Dr. Bethany A. Conway
Associate Professor
Associate Chair
Office Location
Faculty Offices North (47) 22-C
Phone
805-756-2045
Courses
- Media Effects
- Communication, Media, and Politics
- Persuasion
- Communication Research Methods
- Media Studies
- Public Speaking
- Introduction to the Communication Studies Major
Education
- Ph.D. Communication, University of Arizona, 2015
- M.A. Journalism, University of Arizona, 2011
- B.A. English, University of New Mexico, 2007
Notes
Dr. Bethany Anne Conway joined the Communication Studies faculty in fall 2015. Her research agenda focuses on the intersection of mass and political communication; more specifically, she analyzes the many influences that shape news coverage in an effort to understand “collective sensemaking” in politics. This includes the role of new media in political campaigns and its influence on journalistic outcomes, as well as the networks of sources that journalists turn to for information on elections and government policy. As an affiliate with the University of Arizona’s National Institute for Civil Discourse, she is also involved in a long-term project analyzing perceptions of political incivility, including variable tolerance for incivility, and how perceptions of differing levels of incivility are patterned by demographic and political factors, media consumption, and online political engagement. Notable achievements include sole and co-authored articles published in Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, the Journal of Political Marketing. In 2014, Dr. Conway and her research team at the University of Arizona received a top paper award from the National Communication Association Political Communication Division for their manuscript “What is Political Incivility?” After a series of publications, their most recent piece in Communication Research (forthcoming in 2024) sets an important precedent for how we define and think about political incivility. She is currently embarking on a project on the 2024 election, analyzing source use and meaning making in politics.