Research
Research
Research Interests
From critical and cultural perspectives, my research investigates relationships between structure and agency in the production of visual messages across all levels of inquiry. On a societal level, I am interested in the effects of culture on the representation of marginalized groups, and on historical and contemporary depictions of violence and trauma in news media. On network and interpersonal levels, I am interested in the intersection of power and issues of privacy and surveillance that occur in producing and sharing images online. Finally, on the intrapersonal level, I am interested in how visual messages shape and reinforce an individual’s visual construction of reality. Below you will find overviews of my thesis and dissertation work, as well as related completed (accepted in peer reviewed conferences, journals or books) or in-progress (under review, or in development stage) research that falls into the following areas of my research:visual messages and society, visual messages in network and interpersonal communication contexts, intrapersonal dimensions of visual communication. Also below are projects related to my secondary areas of research in science communication and journalism practice and pedagogy.
PRIMARY RESEARCH FOCUS
MASTER’S THESIS: This research focused on photography as an instrument of persuasion and reinforcement of U.S. policies of exclusion, as well as a mechanism for the surveillance of ‘undesirable’ immigrants in the first two decades of the 20th century. This work is the foundation of my on-going exploration of how immigrants, migrants and refugees are visually represented in the U.S. news media and how photography is used to propagate and reinforce polarizing notions of national identity.
DISSERTATION: This research uses critical and historical methods to explore the origins of environmental photojournalism by examining the work of two photographers—photojournalist Jack Corn and social documentarian Milton Rogovin. Working in Appalachia coal communities in the 1960s and 70s these two photographers changed the visual narrative of coal mining during the rise of the environmental movement. Their images deviated from traditional mining aesthetics glorifying industry and capitalism to focus on the destructive nature of extraction and the devastating socio-economic, public health, and environmental effects mining has on the miners, their families, and the community. This dissertation is the starting point for a larger, long-term project on photographs of global mining industries as illustration of social change throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It is also the foundation for a robust future research program aimed at exploring how society and individuals visualize the environment and the effects those visualizations have on reinforcing beliefs about climate change.
Related Peer-Reviewed Publications:
Cepak, A., Mesyn, TJ. (2019) Fakes, Forgery, and Facebook: An Examination of Visual Literacy in the Era of Altered Images, Fake News, and Alternative Facts. Handbook of Visual Communication, Vol. 2, Routledge. (Accepted July 5, 2019).
Related Peer Reviewed Conference Papers:
Cepak, A., (2018) An American Tune: Immigration photography as reinforcement of a national identity. The Visual Communication Conference, La Jolla, CA, June 20-23, 2018.
Cepak, A., Chavez, M., (2018) Visual Representation and Framing of Frontiers. How the U.S.-Mexico Border Attracted Inaccurate Political and Policy Attention. Western Social Science Association, Association for Borderland Studies annual conference, San Antonio, TX, April 4-7, 2018.
Cepak, A., (2017) Photography as an Agent of State Power: Producing and Collecting Images for Surveillance of Undesirable Immigrants in the Early 20thCentury. Master’s Thesis, ProQuest, Michigan State University.
Cepak, A.,(2017) Longitudinal Effects of Immigration Frames within a Geo-Ethnic Context. International Symposium on Communicating Crisis to the Public, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, April 20-21, 2017.
SECONDARY RESEARCH FOCUS
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Through my research of environmental visualization, I have developed a close affiliation with the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University. One of the centers key ongoing projects is working at an institutional level to help train scientists to better communicate their research to various audiences. As part of this mission, I am currently involved with a project researching collaborative partnerships between scientists and artists to help scientists visualize their research and help artists visualize science. The project’s aim is to investigate shared aesthetic decision making processes across the two groups. I have also collaborated on science communication projects exploring motivations for information sharing among citizen-scientist groups and the implications of using citizen-scientists as sources in the localization of science news stories.
Related Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers:
Duffy, K., Cepak, A., Peng, Z., & Carpenter, S., (2016) Non-scientists’ knowledge sharing expectations in citizen science. Broadcast Education Association annual conference, Las Vegas, NV, April 17-20, 2016.
JOURNALISM PRACTICE AND PEDAGOGY
We live in an era saturated with visual imagery. The ubiquity of cameras in our lives shape not only our perception of the world, but the world’s perception of us. Investigating how media practitioners make aesthetic decisions that contribute to societal perceptions and how educators teach students to navigate the constructs of visual reality is becoming increasing more important. My experience as a photojournalist informs this area of research positioned at the intersection of pedagogy and practice.
Related Peer-Reviewed Publications:
Miller, S., Cepak, A., & Peng, Z. (In Press). Pedagogical approaches in teaching journalistic interviewing competencies. Electronic News.
Related Peer-Reviewed Conference Papers:
Carpenter, Peng, Z., S., Cepak, A., (2019) How to Interview Like a Journalist: The Journalistic Interviewing Competencies Scale. World Journalism Education Congress. July 9-11, 2019, Paris, France.
Carpenter, S., Peng, Z., Cepak, A., (2017) The Development and Testing of Journalistic Interviewing Competencies Scale. Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research annual conference, Chicago, IL, November 17-18, 2017.
Carpenter, S., Cepak, A., Peng, Z., (2017) The Five Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Journalistic Interviewing Competencies. Midwest Association of Public Opinion Research annual conference, Chicago, IL, November 17-18, 2017.