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A headshot of Ruth

Ruth DeFoster

[email protected]
Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication
111 Murphy Hall

206 Church St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Collegiate Affiliation
Assistant Professor,
Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication
Links
Personal website
  • Specialties
  • Publications
  • Activities
  • Awards
  • Courses
Specialties
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Specialties

  • Journalism
  • Critical and Cultural Studies
  • Media coverage of terrorism
  • Gun violence and mass shootings
  • Public health
  • Fear
Publications
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Publications

  • Natashia Swalve and Ruth DeFoster (October 2025). The Fear Knot: How Science, History and Culture Shape Our Fears, and How to Get Unstuck. Prometheus.
  • Ruth DeFoster and Chelsea Reynolds (2025). Mediated Masculinity and the Hip Hop Theory of Punishment: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Drake v. Kendrick Rap Battle. Race/Gender/Class/Media: Considering Diversity Across Audiences, Content, and Producers, 6th edition.
  • Ruth DeFoster (2025). Communicating Terrorism: Meaning-Making and Crisis. The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research.
  • Ralph Beliveau, Laura Bolf-Beliveau, Ruth DeFoster and Erika Engstrom (June 2024). Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith. Lexington Books.
  • Natashia Swalve, Ruth DeFoster, and M Konoplyanko (2021). Poor and Hurting: Media Habits and Views on Drugs. SN Social Sciences.
  • Ruth DeFoster (2017). Terrorizing the Masses: Identity, Mass Shootings and the Media Construction of 'Terror'. Peter Lang.
  • Ruth DeFoster and Natashia Swalve (2017). Guns, Culture, or Mental Health? Framing Mass Shootings as a Public Health Crisis. Health Communication.
  • Natashia Swalve and Ruth DeFoster (2017). How Broadcast Media Discuss New Drug Epidemics: Integrating Neuroscience with Communication Studies through Textual Framing. . SAGE Research Methods Cases.
  • Natashia Swalve and Ruth DeFoster (2016). Framing the Danger of Designer Drugs: Mass Media, Bath Salts and the “Miami Zombie” Attack. . Contemporary Drug Problems.
  • Ruth DeFoster and Catherine Squires (2016). What does civility have to do with it? TV News Coverage of the 2011 Tucson Rampage Shooting. . Dangerous Discourses: Feminism, Gun Violence and Civic Life.
  • Ruth DeFoster (2015). Orientalism for a New Millennium: Cable News and the Specter of the “Ground Zero Mosque.” . Journal of Communication Inquiry.
Activities
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Activities

Professional

  • Podcast Editor/Producer, Cultural and Critical Studies Division, AEJMC 2021-present
Awards
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Awards

  • Marshall Tanick Instructor Award, 2024
  • Hubbard School Teaching Excellence Award, 2022
Courses
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Courses

  • JOUR 3745: Media and Pop Culture
  • JOUR 4251: Psychology of Advertising
  • JOUR 4274W: Advertising in Society
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215 Johnston Hall

101 Pleasant St. S.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55455

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[email protected]
612-625-2020

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