through the USC Keck School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine, Division of Health Behavior Research with a concentration in health communication.

The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California offers the  doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D) in communication, with a specialization in the interpersonal/health communication track.  Research opportunities and course offerings on health communication leverage our unique interwoven strengths in: (1) entertainment education communication for promoting health (2) cutting-edge game and interactive technologies for health promotion 3) theory and research involving persuasive targeting and tailoring of health messages and campaigns for social change; (4) research involving populations (as collaborators and research participants) from real-world at-risk communities; and (5) theory and research aimed at creating sustainable health communication interventions (e.g., involving the internet, interactive video, autonomous agents and games; community organized action, etc.).  Our faculty and students are engaged in interdisciplinary projects involving other departments and domains (e.g., engineering, cinema, psychology) and/or industry collaborators to create “cutting-edge” communication technologies and strategies for promoting health.

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Faculty
 


Faculty


Degree


Research


Teaching

Sandra J.  Ball-Rokeach

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication

PhD, University of Washington

Understanding health literacy and health disparities among diverse urban populations using multi-level/multi-method field analyses of new (i.e., internet) and traditional (i.e., interpersonal, mass media and community media) communication flows.

Mass Media Effects

Peter Clarke

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication; Professor Preventive Medicine

PhD, University of Minnesota

 

Research and community and social action for health promotion (Nutrition, Cancer Prevention).

Social Roles of Communication Media; Media in Social Service (Design and Evaluation of Campaigns); Health Communication; Patient-Provider Communication:

Interpersonal Experience,

Message Design, and Information Technology

 

Michael Cody

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication

PhD, Michigan State University

Entertainment Education & Health Promotion; Interpersonal social influence, campaigns, and power and compliance.

Persuasion (Communication, Values, Attitudes, & Behavior), Entertainment Education and Social Change (Global Entertainment Education)

Tess Boley Cruz

Assistant Professor of Research

Preventative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine

MPH, PhD, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 

Health communication issues in public health, tobacco control, and cultural factors in health behavior

Health Communication; Health Behavior, Gender & Minority Health Issues

Doe Mayer

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication & Mary Pickford Professor of Film and Television, School of Cinematic Arts; Fellow, Center for Excellence in Teaching, USC

M.A., University of Southern California

Social Marketing, Design/production of Communication Campaigns for health issues (e.g., HIV/AIDS Reproductive health); works with NGOs globally

 

International Health Communication; Social Marketing; Media in Social Service (Design and Evaluation of Campaigns)

 

Margaret McLaughlin

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication; Key investigator, USC’s NSF Integrated Media Systems Center.

 

PhD, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana

 

Design and evaluation of virtual environments for medical simulation (surgical training) and rehabilitation (e.g., functional recovery after stroke), Internet-based health information seeking by the elderly

I

Interpersonal Communication; Small Group Processes; Communication Technology for Health & Social Services

Lynn Miller

Professor, Annenberg School for Communication & Department of Psychology; Past Fellow, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, USC

PhD, University of Texas at Austin

Design/production & evaluation of virtual/game

environments that physically & affectively simulate “contexts of risk” for understanding, diagnosing,  predicting, and reducing real-life

risky decision-making, (e.g., HIV/AIDS; Cancer Prevention)

Using intelligent agents to simulate/model and personalize virtual interventions forhigh risk individuals from diverse populations.

Seminar in Health Communication; Interpersonal Communication; Virtual Agents for Health/Education Applications; Cognitive Approaches to Communication;

Sheila Murphy

Associate Professor

Annenberg School for Communication

PhD, University of Michigan

Decision-making (e.g., involving emotion, racial and gender stereotypes, and cultural norms and beliefs).  How health-related information is conveyed in primetime TV.

Audience Analysis; Communication, Values, Attitudes, & Behavior

Stephen Read

Professor

Department of Psychology

 

PhD, University of Texas at Austin

Causal reasoning and impression formation; interactive media in communication health interventions; developing neural networks and intelligent agents for education and interventions; coherence in belief systems. 

Social Cognition; Social Psychology

Ute Ritterfeld

Associate Research Professor

Annenberg School for Communication

PhD, Technical University of Berlin; Habilitation (Dr. phil. habil.), University of Magdeburg

Media usage and effects with special emphasis on entertainment–education and youth;

mental health, violence & aggression, first and second language learning, language impairments, parent-child-interaction

Supervision of Communication Health Projects; Media Portrayals of Mental Illness

Ken Sereno

Associate Professor

Annenberg School for Communication

Ph.D. , University of Washington

Persuasion and interpersonal communication.

