Dominique Brossard

About

Dominique Brossard is a professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches courses in strategic communication theory and research, focusing on science and risk communication for both undergraduate and graduate students, including those in the Science Communication Ph.D. program. Brossard's research agenda centers on the intersection between science, media, and policy, with a particular emphasis on public opinion dynamics related to controversial scientific issues. She is an expert in understanding the role of values in shaping public attitudes and employs cross-cultural analysis to explore these processes. Brossard has published extensively in prominent outlets and serves as an expert panelist for the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. She has held numerous national and international service roles, including on the NASEM Board of Life Sciences and the Advisory Committee for the NASEM Division of Behavioral & Social Sciences & Education. Her professional background includes experience in both laboratory and corporate settings, notably at Accenture and as a communication coordinator for the Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project II. She holds an M.S. in plant biotechnology from the Ecole Nationale d’Agronomie de Toulouse and both an M.P.S. and Ph.D. in communication from Cornell University.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Social Science
• Computer Science
• Public relations
• Psychology
• Business
• Internet privacy
• Engineering
• Medicine

Selected publications

• Fact-checking as risk communication: the multi-layered risk of misinformation in times of COVID-19

  Journal of Risk Research · 2020-04-22 · 429 citations

  articleSenior author

  The emergence of the 2019 novel coronavirus has led to more than a pandemic—indeed, COVID-19 is spawning myriad other concerns as it rapidly marches around the globe. One of these concerns is a surge of misinformation, which we argue should be viewed as a risk in its own right, and to which insights from decades of risk communication research must be applied. Further, when the subject of misinformation is itself a risk, as in the case of COVID-19, we argue for the utility of viewing the problem…

  PublisherDOI

• Believing and sharing misinformation, fact-checks, and accurate information on social media: The role of anxiety during COVID-19

  New Media & Society · 2021 · 221 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The COVID-19 pandemic went hand in hand with what some have called a "(mis)infodemic" about the virus on social media. Drawing on partisan motivated reasoning and partisan selective sharing, this study examines the influence of political viewpoints, anxiety, and the interactions of the two on believing and willingness to share false, corrective, and accurate claims about COVID-19 on social media. A large-scale 2 (emotion: anxiety vs relaxation) × 2 (slant of news outlet: MSNBC vs Fox News) exper…

  DOI

• SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Surveillance for Public Health Action

  Emerging infectious diseases · 2021 · 144 citations

  Wastewater surveillance for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has garnered extensive public attention during the coronavirus disease pandemic as a proposed complement to existing disease surveillance systems. Over the past year, methods for detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA in untreated sewage have advanced, and concentrations in wastewater have been shown to correlate with trends in reported cases. Despite the promise of wastewater surveillance, for…

  DOI

• What we know about effective public engagement on CRISPR and beyond

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 109 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Advances in gene editing technologies for human, plant, and animal applications have led to calls from bench and social scientists, as well as a wide variety of societal stakeholders, for broad public engagement in the decision-making about these new technologies. Unfortunately, there is limited understanding among the groups calling for public engagement on CRISPR and other emerging technologies about 1) the goals of this engagement, 2) the modes of engagement and what we know from systematic s…

  DOI

• In AI We Trust: The Interplay of Media Use, Political Ideology, and Trust in Shaping Emerging AI Attitudes

  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly · 2023-09-20 · 39 citations

  articleSenior author

  Using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults, this study explores how trust in key actors to responsibly manage artificial intelligence (AI) develops among members of the U.S. population and how trust, along with other key factors, shapes public attitudes toward AI. Greater trust is linked to stronger support for AI, both directly and indirectly (through risk and benefit perceptions). Furthermore, the strength or direction of the link between trust and support—as well as med…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Dietram A. Scheufele

  227 shared

• Michael A. Xenos

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  93 shared

• Sara K. Yeo

  University of Utah

  32 shared

• Christopher D. Wirz

  30 shared

• Laïla El Kihel

  28 shared

• Emily L. Howell

  Texas A&M University

  28 shared

• Leona Yi-Fan Su

  26 shared

• Ashley A. Anderson

  22 shared

Education

• M.S. and Ph.D, Department of Communication

  Cornell University

  2002

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sc…
• Fellow of the International Communication Association

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