Josh Compton, Professor of Speech, has been awarded the 2022 Distinguished Book Award from the Communication and Social Cognition Division of the National Communication Association for his book, Persuasion and Communication in Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity. He shares this recognition with his co-editors, Ben Jackson (The University of Western Australia) and James Dimmock (James Cook University—Australia).
Persuasion and Communication in Sport, Exercise, and Physical Activity (Routledge) offers an unprecedented look at extant findings of and future opportunities for communication and persuasion research within exercise- and activity-related contexts. The book covers a wide array of key communication and social cognition theories and conceptual frameworks, including groundbreaking work with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty, Briñol, Teeny, and Horcajo), efficacy (Roberto, Van Raalte, Liu, and Posteher), inoculation theory (Compton and Ivanov), psychological reactance (Quick, Reynolds-Tylus, and Gonzalez), automatically activated cognitions (Berry), need-supportive communication (Ntoumanis, Quested, Reeve, and Cheon), principled negotiation (Dimmock and Jackson), embodiment (Briñol, Petty, and Hinsenkamp), self-presentation (Eklund and Howle), and others. The editors write: "By providing contemporary theoretical and research coverage, alongside practical recommendations for message design and communication methods, we hope this book will not only stimulate new research developments, but also enable individuals and organizations to communicate their physical activity messages more effectively."