Communication theory, persuasion and interpersonal communication

Thomas Valente

Associate Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine

Director, Master of Public Health Program

PhD, University of Southern California

 

Social Network Analysis; Understanding health-related behavior through mathematical and network models using empirical studies and computer simulations.

 

Program Evaluation, Social Network Analysis

 

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Courses

 

Health Communication Track Recommended  Electives

beyond General PhD requirements  (3 courses; 12 units)

COMM 504

Interpersonal Communication

COMM 510

Communication, Values, Attitudes and Behavior (meets  a requirement for MPH program at USC)

COMM 524

Small Group Processes

COMM 562

Cognitive Approaches to Communication (may substitute 620 on Creating Virtual Characters in Game Environments for Health/Education applications)

COMM 587

Audience Analysis (meets track or outside track requirements; meets a requirement for MPH program at USC)

COMM 620

Health Communication

COMM 620*

Communication Technology for Health & Social Services

COMM 625

Theory Construction in Communication

Other Electives

(May Meet PhD Track Requirements Above with Approval)

COMM 511*

Patient-Provider Communication: Interpersonal Experience, Message Design, and Information Technology (meets requirement in MPH program at USC)

COMM 520

Social Roles of Communication Media

COMM 581•

Media in the Social Services: Design and Evaluation of Campaigns (meets a requirement for MPH program at USC)                                                                          

COMM 583

Social Marketing and Entertainment Education

COMM 599•

Communication, Media, and Public Health

Health Communication PhD Track Electives outside of Track

 (at least 8 units—2 courses- from one other track):

One Example Sequence (two of the following):

COMM 575

Advocacy and Social Change in Entertainment and the Media (Media, Culture, & Community)

COMM 587

Audience Analysis (Media, Culture & Community)

COMM 618

Mass Media Effects

COMM 662

Video Games Research

          Health Communication Electives Outside ANSC

             (at least 8  units from one outside department; some possibilities listed)

Possibility 1: 2 courses (8 units) in Public Health Cognate

PM 526

Communication in Public Health

PM 536

Program Evaluation and Research

    PM 542

Social Network Analysis

Possibility 2: 2 courses (8 units) in Psychology

Psych 612

Seminar in Social Psychology: Social Cognition

Psych 512

Social Psychology

Psych 612

Seminar in Social Psychology: Emotion

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Grants involving Annenberg Faculty in the Interpersonal/Health Communication Track

Recent Past Grants

Mayer, D., Pillsbury, B. Women Connect!  Pacific Institute for Women’s Health. Support for health communication interventions with African women NGOs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

McLaughlin, M., Sprinks, M., Jordan-Marsh, M., Cody, M., Silverstein, M. Older Adults Technology Initiative. Borchardt Foundation.

Miller, L. C., Multiple HIV Prevention Options: Minimizing risk? When? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (Co-PIs: S.T. Murphy; P.R. Appleby); $2,094,292.

Murphy, S. T., Cody, M., & Beck, V. Television Monitoring Project, Centers for Disease Control & Prevention.

Ritterfeld, U, Entertaining Mental Health Communication, Sunnyland Trust.

Ritterfeld, U. & Vorderer, Entertaining Media and Language Acquisition in Normal and Impaired Children, German Science Foundation.

Current Grants

Clarke, P., Evans, S. H., Hovy, E. Fighting Obesity Using Message Tailored Recipes, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vitamin Settlement Fund of the State of California, and the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.

Clarke, P., P. Evans, S. H. From the  Wholesaler to the Hungry: Launching and Supporting Perishable Food Rescue, Kraft Foods, Inc.

Miller, L. C., Read, S. J., & Appleby, P. R. Virtual Sex: Real Risk Reduction for MSM, National Institutes for Allergy and Infections Disease (NIAID); (05/01/2003 - 04/30/2008); $3,649,146

Miller, L.C., Read, S.J., & Appleby, P. R. Virtual Sex: Real Risk Reduction for MSM, National Institutes for Allergy and Infections Disease (NIAID). Minority Supplement.

