A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

Risk communication researchers earn top paper awards

Researchers in START’s Risk Communication and Resilience Program recently received awards for research excellence. Papers authored this year by Brooke Liu, Yan Jin, Julia Frasutino and Lucinda Austin were honored with top paper awards from the:

International Communication Association conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Best Faculty Papers in Public Relations

  • Jin, Y., Fraustino, J., & Liu, B. F. (2015, May). The scared, the outraged, and the anxious: How crisis emotions, involvement, and demographics predict publics’ conative coping.

International Public Relations Research Conference, Miami, FL.

Boston University Award for the Top Paper about Public Relations and the Social and Emerging Media

  • Austin, L., Jin, Y., & Liu, B. F. (2015, March). Crisis information generation and spread: Examining the influence of traditional and social media in crisis response through the lens of media professionals.

Based on work from the Social Media Use during Disasters Project the papers explore elements of crisis communication and responses to it. In addition to publishing the study’s findings, the research team has integrated their work and findings into START’s Training in Risk and Crisis Communication (TRACC) program.


For the first time, TRACC trainings are being offered this summer to the public at START’s headquarters in College Park, MD. For more information, visit www.start.umd.edu/training.