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A close up of pink flowers on a tree blooming on Regent University's Virginia Beach campus.
William J. Brown, Ph.D.Professor & Research Fellow, Journalism & Communication StudiesSchool of Communication & the Arts

William J. Brown, Ph.D.

Bio

Dr. William Brown is a Professor and Research Fellow in the Journalism & Communication Studies Department at Regent University’s School of Communication & the Arts. He led the school as Dean from 1992 to 2002 and served as both Chair of the Department of Strategic Communication & Journalism and Director of the Ph.D. program from 2003 to 2016.

Specializing in the study and use of entertainment-education for social change, health communication, and media and social influence, Dr. Brown has conducted academic and professional research in more than 40 nations for the past 30 years, in addition to educating students on these subjects.

Beyond his tenure at Regent University, Dr. Brown has taught communication courses at the University of Southern California, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and the University of the Nations in Kona, Hawaii. He also completed a five-year appointment as a Fulbright Senior Specialist with the Fulbright Scholar Program in Washington, D.C.

Credentials

  • Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1988
  • M.A., University of Southern California, 1987
  • M.A., University of Southern California, 1986
  • B.S., Purdue University, 1978

Memberships and Affiliations

  • International Communication Association
  • National Communication Association
  • Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
  • Institutional Review Board

Honors and Awards

  • Fulbright Specialist, Norway, October 2011
  • Fulbright Specialist, the Netherlands, April-May 2009
  • Fulbright Specialist Program Nominee (Five-Year Recognition), August 2007
  • The Chancellor's Award, Regent University, 2003
  • Faculty Fellow, Center for Arts & Humanities at the University of Hawaii, Aug.-Dec. 1989

Publications

  • Khoo, F., & Brown, W.J. (2018). Tweeting the election: Comparative uses of Twitter by Trump and Clinton in the 2016 election. In A.S. Hayes (Ed.), Communication in the Age of Trump. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang Publishing.
  • Brown, William J., Simonnes, Asbjørn (2018). Hans Nielson Hauge’s prescription for social change: Personal devotion, media literacy and community transformation. In R.H. Woods & N. Wood (Eds.), Ancient-future communication: Communication wisdom from influential Christian thinkers and theologians throughout history (4 vols.).
  • Brown, William J., & Jeffress, Michael S. (2018). The impact of having a teacher with a disability on student attitudes toward persons with disabilities. In M.S. Jeffress (Ed.), Teaching with a disability: Perspectives on teaching from differently-abled instructors. Interdisciplinary Disability Studies Series. New York: Routledge.
  • Jeffress, M., & Brown, W.J. (2017). Opportunities and benefits for powerchair users through power soccer. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 34(3), 235-255.
  • Brown, W.J. (2017). Celebrity involvement: Parasocial interaction, identification and worship. In A. Elliott (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Celebrity Studies. London, UK: Routledge Publishing.
  • Jeffress, M., & Brown, W.J. (2017). Freedom of choice in The Great Divorce: C. S. Lewis’ rhetorical vision of afterlife. CSL: The Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society, 48(2), 1-14.
  • Brown, W.J. (2017). Entertainment-Education. In Oxford Bibliographies in Communication. Ed. Patricia Moy. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Kim, C., & Brown, W.J. (2015). Conceptualizing credibility in social media spaces of public relations. Public Relations Journal, 9(4).
  • Brown, W.J. (2015). Examining four processes of audience involvement with media personae: Transportation, parasocial interaction, identification and worship. Communication Theory, 25(3), 259-283.