McLaughlin, M. Haptics Lab & Museum Project  Integrated Media Systems Center, USC.

Ritterfeld, U. Annenberg Studies on Computer Games. Annenberg Trust.

Interdisciplinary Grants involving Annenberg Faculty related to Health Communication/Interpersonal

Kaplan, M., Beck, V. Hollywood, Health, & Society.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute.

McNeill, T. H., New Directions in Stroke Neurorehabilitation National Center for Research Resources, NIH (09/28/04-07/31/2007);  $1,800,000 (Margaret McLaughlin Participating Scientist).

Zachary, W. (Chi-Systems), Personality Enabled Cognitive Architectures, US Air Force.   (4/04-3/07) $1,602,000  (Lynn Miller & Stephen Read, Participating Scientists).

Health Communication Publications/Presentations/Ongoing Projects (2004-present)

Publications

Appleby, P. R.,  Marks, G., Ayala, A., Miller, L.C., Murphy, S., & Mansergh, G. (2005).  Consideration of future consequences and unprotected anal intercourse among men who have sex with men.  Journal of Homosexuality, 50, 119-133.

Appleby, P.R., Godoy, C., Miller, L.C., & Read, S. J. (2007). Increasing healthy behavior through the use of interactive video technology.  In T. Edgar, S. M. Noar, V.S. Freimuth (Eds.). Communication perspectives for HIV/AIDS in the 21st century.  Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Cheong, P. H. & Wilkin, H. A. (2005). Digital divide(s) among Hispanic immigrants and internet connections for health information seeking. In M. Allen & M. Convalso (Eds.), Internet Research Annual, Vol. 2 (pp. 175-188). New York: Peter Lang.

Cheong, P. H., Wilkin, H. A. & Ball-Rokeach, S. J. (2004). Diagnosing the communication infrastructure in order to reach target audiences: A study of Hispanic communities in Los Angeles. In Whitten, P. & D. Cook (Eds.) Understanding health communications technologies: A case study approach (pp. 101-110). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Clarke, P., Evans, S. H., Shook, D., & Johnson, W. (2005). Information Seeking and Compliance in Planning for Critical Care: Community Based Health Outreach to Seniors about Advance Directives, Health Communication, 18(1),1-22.

Cody, M.J., Fernandes, S., & Wilkin, H. (2004). Entertainment-Education Programs of the BBC and BBC World Service Trust. In A. Singhal, M.J. Cody, E.M. Rogers and M. Sabido Eds., Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice (pp. 243-260). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Cody, M.J. & Sabido, M. (in press). Entertainment-Education. In Wolfgang Donsbach, Ed., The International Encyclopedia of Communication, Oxford, England: Blackwell Publishing.

Grunwald, T., Clark, D., Fisher, S., McLaughlin, M., Narayanan, S., & Piepol, D. (2004). Using Cognitive Task Analysis to Facilitate Collaboration in Development of Simulator to Accelerate Surgical Training.  Proceedings of  the 12th Annual Medicine Meets Virtual Reality Conference.

Jordan-Marsh, M., Cody, M.J., Silverstein, M., Chin, S.Y., & Garcia, R. (in press).

      SF-36 Health Survey: Issues in a trial for older immigrants. Research on Social Work Practice. Mayer, D. & Pillsbury, B., (2005). “Women Connect! Strengthening Communications to Meet Sexual and Reproductive Health Challenges,” Journal of Health Communication.

Kim, Y.-C & Ball-Rokeach, S. J. (2006). Civic engagement from a communication infrastructure perspective. Communication Theory, 16 (2): 173-197.

McLaughlin, M. L. (under contract).  Simulating the sense of touch in virtual environments:  Applications in the health sciences.  In  P. Messaris and L. Humphreys (Eds.),  Digital Media: Transformations in Human Communication.  Peter Lang Publishers.

Miller, L. C., & Read, S. J. (2005). Virtual Sex: Creating Environments for Reducing Risky Sex.  In S. Cohen, K. Portnoy, D. Rehberger, & C. Thorsen (Eds.). Virtual Decisions: Digital Simulations for Teaching Reasoning in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Mahway, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Miller, L.C., Murphy, S. T., Clark, L.F., Hamburger, M., & Moore, J. (2004)  Hierarchical Messages for Introducing Multiple HIV Prevention Options: Promise and Pitfalls. AIDS Education and Prevention, 16 (6); 509-525.

