Category Archives: Research

        
 
 
 
 

Knight Center faculty gives advice on explaining research

Knight Center Associate Director David Poulson was cited recently in an article on expanding possibilities for STEM students.

His advice on explaining research: “You only need 2 sentences. Tell people the most interesting thing you do, then tell them why it’s important.”

The article was written by Ellie Louson of MSU’s Hub for Innovation in Learning and Technology. Poulson is a Hub Fellow this year.  He and Louson were on a recent science communication panel put on for MSU’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center’s Summer Undergraduate Research Program.

Knight Center faculty present latest research

Two Knight Center faculty presented some of their latest research at the recent Conference on Communication and the Environment at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

Knight Center director Eric Freedman and University of St. Thomas Professor Mark Neuzil.

In one paper, center director Eric Freedman examined the state of environmental journalism in the Republic of Georgia, where he spent the fall 2018 semester teaching journalism at Caucasus University and conducting research through the Fulbright Program.

Based on interviews with journalists, representatives of environmental and multinational organizations, scientists and other experts, the paper identified major barriers to effective environmental journalism in the country: the environment’s lack of priority among news media owners and politicians; staff shortages at news organizations; journalists’ inadequate substantive knowledge about the environment; and the costs of coverage.

Freedman’s second conference paper examined the National Park Service’s media strategy and techniques after it announced plans to translocate wolves from the U.S. and Canadian mainland to Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior. His coauthors are Professor Mark Neuzil of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Alexander Killian, a Ph.D. student at Boise State University who earned his master’s degree in fisheries and wildlife at MSU.

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Knight Center alum, research director win top paper award

Ran Duan presentation

Ran Duan, a Ph.D. graduate of the Knight Center and currently an assistant professor at the University or Reno, Nevada, and research director Bruno Takahashi won a top faculty paper award from the International Communication Association.

The award was presented by the Environmental Communication Division during the association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C., in May. The paper titled “How Engaging Are Concrete Images? the Moderating Role of Construal Level in Climate Change Visual Communication” was co-authored with Knight Center’s affiliated faculty member, Assistant Professor Adam Zwickle of the School of Criminal Justice.

Poulson reports on African academic innovation project

Chiku Mtegha, a researcher at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture an Natural Resources, explains to African journalists research into using chemicals from local plants to deworm goats.

Knight Center Senior Associate Director David Poulson contributed to a recent article on building the capacity of academics to do relevant research at African universities.

“How design thinking united researchers and farmers” appears in the African edition of The Conversation.

It reports on a strategy that encourages academics to create, develop and implement their own research agendas to more directly address the needs of people. Continue reading