The communications department at the University of Arkansas recently received a substantial gift. An anonymous donor granted the department $1 million specifically directed toward the Center for Communication Research.
Matthew Spialek is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication. He visited the Bruce and Anne Applegate News Studio One to speak with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis about the gift and its potential impact on the research center. Spialek says it will support the mission to facilitate collaborative research between communication and other disciplines.
Matthew Spialek: As part of that mission, we have a 1,400-square-foot facility located in Kimpel Hall on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus.
What really excites us about this is I think it’s great for communication, but it’s great for Fulbright College and our students in general. Communication really intersects at the heart of an arts and science program.
We have social scientists like myself who do research using survey-based methods, experiments, maybe focus groups. But we also have humanists and historians who do archival work, critically analyze texts. We have film scholars who engage with the fine arts by doing creative work and production.
I would even argue that we also have opportunities to collaborate with the natural sciences, because we have colleagues that are studying how we process and respond to messages using physiological measures — heart rate, skin conductance, cortisol.
So in many ways, communication is about finding shared meaning and being able to make connections with people. And I think that our center provides us an opportunity to connect with a diverse group of units in the college and really the campus broadly.
Jack Travis: You just did, but could you provide another example of a project that you’ve worked on, or maybe a colleague worked on, that really lived out that promise of interdisciplinary communication?
Spialek: I’d love to speak about the great work that my colleagues are doing. I can give you two really quick examples.
Dr. Fred Jennings in our department was interested in exploring how different types of messages might influence how people engage with or support foreign aid and individuals in refugee camps.
He had an experiment where one condition watched an educational video about life in a refugee camp, but the other condition used virtual reality. They had a headset, and they were immersed in the refugee camp.
What his team found was that individuals exposed to the virtual reality condition walked away with significantly higher levels of empathy for individuals in a refugee camp, and they were more willing to engage politically, both in terms of seeking information and supporting and advocating for foreign aid.
Another example speaks to the unique nature of communication and how we can use interesting measures.
Dr. Joomi Lee, who is the director of the Center for Communication Research, has a grant with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that looks at how individuals are exposed to messages that cause uncertainty or a sense of threat, and how they cope by working with a virtual social companion, an AI companion.
In that process, she’s using equipment known as a Biopac to measure physiological responses like heart rate. Ultimately, this helps us see how people process messages by working with virtual reality.
Travis: That’s fascinating. Something that really sticks out to me about both of those examples you just mentioned was the use of emerging technologies — virtual reality, AI assistants, the Biopac. Will this gift fund more projects like this that use new things in the world in a creative way?
Spialek: I certainly anticipate that will be the case. The gift is planned, so we don’t know exactly when we’ll receive it. It’s interesting to think about what new technologies might exist that we’re not even aware of yet.
The gift will support purchasing equipment for emerging technologies, but we also hope it will help us recruit some of the most talented communication scholars across the country. They’ll be able to come to a center supported with resources to do their research and receive early funding to apply for future grants.
It would also support student-led research, which is very important to us, and provide research assistantships for graduate students so they can have their education paid for while working in our lab. They leave with hands-on experience, a degree and hopefully less debt.
The last thing I’d say is that we want to communicate that we are a vital public good. The work we’re doing as faculty and researchers has a real impact throughout the region.
We hope to publish in academic spaces, but also translate that work by hosting conferences, panels, bringing in speakers and holding workshops that engage journalists, community leaders and policymakers.
Travis: Let’s say an undergrad or graduate student, what do you tell them whenever you’re maybe trying to recruit them to the program? I’m someone maybe 19 years old, I’m not sure what I want to do, I’m interested in the humanities. Why should I study communication?
Spialek: What I would say is if you want to have a microcosm of an arts and science education, join communication. Because yes, you could be studying the humanities and taking some of our rhetoric classes, but you could also take a research methods class that focuses on designing surveys or conducting experiments. And so you get a taste of the social sciences.
For current students hearing about the Center for Communication Research, I encourage them to consider working in our lab space. Research with faculty is a high-impact practice that increases engagement, retention and persistence to graduation.
I was talking with one of our graduate students, Rashad, who said one reason he continued from undergrad to graduate school was because he worked on a virtual reality study in his undergraduate mediated communication class.
He learned that research doesn’t have to be intimidating. He gained confidence and saw himself in a space he didn’t envision when he arrived as a first-generation college student.
College is a transformative experience, and I believe the Center for Communication Research helps make that possible for Arkansans.
Travis: If people want to engage with the Center for Communication Research, what’s the best way?
Spialek: I’d encourage them to visit our website, communications.uark.edu, to learn more about the center and our labs. They can also email comm@uark.edu.
I know our donor wants to remain anonymous, and I want to respect that. But I would be remiss if I didn’t reiterate how thankful our department is for this generous gift and how it will impact generations of scholars and students to come.
Matthew Spialek is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas. He spoke with Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis in the Bruce and Anne Applegate News Studio One.
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