Jessica Myrick

Jessica Gall Myrick joined the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications in 2017 to bolster the growing Science Communication Program. She is also a co-funded faculty member in the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment.

Her research examines the role of different emotions in shaping audience responses to health, science and environmental messages. She argues that mediated messages need to resonate emotionally with individuals in order to change attitudes and motivate behaviors related to those topics. Her work in this area has investigated how online health information seeking leads Internet users to experience multiple emotional states (e.g., anxiety, hope, and interest), which then predict different post-search behaviors. Other research has looked at the interplay of fear and hope, as well as compassion, in shaping responses to skin cancer prevention messages, for example.

A secondary research focus of hers is the role of popular culture media and media about celebrities in shaping our attitudes and behaviors related to health, science, and the environment. This line of work has led Myrick to investigate how viewing the popular "Shark Week" series impacts ocean conversation attitudes and behaviors as well as examining how different emotional responses to viewing media about celebrity illnesses shapes both individual and prosocial behaviors. As part of this stream of research pertaining to popular culture, she has also published research on why, and to what effect, people watch cat videos online.

In 2017, Myrick won the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Outstanding Junior Woman Scholar Award from the Commission on the Status of Women of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). She had previously been named an Emerging Scholar by AEJMC in 2016.

Myrick's interdisciplinary work has been funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Services and AEJMC. Her research has also been featured by media outlets across the globe. Myrick teaches courses related to media effects, research methods, mass communication and society, and health/science/environmental communication for the Bellisario College.

• Emotions & Media
• Healthy Media with Jessica Gall Myrick, PhD

• Guilt-tripping for the public good often achieves its intended result
• A ninja, beauty influencer, and princess in the news
• Princess Kate’s cancer treatment news sparks remorse from people who spread conspiracies and memes online
• News Over Noise Podcast: Hope, Helplessness, and Health Misinformation
• Suzanne Somers pioneered the role of celebrity purveyor of medical misinformation
• From climate to COVID: Effective communication of difficult topics
• Doom-and-gloom climate news may scare but also encourage audiences
• 5 Deaths at sea gripped the world. Hundreds of others got a shrug.
• Search for Titanic submersible unleashes ‘eat the rich’ sentiment online
• Tenacious curiosity guides researcher’s study of health, science communication
• Very good dogs don't necessarily make very good co-workers
• Trump’s love of fast food may be bad for public health
• Interest in presidential eating habits may affect the public's food choices
• Public religious figures draw attention to issues, but response hard to predict
• Institutes of Energy and the Environment announces seed grant recipients
• Proper messaging is vital for autonomous vehicles as the technology emerges
• Health and beauty info sources may influence risky indoor tanning behaviors
• Op-ed: Parents, talk to your student-athletes about sexual abuse
• Three new co-funds join Institutes of Energy and the Environment
• Why #oddlysatisfying videos are so … satisfying
• Adding hope to health messages motivates better behaviors
• Inherent vice: The media's love affair with 'healthy' alcohol
• What does the Penn State community think of celebrity involvement in politics?
• Tom Hanks' COVID-19 diagnosis likely shaped behaviors, thoughts toward virus
• Illnesses of controversial celebrities can negatively affect public health
• Viewing memes online increases positive emotions, helps cope with pandemic
• Memes have helped Americans cope with stress during the pandemic, study finds
• Cute memes linked to less Covid-related stress, new study says
• Swipe those fears: looking at COVID memes may be helping you cope with pandemic stress