Today I had the pleasure of participating in Texas State’s first Health Scholar Showcase. Recently, I have joined an interdisciplinary team of Texas State faculty and clinicians who are all interested in the intersection of social media and mental health. As technology advances, people are increasingly using social media. Mental health issues are also on the rise, now affecting 1 in 5 US adults. Studies show a relationship between these two phenomena, and clinicians on our team have also reported this link. But, these observations are, of course, anecdotal, and much of the research conducted is correlational and meta-analytic. Our team is dedicated to understanding if there is a causal relationship between social media use and mental health, particularly subclinical ailments, like mild-to-moderate depression. If there is a relationship here, why? Does consuming content lead to mental health issues? Or, does creating content? We know that these are complex questions, and we have assembled a complex team to carry out this innovative research project. I’m so proud to be a part of it!

Excited to share that our publication, titled “Understanding healthcare providers’ professional identification: The role of interprofessional communication in the vocational socialization of physicians,” is published in the new Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice. This project originated from Brenda MacArthur’s masters thesis at Texas State, advised by Dr. Melinda Villagran. I was thrilled to join them on the project, which shows the crucial role of interprofessional communication—communication between physicians and other healthcare providers-in fostering professional identification among physicians.

I am excited to share a framework for studying social media that I have written along with Jeff Treem, Casey Pierce, and Diana Biffl. In this article titled, ““What We Are Talking About When We Talk About Social Media: A Framework for Study,” we review various definitions of social media and note that much of the confusion regarding social media comes from conflation between social media types, platforms, and activities. To facilitate investigations of social media, we debunk common social media myths and review the relationship between social media and several prominent sociological concerns. We conclude by reflecting on directions for future research on social media. I hope you enjoy the read!

I partnered with colleagues in departments of Kinesiology and Health Education and Communication Studies at the University of Texas to explore wearable fitness devices from a communication perspective. Although studies have investigated how the technical features of wearable fitness trackers promote physical activity, we understand less about how communication surrounding such devices may contribute to their success. Our findings, which you can read here, show how and with whom people communicate fitness tracker messages and explains the effects of sociomaterial practice on interactions between wearable fitness device users.

Our paper, “I Communicate, Therefore I Belong: Processes of Identification Among Organizational Representatives” is now published in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Jeffrey Treem and Jacob Ford in this project, which demonstrates how agency social media writers (those who were not employed by organizations they represented online) adopt multiple identification lenses to accomplish their work. Findings from our study, which you can read here, offer insight for social media writers to better communicate on behalf of organizations.

My research with Yaguang Zhu has just been published in Health Communication. The article, “Communicating Health at Work: Organizational Wellness Programs as Identity Bridges,” discusses how employees enact their personal health identities through workplace health promotion initiatives. You can read the paper here.

My article “What Happens Before Full-Time Employment? Internships as a Mechanism of Anticipatory Socialization” was just published in the Western Journal of Communication. By investigating how interns learn about and identify with organizations, this study challenges our understanding of anticipatory socialization and our assumptions about full-time employees as uncertain newcomers. In fact, results show that internships may provide more realistic perceptions than traditional means of anticipatory socialization, like recruitment or vocational messages. You can read the paper here.

My paper “I’m New… Again: Reconceptualizing the Socialization Process Through Rotational Programs” has been published in Communication Studies. The paper explores how rotational employees’ learn about and adapt to organizations and roles differently than traditional employees. The results of my study suggested a Model of Rotational Socialization, which more accurately portrays the socialization process by accounting for the contrast between role and organizational socialization. You can read the paper here!

I am grateful to have been selected as one of the College Achievement Award winners for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching!

I was selected as the recipient of Texas State University’s 2015 Award for Excellence in Online Teaching for my course, COMM 3301, Empirical Research Methods. The award recognizes and rewards superior online teaching, provides models of excellence for fellow faculty, and encourages all faculty to continue to improve and advance their online teaching pedagogy.