Funding of Research

Social science research is conducted to impact theory as well as people’s lives, and funding is often the key to achieving this impact. Communication research is increasingly complex involving multiple causes (e.g., high and low credibility sources delivering a series of messages that are either factual or narrative) that result in multiple outcomes (e.g., social influence and relationship intimacy). Changes in messages can lead to changes in outcomes over a period of a year or more. Communication theories now predict how groups of people (e.g., young vs. old; wealth vs. middle class vs. working class) react to different messages and hence, change attitudes that result in different outcomes. These newer and more sophisticated theories help to predict behaviors and make changes to improve people’s lives. ...