Miller, L.C., Pedersen, W.C., & Putcha-Bhagavatula, A.D. (2005).  Promiscuity in an evolved pair-bonding system: Mating within and outside the Pleistocene box.  Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 290-291.

Murphy, S. T., Wilkin, H. A., Cody, M. J. & Huang, G. C.  (in press). Health Messages in Primetime Television.  In Dale Kunkel, Amy Jordan, Jennifer Maganello and Martin Fishbein (Eds.) Media Messages and Public Health:  A Decisions Approach to Content. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Pillsbury B., Mayer, D., & Muadi Mukenge M, (2005).From T-Shirts to Weblinks: Building Communication Capacity with Women NGOs. In J. Jaquette and G. Sommerfield (Eds.). Institutions, Resources and Mobilization: Women and Gender Equity in Development,., Duke University Press.

Read, S. J., Miller, L. C., Appleby, P. R., Nwosu, M. E., Reynaldo, S., Lauren, A. & Putcha, A. (2006).  Socially Optimized Learning in a Virtual Environment: Reducing Risky Sexual Behavior Among Men Who Have Sex With Men. Human Communication Research 32 (1), 1-34. Ritterfeld, U., & Jin, S.-A. (in press). Fighting stigma attached to people suffering from mental illness using Entertainment-Education strategy. Journal of Health Psychology.

Rizzo, A., McLaughlin, M., Jung, Y., Peng, W., Yeh, S., Zhu, W., and USC/UT Consortium for Interdisciplinary Research  (to appear). Virtual Therapeutic Environments with Haptics: An Interdisciplinary Approach for Developing Post-Stroke Rehabilitation Systems. Proceedings CPSN'05 - The 2005 International Conference on Computers for People with Special Needs.  CSREA Press

Saul, J., Moore, J., Murphy, S. T., & Miller, L.C. (2004).  Relationship violence and women’s reactions to male- and female- controlled HIV prevention methods.  AIDS and Behavior, 8(2), 207-214.

Wilkin, H. A. & Ball-Rokeach, S. J. (2006). Reaching at risk groups: The importance of health storytelling in Los Angeles Latino media. Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism 7: 299-320.

Wilkin, H.A., Valente, T.W., Murphy, S.T., Cody, M.J., Huang, G., Beck, V., Carrasquillo, M. & Slan, L. (in press). The effects of a telenovelas storyline on breast cancer knowledge and behaviors among Hispanic/Latino audiences. Journal of Health Communication.

 

Sample of Health Communication Conference Presentations Involving USC Faculty/Students (2004-2007)

Appleby, P.R., Christensen, J., & Godoy, C. (2005) Planning, administrating, producing, and editing Interactive Video: The devil's in the details. In symposium (Chair: Lynn Miller) entitled, Designing Effective Interactive Video Interventions for Health Promotion: A Template of the Interdisciplinary Process, International Communication Association (New York City, May, 2005).

Appleby, P.R., Godoy, C.G, Miller, L.C., & Read, S.J. (2006). TV Spaces and Trade Offs: The Boundaries of Homogeneity in Homo-Erotic Encounters.  Panel discussion presented at the International Communication Association Conference, Dresden, Germany.

Ball-Rokeach, S. J. & Wilkin, H. A. (2006, February). Ethnic differences in health information seeking behavior: Methodological and applied issues. Paper presented at the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey Conference. Los Angeles, CA.

Christensen, J. L., Miller, L. C., Appleby, P. R., Corsbie-Massay, C., Godoy, C. G., Read, S. J. (To Be Presented: May, 2007).  Negative Affect Encoding Following Sexually Risky Decision-Making: Impact on Subsequent Sexual Risk-Taking Among Young MSM. International Communication Association. San Francisco, CA.

Christensen, J. L., Appleby, P. R., & Godoy, C. G. (June, 2006). “Towards a Coherence of Multiple Identities.” Creating Safe Gay and Bisexual Media Spaces for Men. International Communication Association. Panel Session. Dresden, Germany.

Christensen, J. , Godoy, C., Appleby, P. R., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A,  Ovalle, M.  Miller, L. C. , and Read, S.J. Beginning the IAV Process: Laying the Groundwork Before Production. In symposium (Chair: Lynn Miller) entitled, Designing Effective Interactive Video Interventions for Health Promotion: A Template of the Interdisciplinary Process, International Communication Association (New York City, May, 2005).

