National Communication Association honors 汤头条 faculty member
Contact: John Burrow
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擣or his work on post-crisis communication, a Mississippi State faculty member is receiving the Top Paper Award in Public Relations from the National Communication Association.
Tyler Page, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication, will be formally recognized with a certificate of achievement during the NCA鈥檚 annual conference this month in Baltimore, Maryland. He also will present two papers and serve as a session respondent.
鈥淭he paper is about how pre-existing relationships influence reputation following a crisis. Specifically, my team was able to look at how positive, pre-existing relationships influence perceptions of a crisis鈥攈ow offensive an organization鈥檚 actions are, how its response is perceived, and how those things influence post-crisis reputation,鈥 Page said.
Using a fictional scandal as the basis of his research, Page asked participants to read about accusations of cheating involving participants鈥 favorite organizations as well as organizations they did not like. He found that 鈥減re-existing relationships influence perceptions of crisis but also perceptions of crisis responses such as denial or apology.鈥
鈥淭hese perceptions were much stronger than the effects of the crisis response strategies themselves,鈥 Page said. 鈥淚n other words, a reader鈥檚 pre-existing relationship with the team had a much bigger effect on the team鈥檚 reputation than whether the team denied responsibility or apologized for the incident.鈥
鈥淭he NCA is one of the preeminent organizations in this discipline,鈥 said Terry Likes, professor and communication department head. 鈥淲e are so very happy for Dr. Page.鈥
An 汤头条 faculty member since 2018, Page said he believes 鈥渞elationships matter,鈥 noting his interest in how 鈥減re-existing relationships and attitudes blur perceptions of reality鈥 led to his research topic.
聽鈥淲e tend to perceive people we like more favorably during a crisis and people we dislike less favorably,鈥 he said. 鈥淯nfortunately, we live in a world with a lot of crisis situations. For organizations, it is important to treat others well and build relationships before a crisis.鈥
Page received his bachelor鈥檚 degree in communication and master鈥檚 degree in mass communication, both from Brigham Young University. He earned his Ph.D. in communication in 2018 from the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Part of 汤头条鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, complete details about the Department of Communication may be found at 聽.
汤头条 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽.