scholar, educator and author
Ruth DeFoster holds a PhD in mass communication from the University of Minnesota.
She is an Assistant Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she teaches courses on advertising, visual communication, popular culture, writing, and media. Her research focuses on media coverage of crime, mass shootings, terrorism and identity. She is the author of the book Terrorizing the Masses: Identity, Mass Shootings and the Media Construction of 'Terror.'
Ruth's professional background is in journalism, and she has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor and journalist. She was the 2020 Head of the Cultural and Critical Studies Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and served as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Hubbard School from 2019-2023.
THE FEAR KNOT
Why do we fear Halloween candy but not vending machines? Why do “witch hunts” recur so often in history? How dangerous are serial killers, really? The Fear Knot examines our most common deeply held fears, unpacking which are valid and which are misguided, explaining the history of how our irrational fears developed, and how we can unlearn them.
In this lively and timely tour, neuroscientist Natashia Swalve and journalism professor Ruth DeFoster lead readers through the history and psychology behind our most visible and sensational cultural fears, beginning with the most personal—fear within our bodies—and moving outward to the home, our country, and finally to our broadest society-level fears. From micro fears, like how our fear of vaccines has led to measles epidemics, to the broad existential dread associated with climate change and gun violence, The Fear Knot examines the toll our fears take on us, on an individual and societal level. Exploring how shared culture, media consumption, and even our own brain can help drive incorrect beliefs about risk, Swalve and DeFoster help readers to make informed, evidence-based decisions about fear and risk— and along the way, to learn how to think critically, examine your own beliefs, and become confident consumers of media and popular culture.
Combining psychology and journalism in short, light-hearted chapters, The Fear Knot gives readers a fresh look at Americans’ perceptions of risk and danger, with an emphasis on how to recognize misinformation or biases, updated to include the most recent fears that Americans face in the 21st century— and the real dangers that we may be ignoring.
CATHOLIC HORROR ON TELEVISION: HAUNTING FAITH
Catholic Horror on Television: Haunting Faith explores the significant intersection of horror media and the Catholic Church. Religious themes enjoy a long history in film and television, with narratives featuring the supernatural, science fiction, and horror making use of Roman Catholicism in particular.
Praise for Catholic Horror on Television:
“Catholic Horror on Television benefits from its authors’ varied personal histories with Catholicism. Their chapers have an emotional resonance that contextualizes and deepens readers’ appreciation of the liturgical, ceremonial, and spiritual spaces of horror in these television series.”
— Will Dodson, University of North Carolina Greensboro
“Catholic Horror on Television offers a mixed and complicated response to both the status of the Catholic Church and the genre of horror itself.”
— Tony Magistrale, University of Vermont
TERRORIZING THE MASSES
“Confronted with mass shootings in a post-Columbine, post-September 11 world, journalists and commentators tend to shunt shooters into one of two neatly delineated camps—“crazy” or “political.” And in coverage of mass shootings with any hint of a link to Islam, Arab or Muslim identity, or any interest by the shooter in Islamic extremism, the two categories shift to “crazy” (or “disturbed”/“unbalanced”) or “terrorist.”
— Ruth DeFoster, PhD
Praise for Terrorizing the Masses:
“In Terrorizing the Masses, Ruth DeFoster analyzes how news media framed five mass shootings occurring over the span of two decades. Given the rarity of these events, DeFoster cogently argues that U.S. news media create the frameworks through which we come to “know” such events and thus determine political, social, and cultural responses to these terrible acts of gun violence. In this important book, DeFoster does not shy away from the difficult questions her analysis raises, particularly in terms of what it is about U.S. culture (and mass shootings, as she takes pains to remind us, are a peculiarly U.S. phenomenon) and its racialized masculinities that create conditions in which such violence continues to occur.”
— Carol Stabile, Professor and Associate Dean for the Social Sciences, University of Oregon
“Through an insightful and engrossing analysis, Ruth DeFoster uncovers stunning media bias. Mass shootings committed by Arab or Muslim Americans are labeled as terrorism and receive exponentially more coverage than those committed by white men. The evidence is clear and the misrepresentation alarming. You will never think of mass shootings in the same way again.”