Evans, S. H., Clarke, P., Slater, S., Hovy, E., & Philpot, A. (2006).  Fighting Obesity among Low-Income People Using Message-Tailored Recipes about Fresh Produce.  USDA/CSREES National Research Intiative Conference on Human Nutrition and Obesity, Houston, TX.

Godoy, C. G., Christensen, J. L., & Appleby, P. R. (June, 2006). “Future Directions: Improving Gay and Bisexual Male Identities Through Media.” Creating Safe Gay and Bisexual Media Spaces for Men. International Communication Association. Panel Session. Dresden, Germany.

Godoy, C., Appleby, P.R.,  Miller, L.C. &  Read, S.J.(2006) Interactive video (IAV) as an unobtrusive measure of high risk taking among MSM populations uncomfortable with direct discussions of their sexual behavior.  Poster presented at the XVI International AIDS Conference, Toronto, Canada. Miller, L. C., Read, S.J.,, Appleby, P. R., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A. Virtual learning in HIV-Prevention Interventions.  Paper presented in  a session entitled, Top papers in applied interpersonal. International Communication Association (New Orleans, May, 2004).

Miller, L.C., Read, S., and Appleby, P. R. Methodological Challenges and New Opportunities Afforded: Innovative Approaches to Evaluating the Impact of the IAV.  In symposium (Chair: Lynn Miller) entitled, Designing Effective Interactive Video Interventions for Health Promotion: A Template of the Interdisciplinary Process, International Communication Association (New York City, May, 2005).

Miller, L. C., Appleby, P. R., & Read, S. J. (2006). From Theory to Prototype to Present.  In L.  C. Miller (Chair). Creating “Safe” Gay and Bisexual Media Spaces for Men.  Symposium at the Annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Dresden, Germany. 

Miller, L.C. Virtual Pleasures and Pains: The Interdisciplinary Opportunities and Threats Before Us. Presentation in S. J. Read & L. C. Miller (Chairs). Computational Social Psychology: Constructing Socially Intelligent Agents to develop and test theory in Personality and Social Psychology. Symposium at the annual meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, Philadelphia, PA.

Nwosu, M., Miller, L. C., and Read, S. J. Why Interactive Video? Evaluating the Cost/Benefit Tradeoff for HIV Prevention Communication Interventions In symposium (Chair: Lynn Miller) entitled, Designing Effective Interactive Video Interventions for Health Promotion: A Template of the Interdisciplinary Process, International Communication Association (New York City, May, 2005).

Ritterfeld, U., Vorderer, P., Klimmt, C., & Niebuhr, S. (2004, August). Entertaining media and language learning in 3 and 4 yrs. old. Edmonton: Internationale Gesellschaft für Empirische Literaturwissenschaft IGEL.

Shumate, M. D., Miller, L. C., Albright, J. M., Appleby, P. R., Which change begets change? Modeling risky behavior change as a result of an HIV prevention intervention. Paper presented in a session entitled, HIV-AIDS Prevention and Education.  International Communicatioin Association (new Orleans, May, 2004).

Weber, R., Ritterfeld, U., & Mathiak, K. (2004, November). Violent computer games, Aggression and brain activity. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Chicago: Annual Conference of the National Communication Association.

Wilkin, H. A. & Gonzalez, C. (2006, June). Are Spanish language television shows connecting Los Angeles Latino residents to their health storytelling networks? Paper presented at the 56th International Communication Association Conference. Dresden, Germany.

Wilkin, H. A. & Ball-Rokeach, S. J. (2006, February). Using health communication connections to better reach audiences with cancer messages. Paper presented at the Annenberg National Health Communication Survey Conference. Los Angeles, CA.

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For more information, please contact:

Michael Cody, Ph.D.
E-mail: 
cody@usc.edu
Phone Number:
213-740-3936
Fax Number: 

Lynn Miller, Ph.D.
Annenberg School for Communication
E-mail: lmiller@usc.edu
Phone Number: 213-740-3948
Fax Number: 

Websites
University of Southern California (USC): http://www.usc.edu
Annenberg School of Communication http://annenberg.usc.edu/
 

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© 2004-2007 Health Communication Coalition
Last Updated April 10, 2007
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