University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications faculty and graduate students will be the recipients of prestigious awards from the International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) at its 24^th annual conference, to be held virtually from March 3-6.

Rita Men, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications Public Relations associate professor, and doctoral students Yufan Qin and Renee Mitson will receive the Plank Center Award for Leadership in Public Relations for their paper “Engaging Startup Employees via Charismatic Leadership Communication: The Importance of Communicating Vision, Passion, and Care.”

Doctoral student Benjamin Lynn is a part of a team of researchers that will receive two awards, the Koichi Yamamura International Strategic Communication Award and The Institute for Public Relations W. Ward White Awards of Practical Significance, for “Relationship Cultivation via Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-cultural Comparison between China and the U.S.” The paper was co-authored with Qiongyao Serena Huang, Chuqing Dong and Shijun Ni from Hong Kong Baptist University.

Conference presentations include:

Doctoral student Marc Vielledent: “Force Multiplier? An Analysis of How Military Leaders Communicate on Twitter.”

Rita Men, Yi Grace Ji and Zifei Fay Chen: “Carving Startup Characters: Effects of Symmetrical Communication on Startup-Customers Connection, Relationship Outcomes, and Customer Advocacy.”

Tom Kelleher, Division of Graduate Studies and Research Associate Dean, and Cen “April” Yue, Ph.D. 2020: “A Conversation Model for Computer-Mediated Public Relations.”

Doctoral student Jie Jin: “How Avoidant Leadership Styles Turns Employees into Adversaries: The Impact of Laissez-Faire Leadership on Employee-Organization Relationships .”

Doctoral students , Public Relations Professor and Interim Dean Spiro Kiousis, Long Xiao and Sofiya Tarasevich: “Gender, Politics, and the Glass Ceiling: Comparing News Coverage of Female and Male Politicians in 2020 US Primaries.”

For more information on the papers being presented, visit: https://www.jou.ufl.edu/research/cjc-at-major-academic-conferences/cjc-at-iprrc-2021/.

The IPRRC is dedicated to supporting socially beneficial public relations research that increases understanding, builds relationships, support ethical socially responsible performance and advances the development of an increasingly democratic global society.

Posted: March 1, 2021
Category: Alumni News, College News, Student News
Tagged as: Benjamin Lynn, Ekaterina Romanova, Hadeel Alhaddadeh, IPRRC, Jie Jin, Linjuan Rita Men, Marc Vielledent, Renee Mitson, Spiro Kiousis, Tom Kelleher, Yufan Qin