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School of Communication

Dr. Mary Beth Deline

Associate Professor
Mary Beth's Profile Image
Office
FEL Fell Hall
Office Hours
Tuesday and Thursday, 2-3:30
Office Phone
(309) 438-7747office
phone
Email
medelin@ilstu.eduemail
Website
http://www.researchgate.net/profile... website
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Selected Research

Biography

I investigate information avoidance, how changes are implemented in organizations and communities, and how resistance to these changes occurs, often in sustainability contexts. This requires intersecting strategic, organizational and environmental communication, using methods ranging from qualitative interviews to surveys to content analyses.

Current Courses

COM 297.004 Communication Research Methods

COM 297.005 Communication Research Methods

COM 274.001 Environmental Communication

COM 400.019 Independent Study

COM 297.005 Communication Research Methods

COM 378.001 Public Relations Management And Research

COM 378.002 Public Relations Management And Research

Ph D Communication

Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

Outstanding State Manuscript Award

Central States Communication Association
2025

Top Five Great Idea for Teaching, PR Division, AEJMC

AEJMC PR Division
2022

AEJMC ComSHER Teaching Award (Honorable Mention)

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk Division
2019

Book, Chapter

Assessing How Research is Presented in the Media
Mary Beth Deline.
(2026), Methods, Teaching Communication: Methods, Cognella
Representations of the environment on television, and their effects
James Shanahan, Katherine McComas, Mary Beth Deline.
(2022), Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication, Routledge
Expanding moral messaging climate change research
Mary Beth Deline.
Understanding Pope Francis: Message, media and audience, Lexington Books

Journal Article

Environmental Information Avoidance on a U.S. Campus.
Mary Beth Deline, Laura Rickard, Jared Worwood, Pei Geng, Elisabeth Reed.
Iowa Journal of Communication, 56 (1), (2025)
"Hide Our Heads in the Sand": Environmental Information Avoidance Motives in the United States
Mary Beth Deline, Laura Rickard, Mary Katreeb, Melissa Adams.
Frontiers Communication: Science and Environmental Communication, (2024), doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2024.1468968
The (fish) scales of justice: How perceived fairness influences social license to operate in aquaculture development.
Laura Rickard, Mary Beth Deline, Nathan Smith.
Journal of Risk Research, (2024), https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2024.2315999
Looking Back, Stepping Forward: COVID-19 PR KSA Development and Adaptation Assessment for Post-traumatic Growt
Mary Beth Deline.
Journal of Public Relations Education, 8 (3), (2022)
Planned Risk Information Avoidance: A Proposed Theoretical Model
Mary Beth Deline, Lee Ann Kahlor.
Communication Theory, 29 (3), 360-382, (2019), doi:10.1093/ct/qty035
Framing Resistance: Identifying Frames that Guide Resistance Interpretation at Work
Mary Beth Deline.
Management Communication Quarterly, (2018), doi:10.1177/0893318918793731
Energizing organizational research: Advancing the energy field with group concepts and theories
Mary Beth Deline.
Energy Research and Social Science, 8, 207-221, (2015), http://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2015.06.003
Saving energy at the workplace: The salience of behavioral antecedents and sense of community
Graham N. Dixon, Mary Beth Deline, Katherine McComas, Lauren Chambliss, Michael Hoffmann.
ENERGY RESEARCH & SOCIAL SCIENCE, 6, 121-127, (2015), 10.1016/j.erss.2015.01.004
The Use of Comparative Feedback to Influence Workplace Energy Conservation.
Graham Dixon, Mary Beth Deline, Katherine McComas, Lauren Chambliss, Michael Hoffman.
Environment and Behavior, 47 (6), 667-693, (2014), 10.1037/t48058-000
Flint in crisis: Investigating environmental crisis communication response strategies
Mary Beth Deline.
Communication Teacher

Presentations

Organizational information avoidance - The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality during the Flint Water Crisis
Mary Beth Deline, Hillary Campos, Winnie Kimani, Leia Atas, Laura Rickard.
Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences, Online, June, 2026
How to scale a fish: Exploring spatial and temporal scales within land based aquaculture developments as social-ecological systems.
Mary Beth Deline, Nathan Smith, Laura Rickard.
International Association for Society and Natural Resources, Vancouver, BC, June, 2025
Environmental information avoidance motives
Mary Beth Deline, Mary Katreeb, Melissa Adams.
The Conference on Communication and the Environment, Online, June 6, 2023
The (fish) scales of justice: How perceived fairness influences social license to operate in aquaculture development
Mary Beth Deline, Laura Rickard, Nathan Smith.
International Communication Association, Toronto, ON, Canada, May 29, 2023
Sticking My Head In the Sand: Motives for Environmental Information Avoidance
Mary Beth Deline, Kajsa Dalrymple, Jared Worwood, Pei Geng, Elisabeth Reed.
International Communication Association, Online, May 27, 2021
Resistance Drivers
Mary Beth Deline, Pei Geng.
National Communication Association, Online, November 19, 2020
ComSHER Teaching Awards Panel
Mary Beth Deline.
AEJMC, Toronto, August 7, 2019
Framing Efficacy Upstream and Downstream: Examining Efficacy Media Frames in Relation to Distributed Water Pollution Risks
Mary Beth Deline, Kajsa Dalrymple.
The 2019 Conference on Communication and Environment, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 18, 2019