Science, Information and the News in Global Sustainability (SINGS) Lab

The SINGS Lab, established in late Fall 2025, is the newest program under the CEJ. It advances interdisciplinary research on how science, media, and information systems shape public understanding, governance, and action in addressing global sustainability challenges.

SINGS Lab Members & Visiting Scholars

Hong Vu
SINGs Lab Supervisor

Harikrishnan Bhaskaran
SINGs Lab Coordinator

Tien-Tsung Lee
Visiting Scholar

Nhung Nguyen
SINGS Lab Member

Uyen Ngo
SINGS Lab Member

Hannah (Huong) Ha
SINGS Lab Member

Hechen Ding
SINGS Lab Member

Megan Tasha Schiffres
SINGS Lab Member

Farzana Tasnim Pinky
SINGS Lab Member

Hina Ali
SINGS Lab Member

Ongoing Projects

 

Climate change information integrity

Investigates climate misinformation, misreporting, and fact-checking practices.
 

 

Climate information and youth

Examines how media outlets aimed at young audiences construct climate change discourse, framing the challenges facing future generations.

 

Climate justice and the news media

Analyzes how news media around the world report on climate justice.

 

Message elements and audience response

Tests how features of sustainability news coverage (sources, modalities, content) shape audience perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors.

 

Farmers and climate change

Explores how farmers access climate information and participate in conversations about climate change.

 

Climate change and political polarization

Compares coverage across news organizations of differing political orientations and assesses its effects on audiences.

News/Publications

Ha, H. & Vu, H. T. (2026)

“Shame, embarrassed, and skeptical!”: How inadvertently sharing fake news influences users’ social media behaviors.

Digital Journalism

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Pei, J., Vu, H. T., Wu, Y., & Maswood, M. (2026)

Hoax, fraud, scam, or lie: A corpus analysis of strategies used by Fox News to dismiss climate change in the last two decades.

Journalism Studies

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Wu, Y., Vu, H. T., Ha, H. & Do, G. T. (2025)

Compassion and climate change advocacy: A computational analysis of U.S. environmental NGOs’ social media campaigns.

Environmental Communication

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Vu, H. T., Nguyen, N.,* Izhar, N.,* & Diwanji, V. (2025)

“Climate change is real, but I don’t want to talk about it”: Unraveling spiral of silence effects regarding climate change among Midwestern American farmers.

Environmental Communication

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SINGs Lab aims to:

  1. Train the next generation of scholars in science and environmental communication research

  2. Foster meaningful dialogue among scholars, students, and the public on science, environmental, and sustainability issues

  3. Produce rigorous, systematic research on science, environmental, and sustainability communication

  4. Provide solution-oriented recommendations to support effective communication practices among stakeholders and institutions.

 

 

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