Dr. Michelle A. Amazeen

Dr. Michelle A. Amazeen is Director of the Communication Research Center and an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations at Boston University. She earned her Ph.D. in Mass Media and Communication from Temple University in Philadelphia and received a B.S. and M.S. in Advertising from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Amazeen’s research is cross-disciplinary at the intersection of advertising, journalism and political communication. The focus of her research involves mediated persuasion and misinformation, investigating the factors that influence recognition of persuasion and resistance to it. She examines how situational message factors (source, text, visuals, disclosure labels) interact with individual characteristics (demographics, media use motivations, ideology, information literacy) to affect persuasion knowledge, cognitive coping responses, attitudes, and intentions. More broadly, she has examined how media practices (such as political fact-checking and native advertising) facilitate and challenge public perceptions of society. Her work has been previously funded by the American Press Institute and the New America Foundation, has appeared in academic journals such as Digital Journalism, Journal of Political Marketing, Journalism, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly; Media, Culture & Society, and New Media & Society, and has been mentioned by mainstream news outlets such as CNN's GPS, the Daily Beast, and the Street. She has appeared on WHYY's Radio Times and on Boston 25 News.

Her career in the communication industry began by “selling air” and managing the student sales staff at WPGU Radio in Champaign, Illinois. Before returning to academia, she researched the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns for companies including The Signature Group and Millward Brown. A post-midnight encounter with a brand equity perceptual map of toilet bowl cleaners led Dr. Amazeen to reassess her professional aspirations. She now enjoys challenging herself and her students to critically evaluate our media environment.