Communicating Resiliency and Efficacy in a Digital Age

Human and ecological systems face substantial risks, and the ways individuals and communities adapt, change or otherwise transform are being increasingly highlighted as routes to address long-standing system-level problems. Central to this are the ways in which mediated communication may foster and support community resilience and collective efficacy.

Communicating Resiliency and Efficacy in a Digital Age: Mediated Communities takes an interdisciplinary look at the roles and processes associated with mediated communication in helping to foment community resiliency. The chapters describe the nexus of communication, media, health, and the environment and identifies leverage points to engage scholars across disciplines in the social sciences and humanities,

Through a culture-centric lens, this edited collection looks at how the concepts of community resilience and collective efficacy have been applied to work across academic disciplines, and how new understandings and applications may result.

Juliet Pinto is Associate Professor in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at Penn State, USA. Her research focuses on environmental communication and international news production.

Stephen Mainzer is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State, USA. His research studies the role of place in coupled environmental and political sentiments to describe how where we live affects our identity, thoughts, and actions toward our environment.

Lola Xie is a research assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research focuses on the intersection of digital media, public relations, and health communication, exploring how innovative digital tools, AI, and narratives can influence awareness, engagement, and behavior in areas such as chronic illness, mental health care, and community outreach.