Rick Busselle, Ph.D.

Profile:

Rick Busselle’s research and teaching focus on how mediated stories influence our perceptions of social issues and social problems, such as poverty and crime. His research focuses specifically on engagement with narratives, perceived realism of stories, and the social construction of reality through media.

His work has been published in Communication Theory, Communication Research, and The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, among other scholarly journals and academic proceedings.  

He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Media Psychology, and The Journal of Media Psychology, and has been a Co-Editor of Media Psychology.  

Education:

B.S. Journalism – Bowling Green State University
M.A. Telecommunication – Michigan State University
Ph.D. Mass Media – Michigan State University

Courses Taught:

Diversity Issues in Journalism
Media Effects
Quantitative Research Methods
Narrative Processing & Engagement
Introduction to Journalism in a Democracy
Media and the Information Society
Media Production Systems
A Social History of Media
Strategic Communication
Audience Measurement
Persuasion & Social Reality Construction

Select Representative Works:

Busselle, R. & Vierrether, T. (2022) Linking Epistemic Monitoring to Perceived Realism: The Impact of Story-World Inconsistency on Realism and Engagement. Media Psychology. doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2022.2032180

Busselle, R. (2017). Schemas and Mental Models.  International Encyclopedia of Media Effects, Wiley Publishing.

Bilandzic, H. & Busselle, R. (2017). Beyond metaphors and traditions: Exploring the conceptual boundaries of narrative engagement. In F. Hakemulder, M. Kuijpers, E. Tan, K. Bálint & M. Doicaru (Eds.) Narrative Absorption, pp. 11-27, John Benjamins Publishing.

Bilandzic, H., & Busselle, R. (2017). The narrative engageability scale: A multidimensional trait measure for the propensity for being engaged in a story. In F. Hakemulder, M. Kuijpers, E. Tan, K. Bálint, & M. Doicaru (Eds.), Narrative absorption (pp 11-27). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Sukalla, F., Bilandzic, H., Bolls, P., & Busselle, R. (2015). The embodiment of narrative engagement: Connecting self-reported narrative engagement to psychophysiological measures. Journal of Media Psychology, 28(4), 175-186. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.bgsu.edu:8080/10.1027/1864-1105/a000153

Bilandzic, H. & Busselle, R. (2013). Narrative Persuasion. In J. Dillard & L. Shen, (Eds.), The Persuasion Handbook, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Busselle, R. & Bilandzic, H. (2012). Cultivation and the Perceived Realism of Stories.  In M. Shanahan, M. Morgan, & N. Signorielli, (Eds.), The Cultivation Differential, New York: Peter Lang Publishers.

Busselle, R. & Bilandzic, H. (2011). The Role of Images in Readers’ Construction of News Narratives.  In S. Ross & P. M. Lester (Eds.) Images That Injure: Pictorial Stereotypes in the Media, 3rd Edition, ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, CA.

Busselle, R. & Bilandzic, H. (2009).  Measuring Narrative Engagement, Media Psychology, 12(4), 321-347.

Busselle, R. & Bilandzic, H. (2008). Fictionality and Perceived Realism in Experiencing Stories: A Model of Narrative Comprehension and Engagement.  Communication Theory, 18, 255-280.