communication

Telephone triage nurses routinely assess symptoms and make clinical decisions without visual contact, which introduces complex communication challenges. Language differences, emotional distress, cultural misunderstandings, and the absence of visual cues may influence how symptoms are described, interpreted, and acted upon during telephone encounters. The purpose of this qualitative interpretive d…

This doctoral project was conducted at a family practice clinic to assess the impact of staff education on the clinic staff knowledge of the use of situation, background, assessment, recommendation (SBAR) as a communication tool. Miscommunication among healthcare staff is a practice problem at the clinic caused by unstructured sharing of information, which often results in delay in patient care, …

Some experts use violations of H. Paul Grice’s four maxims that help explain verbal humor. The mutual vulnerability theory of laughter does the same job and so much more.

Stickers as a defining part of internet culture have shaped how Generation Z communicates and expresses themselves in daily life. This study investigates the motivations behinds Chinese young people use stickers on WeChat, one of China's most widely used mobile platforms. Drawing on survey data from 420 young users across three Chinese representative cities from the east, west and central part of…

Analysis shows whales’ coda vocalizations are ‘highly complex’ and remarkably similar to our own We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered. Not only do sperm whale ha…

The staccato clicks of sperm whales may sound like meaningless background noise to human ears,...

In a society increasingly shaped by self-checkouts, GPS navigation, and touchscreen ordering kiosks, new research shows face-to-face conversation may be quietly fading. A new study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science suggests that people are losing 338 spoken words every year and have been for at least a decade and a half. Matthias Mehl, a psychology professor at the University of …

Communications is one of the most powerful – and most overlooked – skills in conservation. In this webinar, you will discover why strong communication is essential for modern conservation work. We explore real examples from successful campaigns and highlight the communications skills that conservation employers value most. During this training, you will: Learn why communications

Background | Key Findings | Why it Matters Background 💡 Weber Shandwick Collective and Gravity Research studied how CEO confidence in communication functions has shifted and where capability gaps persist, especially around emerging issues like AI. 🌎 More than 200 senior communications and public affairs leaders (Vice President or above) at Fortune 1000 companies were surveyed … Continue reading C…

Background | Key Findings | Why it Matters Background 💡 Dr. Ana Tkalac Verčič and Dr. Dejan Verčič examined employee interaction and satisfaction with in-person and digital communication mediums. 🌎 Researchers conducted a five-day diary study with 104 employees at a large telecommunications company in Slovenia from July – September 2024. Participants logged the quality and frequency of their digi…

Interview Summary This episode of Talking Climate examines how humor can be used to communicate climate change more effectively. Through clips from well-known comedians and an in-depth discussion with University of Utah Professor of Communication Sara Yeo and student Julia St. Andre, the conversation explores whether comedy can make a serious issue more engaging without […]

This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center and the IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Members of the IPR Center for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI) and the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center (OCRC) gathered virtually to discuss the challenges of maintaining authenticity, inclusion, and employee trust amid social and … Conti…

Sperm whales may shape their clicks into something closer to speech than code. New research from UC Berkeley linguists and Project CETI suggests their calls contain vowel like structures with a human style complexity that challenges long held assumptions about animal communication. In a new acoustic and computational linguistics study in the journal Open Mind, published November 2, 2025, Gašper B…

You’ve heard it before “It’s not what you said—it’s how you said it.” Your voice can change how people feel—even if your message doesn’t. If you vary your tone and pacing, you can make your ideas sound more trustworthy, exciting, or urgent. Harness this neuroscience-backed communication power and you’ll take your career to the next level. Your voice is a fantastic tool. It acoustically translates…

Trauma is a word we don’t normally use when we talk about organizations. Which is remarkable when you think about it, because – especially these days – there many events in organizations that qualify as traumatic. There are sudden and shocking traumas, such as deaths, technology disasters, and economic crises. And there are slow and … Continue reading The Case for Trauma-Informed Communication →

This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center. Dr. Anu E. Sivunen, Dr. Ward van Zoonen, and Dr. Jeffrey W. Treem explored how emotions are expressed on enterprise social media and how an employer-moderated channel impacted employees’ displays of emotion. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 39 employees (e.g., flight attendants, customer experience…

It is often said that much, if not most, of communication comes not in what we say but in how we say it. We might say something that sounds angry, but our facial expression demonstrates that we are joking. The post What You Are Saying Online without Your Words appeared first on Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning .

As we stand at the cusp of a new era in strategic communication and public relations, the Latin American Communication Monitor (LCM) 2022-2023 demonstrates the need for research and insights about the profession to help identify opportunities for growth. This report furnishes us with an X-ray of the profession in Latin America, unveiling the prevailing … Continue reading Shaping the Future of Str…

A lot is written about the supply side of mis- and disinformation, including how propagandists and political leaders are using messages and platforms to impact public opinion. But less is written about the demand side. When it comes to false beliefs that each of us adopt and harbor to help us understand the world and events in it, what are the incentives and social dimensions that each of us as i…

Email: yanbol2@illinois.edu Research Interests My research interests lie at the intersection of computational communication and political communication. Specifically, I am interested in using computational methods to learn about online misinformation and incivility contagion inside and between different countries and the possible factors that foster these processes. Recent Publications/Prese…