Ryan Comfort
Assistant Professor
Contact Information
Research and Creative Interests
- Visual Communication
- science communication
- environmental communication
- race and media
- Native American and Indigenous Media
Biography
My research examines science and environmental communication in both journalism and public relations contexts, with a particular focus on media involving Indigenous peoples and environmental issues. One strand of my research uses qualitative ethnographic methods, including interviews and participant-observation, to study how governmental and journalistic organizations make decisions about environmental stories and sources. The second strand of my research uses quantitative methods, surveys and experiments, to study scientists as news sources and their effects on public attitudes toward environmental policies. My research has been published in Environmental Communication, Science Communication, and Society and Natural Resources.
I continue to freelance as a photojournalist and videographer, covering issues including Indigenous cultural revitalization, natural resource management, and collaborative environmental governance. In my limited free time, I pet my dogs and give them treats.