Michelle Amazeen
Core Faculty, IGS; Associate Professor of Mass Communication and Associate Dean of Research, College of Communication
Dr. Michelle A. Amazeen, core faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is the College of Communication’s Associate Dean of Research, Director of the Communication Research Center, and an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Advertising and Public Relations at Boston University. Amazeen’s research program examines mediated persuasion and misinformation, exploring the nature and persuasive effects of misinformation and efforts to correct it. She employs a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to yield results with practical applications for journalists, educators, policymakers, and consumers who strive to foster recognition of and resistance to persuasion and misinformation in media.
Her work has been previously funded by the American Press Institute, the New America Foundation, and the Rita Allen Foundation and has appeared in academic publications such as Communication Monographs; Digital Journalism; Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly; Nature Reviews Psychology; New Media & Society, and Science Communication. She is among the team of 22 prominent scholars from around the globe with expertise in misinformation and its debunking who contributed to The Debunking Handbook 2020 – a consensus document summarizing the science of debunking for engaged citizens, policymakers, journalists, and other practitioners. She is also a contributor to The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook, a practical guide to help fight the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Amazeen is currently a co-investigator on the Boston University Climate Disinformation Initiative supported by the Institute for Global Sustainability and the Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering Focused Research Program Award. She is extending her previous work on persuasion and misinformation to focus on the discussion of climate issues in native advertising, a form of covert advertising, especially to identify how corporations engaged in native advertising are using the practice to affect public attitudes toward climate.
Pronouns: she/her