News

Dr. Stacy Penna, NVivo Community Director, invites the MESA Group to talk about innovative research methods, applied practices, and passionate insights in qualitative research. The team shares their work on Perspectives on Mass Migration: Identifying and Assessing Strategic Narrative Alignment (Episode 35).

The MESA Group received the Vaccine Confidence Fund (VCF) grant to study narratives of vaccine confidence among marginalized migrants in the United States. VCF is the first flagship program of the Alliance for Advancing Health Online (AAHO). As one of 33 organizations that received VCF grants totaling over $7 million, the MESA Group aspires to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 among marginalized migrant populations, as well as the lack of research on vaccine confidence among these populations. 

The MESA Group released the book titled "The Future of Global Competition: Ontological Security and Narratives in Chinese, Iranian, Russian, and Venezuelan Media." It is available to pre-order at Routledge and Amazon.

The MESA Group Video Brief. Dr. Skye Cooley and Campbell Clark present the results of the project "Mexican and Northern Triangle Perspectives on Migration: Identifying and Assessing Strategic Narrative Alignment." Produced by Evonne Wong and Ellie Melero. 

The MESA Group and NSI published the Quick Look titled "Transactional Communication Model." This Quick Look presents a model for understanding the core communication process and elaborates on mechanisms to strengthen it. The report begins with an overview of the core communication process itself then discusses where and how factors internal and external to the communication process can influence the effectiveness of message transmission and interpretation. 

The MESA Group and NSI published the Quick Look titled "Understanding Mass Self-Communication." This Quick Look discusses a new form of communication within networked societies—Castells’ so-called mass self-communication. This report highlights how barriers between old and new media are disappearing as increasing technological access creates new forms of labor, challenges traditional understandings of the communication process, and empowers individuals to make otherwise inconceivable system-wide impacts.

The MESA Group published the research report titled "Mexican and Northern Triangle Perspectives on Migration: Identifying and Assessing Strategic Narrative Alignment." This report presents an investigation into the underlying catalysts, structural challenges, associated opportunities, as well as the narrative packaging and surrounding discussions concerning migration coming from the Northern Triangle of Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras). Read the report here.

The MESA Group and NSI published 3 Quick Looks:

·       Propaganda: Indexing and Framing and the Tools of Disinformation: This Quick Look details the distinction between misinformation and disinformation; exploring how the latter is used in the digital era and the challenges posed to government systems as a consequence. Tips for countering and recognizing disinformation are offered throughout.

·       Inoculation Theory- This Quick Look explores the distinction between active and passive refutation within Inoculation Theory. While “dosing” negative information and modeling counterarguments can effectively inoculate communities from outside influence, teaching critical awareness and information literacies is seen as a superior approach.

·       Communicative Power in a Globalized “Network Society”- This Quick Look outlines Castells’ argument that the forces of globalization have created an interlinked global network of systems favoring communication as a form of power. The foundational sources of power are discussed in relation to social systems, offering the reader a conceptual roadmap of the impacts of communication across modern interlinked globalized networks.

The MESA Group published the Quick Look titled, "Influencing Public Behavior: Takeaways from Public Communication Scholarship." This report draws on a number of theoretical perspectives that guide our understanding of what constitutes effective communication within the public sphere and presents key takeaways that specifically address behavior change.