ComSHER Division
Communicating Science, Health, Environment and Risk (ComSHER) is a division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
The members of ComSHER are dedicated to the pursuit of high quality mass communication scholarship and high academic and professional standards for mass communication education, particularly as these relate to science, health, environmental, and risk communication.
ComSHER was established in 1991 as the Science Communication Interest Group. It was renamed in 2009 and became a full division in August 2010. Visit the Bylaws for more information about our division.
As a member of the AEJMC ComSHER division, you have access to our listserv, as well as our newsletters and active social media pages. Check out our Facebook, X/Twitter, and BlueSky pages as well!
Contributions to AEJMC and the Field
Each August at the AEJMC annual conference, ComSHER leads multiple peer-reviewed research sessions, as well as teaching and professional freedom and responsibility panels. The rest of the year, our members work hard to pioneer ComSHER-related graduate and undergraduate mass communication programs and courses, and to contribute substantially to theoretically and methodologically rich research on science, health, environment and risk communication.
Indeed, high quality research is the hallmark of ComSHER. We maintain close ties with the journal Science Communication, and many of our members publish in and populate the editorial boards of other top ComSHER-related journals, including Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Environmental Communication, and Risk Analysis.
To help ensure that high quality research continues to be our hallmark for a long time to come, another goal of ComSHER is to actively mentor junior scholars who are pursuing the study of science, health, environmental, and risk communication. For example, each year ComSHER presents the $1000 Eason Award to the top ComSHER paper authored by a student or group of students.
ComSHER also works hard to build and maintain relationships with other AEJMC divisions and interest groups, as well as professionals and practitioners outside of AEJMC. These efforts enhance the inherently interdisciplinary nature of ComSHER practice and keep ComSHER relevant to the larger field of mass commun