YOUND PROFESSOR SPEARHEADS USD MEDIA PSYCH LAB

USD professor Brandon Nutting in the university's COMPARE research lab, located in the basement of the Al Neuharth Media Center. 

The Al Neuharth Media at the University of South Dakota center houses all the facilities expected of an accredited media & journalism department. Newspaper stands. Computer labs. A student newsroom. An underground psycho-physiology laboratory.
Wait, what?
Yep, you read right. 
A selection of professors and students have joined forces to conduct research on people's media consumption and habits, and their physiological reactions thereto - and they're willing to quite literally go underground to do so.
Since 2013, the basement of the building has been home to the COMPARE (Communication, Media Psychology and Related Effects) Lab. 
Brandon Nutting, an adjunct professor in the M&J department, has spearheaded the concept since his arrival at the university in 2012. Nutting uses the lab to conduct research quantifying involuntary physiological responses to different forms of media.
"I don't like things you can't measure," he said. "And in this field, a lot of the stuff we do is on intuition, where you can't count or measure it. So this allows you to count and measure things that you ordinarily wouldn't be able to, which is fascinating to me because you get an answer - real, hard answers."
If a psycho-physiology lab in the basement of a media building sounds complex or even slightly creepy, rest assured that the actual research is absolutely harmless, and about as uncomplicated as your typical Tuesday night - with a few extra wires involved. Subjects must simply sit in a cushy recliner and take in the researchers' media of choice while hooked up to the lab's equipment. 
Also, know that those who choose to have their media-addled minds picked are in good hands. Nutting has an extensive background in both communications and psychology, having received his Ph.D. in mass communications with a cognate in psychology from research-heavy Texas Tech University in 2012.
Nutting says he ultimately hopes the research (and the increasingly fruitful results thereof) will put USD on "the map," so to speak, in an increasingly competitive academic world.
"It's a unique selling position for us," he said. "The hope is to bring money to the department.... [We envision] us being a leader in media research for the entire state."