Page Center announces three research calls targeting ethics education, practice and theory

August 24, 2023 • Jonathan McVerry

The Page Center announced three calls for research proposals as part of its annual Page/Johnson Legacy Scholar grants. The calls target three unique areas that collectively address a wide range of questions facing public communication ethics education, practice and theory.

The topics for the 2024 research proposals are:
1) Ethics training in public relations, journalism, advertising and strategic communication
2) Scholar/Practitioner collaborations
3) Expanding theory for integrity in public communication

The Center’s grants support scholars and professionals making important contributions to the industry and academic literature. Since 2004, the Page Center has funded hundreds of projects tackling many topics in the field. While research themes vary from year to year, the Center consistently supports academic exploration into the understanding of principles practiced in public communication.

Calls are moderated by Page Center senior research fellows. The ethics training call will be led by Marlene Neill, associate professor at Baylor University. The expanding theory call will be led by Colleen Connolly-Ahern, associate professor at Penn State. The call for scholar/practitioner collaborations will be led by Holly Overton, associate professor at Penn State and Page Center research director. This is the first time the Page Center has hosted more than two research calls in one year.

“Each call represents complex and expansive areas of public communication,” Page Center director Denise Bortree said. “Having the ability and support to address these areas and offer scholars these funding opportunities is extremely important to the Page Center.”

Visit the Page Center website for a full description of each call and the proposal process. All application materials must be submitted through Scholastica by Jan. 15, 2024.

Call: Ethics Training in Public Relations, Journalism, Advertising and Strategic Communication

Prior research has revealed strengths and weaknesses when it comes to ethics training in public relations, journalism, advertising, and other communication disciplines. While journalists and public relations practitioners have scored quite high on moral development, advertising practitioners have not always performed as well.

In addition, while journalism and communication students often do complete an ethics course in college, they are not always receiving routine professional development training in ethics, despite the fact that new issues are always emerging in these disciplines. Although the Commission on Public Relations Education has addressed how ethics should be taught in the college classroom, less scholarly attention has been given to ongoing professional education related to communication ethics.

“Prior research has shown that a significant number of students are graduating with journalism and communication degrees without ever completing an ethics course,” Neill said. “Employers often are not providing routine professional development training programs focused on ethics leaving these new professionals ill prepared to address ethical issues they will inevitably face. I believe this research project will identify some critical needs related to ethics training.”

Learn more on the call page. Email Neill with questions at Marlene_Neill@baylor.edu.

Call: Scholar/Practitioner Collaborations

The Page Center is issuing a call for grant proposals to support scholar-practitioner collaborative projects aimed to empower professionals with research-driven insights. Proposals should focus on timely topics related to the Page Center’s mission of advancing ethics and responsibility in corporate communication and other forms of public communication.

Of specific interest are proposal topics that seek to offer practical insights in alignment with The Page Principles for C-suite professionals across corporate, agency, non-profit or government sectors.

“This call is all about fostering innovation and collaboration,” Overton said. ““I am so excited to support these scholar/practitioner research projects that will aim to produce insights that empower the profession. Arguably now, more than ever, organizations need guidance on how to ethically and effectively navigate topics such as generative AI, inclusive excellence, and activism and advocacy, among others. This call aims to tackle these difficult topics and offer actionable insights in alignment with the Page Center’s mission.”

Learn more on the call page. Email Overton with questions at hko104@psu.edu.

Call: Expanding Theory for Integrity in Public Communication

The bedrock of successful research is theory. Theory guides research, from study design to data collection to analysis. The question is, considering the seismic changes in the communications industries, are the theories that have guided journalism and strategic communication research for the past decades – Agenda Setting, Excellence Theory, Inoculation, Uses and Gratifications, to name a few – adequate for the current environment?

Can the boundary conditions of extant theory be expanded to include innovations such as artificial intelligence, e-commerce and content-on-demand? Could communication scholars expand their theoretical umbrella and look to other fields to explain emerging phenomena in the context of increasing technological change?

“What I’m hoping to see is scholars taking a fresh look at theory and its impact on the research process. I’d love to see interdisciplinary teams calling on theories from entirely different fields – the humanities or natural sciences, for example – to attack strategic communications problems in a new way. Above all, I’m looking for research that puts supporting integrity in public communication at the forefront.”

Learn more on the call page. Email Connolly-Ahern with questions at cuc15@psu.edu.