In this project, Mónica Guzmán, Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels served as the McGurn Fellow at the University of Florida for 2023-2024. She sought to understand the impact of specific conversational cues that could make people feel heard in political discussions on controversial issues. To this end, I developed and conducted an experiment where we hired student actors to act out a political conversation that I scripted. We then launched a 1,200-participant online experiment where participants viewed one of eight videos we filmed.

We found that when the actors asked for the other person's opinion, participants reported feeling more heard on behalf of the actors and were open to future political discussions. This research has been submitted to be presented at the National Communication Association Annual Convention and will be submitted to academic journals.

Practically speaking, this work will be published in several national-level media organizations and is mentioned during Mónica's speaking engagements, which she conducts nationwide.

I have taught Public Relations Campaigns, the Public Relations capstone course before students graduate, five times at the University of Florida.

In this course, I ensure that the students work with real-world clients and are impacting these clients positively. The students conduct secondary research, primary research, and make implementation and evaluation plans for the clients after the semester is over. I manage each of the groups (typically three to four per semester, each with their own campaign book).

This research has included many types of methods. First, I have overseen/conducted surveys and analyzed the data with students. Second, I have managed focus groups and interviews with the students. Third, I managed students as they developed brand kits for various clients.

These clients have included Horizon Family Medical Group located in the Hudson Valley, New York; Mo Explores - a traveling-based social media paged based out of Colorado; The Innovation News Center at the University of Florida; Fold'em Fab, a metal fabrication business in Tijeras, NM; GFG Manufacturing, a woodworking and furniture business in Rio Rancho, NM.

Samples of the final campaign books are available upon request.

I bring eight years of journalistic/academic writing and editing experience.

I began writing for the Coastal Carolina University student newspaper in August 2016, then was promoted to copy editor in December 2016, then I served as the Assistant Editor until May 2017. I wrote dozens of articles and edited hundreds.

I have been writing academically since 2019 until today. I have been passionate about writing since my early childhood. Within my academic writing experience, I have edited many papers, peer-reviewed many papers, presented over 30 papers at academic conferences, and have been published in 8 peer-reviewed publications.

Shaughnessy, B. (2023). 2020 election coverage was rife with authoritarian language, study finds. Poynter Institute. https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/2020-election-coverage-was-rife-with-authoritarian-language-study-finds/

In this article, I wrote about my academically-published article on the language used by Trump, Biden, and the media in the 2020 US Presidential Election. We found that Trump, Biden, and the media used authoritarian language throughout the campaign. In this article, I discuss implications of the study for journalists.

Hudson, T. (2024, April 12). The politics of language, new limits on ‘forever chemicals’ and final Delta IV launch. In The Florida Roundup. NPR. https://www.wlrn.org/podcast/the-florida-roundup/2024-04-12/politics-of-language-forever-chemicals-limits-delta-iv

I appeared on the Florida Roundup NPR podcast to discuss the study on authoritarian language in the 2020 US Presidential Campaign. I primarily discuss the findings in the 2024 election context.

I serve as the research liaison on a project that is developing an artificial intelligence-based tool for journalists. In this role, I help manage the surveys for participating newsrooms.

By winning this award, I received $5,000 to support my research and projects as I finish my degree, with the promise that I will continue making my research applicable to industry and have practical implications.