We’re delighted to welcome Josh Compton to the IWR faculty as our new Speech instructor. Josh will be teaching five speech classes this year: Public Speaking (fall, winter, spring), Persuasive Public Speaking (winter), and Speechwriting (spring).
Josh, who received his Ph.D. in 2004 from the University of Oklahoma, is an award-winning speech professor and public speaker. Named Outstanding Professor by the National Speakers Association, Josh’s teaching has been recognized by the Instructional Division of the International Communication Association and the Pi Kappa Delta National Honorary.
Josh’s scholarship has received awards from international and national organizations, including Pi Kappa Delta, the Central States Communication Association, the International Communication Association, and the National Communication Association. Josh’s research has appeared in leading communication journals, including Human Communication Research, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Yearbook, and Health Communication. His explorations of political humor effects appear in Routledge’s recently-released book, Laughing Matters: Humor and American Politics in the Media Age.
Josh’s public speaking engagements include seminar presentations for the Department of Defense Joint Course in Communication and numerous academic and community events. He served as speechwriter for the Oklahoma Institute for Childhood Advocacy, writing speeches for community leaders and the First Lady of Oklahoma during her early childhood education tour.
We look forward to having Josh on board.
Excerpt from "Speech as Transactional" 
Whether a speaker approaches public speaking as a transmission or as a transaction influences every stage of speechmaking. In this speech, Compton considers implications of viewing speech as transactional, and in this excerpt, he introduces the dissonance of being between conversation and performance.
Excerpt from "Spreading Inoculation"
A great deal of Compton’s scholarship focuses on resistance to influence, and specifically, attitudinal inoculation theory. Inoculation theory argues that, much like a medical vaccination confers resistance to future viral attacks through exposure to weakened viruses, attitudinal inoculation confers resistance to future persuasion attacks through exposure to weakened arguments. Compton’s most recent work considers whether inoculation-based campaign messages uniquely motivate word-of-mouth transmission of arguments along social networks. In this excerpt, he talks a little about the analogic connection between spreading medical vaccines and spreading inoculation-based campaign message content.
Excerpt from “Reconsidering Delivery”
Delivery is a powerful component of speechmaking. Yet, as Compton argues in this speech, it’s most effective when it’s unnoticed. In this excerpt, he shares some thoughts on the unobtrusive nature of good delivery.
Pictures that Speak 1000 Words
The Photography of Josh Compton
