Ruth DeFoster, PhD, is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota, where she is also the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her research on terrorism, mass shootings, gun violence, tragedy, and identity has been published in academic books and journals, including Health Communication, Contemporary Drug Problems, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Communication, Culture & Critique, and SAGE Research Methods Cases. DeFoster's first book, Terrorizing the Masses: Identity, Mass Shootings, and the Media Construction of Terrorexamines twenty years of media coverage of terrorism and mass shootings in the United States. She has written for many publications, including MinnPost, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Minnesota Women's Press, The Winona Daily News, The La Crosse Tribune, and Critique Magazine.

Natashia Swalve, PhD, is an assistant professor of psychology and psychopharmacology at Grand Valley State University in Michigan and has won several awards for teaching and faculty excellence throughout her career. She has published 28 papers on topics involving drug abuse and mental illness. Together, DeFoster and Swalve have published four academic papers and presented at three nationwide conferences on the intersection of psychology and the media, discussing perceptions of risk and audience's beliefs about the danger of drugs, terrorism, and mass shootings.