Category: Role

Professor
Associate Head of Graduate Studies

Affiliations

• Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising
• Institute of Communications Research

Education

• PhD, Stanford University (Communication)
• MA, Indiana University (Telecommunications)
• BGS, Indiana University (General Studies)

Course Specialties

• ADV 280: Introduction to Advertising Media
• ADV 580: Advertising Theory

Background

I came to the College of Media in 2013 after spending 9 years at the Missouri School of Journalism, where I co-founded and co-directed the PRIME Lab and taught in the School’s Strategic Communication sequence.

Research and Creative Endeavor

My research explores the psychology underlying interactive media use. In other words, how do different attributes of medium, message, person, and situation influence the processes and outcomes of media use? I primarily address this question through experiments that measure physiological and self-report indicators of cognition, emotion, and motivation.

Current/Prospective Students: Collaborating with students on research is one of my great joys. Please feel free to email me anytime if you’re interested in learning more about research and/or working in a media research lab.

If you’re not currently at the University of Illinois but interested in coming here, please feel free to email me about student assistantship opportunities.

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Associate Professor

Affiliations

• Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising
• Institute of Communications Research

Education

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota (Mass communication)
• M.A., University of Minnesota (Communication studies)
• B.S., Valley Forge Christian College (Theology)

Course Specialties

• Introduction to public relations
• Public relations writing
• Advanced public relations
• Social media and public relations

Background

Wirtz received a Ph.D. in mass communication in 2009 from the University of Minnesota. His studies there focused on how theories of human behavior (primarily grounded in psychology) can help us better understand how exposure to mass media content influences our thoughts and behavior. After completing his Ph.D., Wirtz was assistant professor at Texas Tech University for three years, before joining the Department of Advertising at the College of Media this fall.

Prior to attending graduate school, Wirtz worked for 11 years in a number of positions with public relations and marketing responsibilities. He worked for six years at an international NGO in donor relations and event planning. He also worked for five years directing fund raising, alumni relations and marketing efforts at two universities in the Midwest.

Research and Creative Endeavor

Wirtz’s research focuses on the intersection of interpersonal communication and mass media content. More specifically, Wirtz is interested in how conversation influences how individuals respond to ads—what they remember about the ads, how they evaluate the ads and whether they are more or less likely to take action on recommendations in the ads—based on the type of conversations they have prior to and while viewing the ads.

Wirtz also has an applied component to his research, as he also studies how to make mass media health campaigns more effective and culturally relevant. An example here is a recent research project involving adult Hispanics that tested different styles of presenting information about healthy eating habits and the importance of regular moderate exercise.

Wirtz’s research has appeared in Public Relations Journal, Psychological Science, Human Communication Research, and Communication Studies.

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Professor

Affiliations

• Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising
• Institute of Communications Research
• Department of Psychology
• Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism
• School of Information Sciences Informatics Programs 
• Center for Social and Behavioral Sciences

Education

• Ph.D., The Ohio State University (Social Psychology)
• M.A., The Ohio State University (Psychology)
• B.A., St. Mary’s College of Maryland (Philosophy, Psychology)

Course Specialties

• Advertising Research Methods
• Attitude-Behavior Relations
• Psychology of Advertising

Background

Vargas double-majored in philosophy and psychology at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and went on to pursue graduate studies in social psychology (with a minor in quantitative psychology) at The Ohio State University. While at OSU, he worked most closely with professors Bill von Hippel, Rich Petty and Bob Arkin. In 1997-98, Vargas worked as a post-doctoral researcher under the guidance of Joe Forgas at the University of New South Wales. Since 1998, Vargas has been at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Research and Creative Endeavor

Vargas has broad research interests spanning social psychology, consumer behavior, advertising, and marketing. A significant portion of his work examines implicit attitudes, stereotyping, prejudice, and how these relate to information processing biases that can influence social judgments and behaviors. His research program bridges social psychological processes with consumer behavior and marketing strategy. 

He has explored topics like linguistic intergroup bias, implicit stereotyping as a predictor of discrimination, and using implicit attitude measures to understand consumer responses to advertising. Vargas has also studied affective influences on cognition, such as the roles of mood and emotion in processes like eyewitness memory, decision-making, and well-being. Additionally, his research explores areas of consumer psychology, investigating phenomena like materialism, responses to marketing visuals and branding, the influence of virtual self-representation, and persuasion dynamics in advertising and marketing communications.

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Associate Professor

Affiliations

• Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising
• Institute of Communications Research
• Center for Social and Behavioral Science

Education

• Ph.D. Northwestern University
• M.A. Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, (MICA) India
• B.E. NSIT, University of Delhi, India

Course Specialties

• Audience Analysis
• Network Analysis 
• Seminar in Media and Communication Research

Background

Harsh Taneja is interested in how people consume media. He teaches and researches about media audiences, an area that is relevant to all media majors and beyond, regardless of whether they want to pursue advertising, journalism or media studies. His teaching draws on contemporary and historical conversations about media metrics, data and AI. 

Before becoming an academic researcher, Harsh has worked in the global media and advertising industry, including as an audience researcher at the Global News Division of the BBC.

Research and Creative Endeavor

Harsh Taneja is interested in how people consume media in an environment where they purportedly have plenty of choice. Within this broader question, his work focuses on global internet audiences, as well as how people consume news on digital media.

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Associate Professor
Director, Institute of Communications Research

Affiliations

• Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising
• Institute of Communications Research

Education

• PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Mass Communications)
• MPA, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Public Affairs)
• MS, National Taiwan University (Chemistry)
• BS, National Chiao-Tung University (Applied Chemistry)

Course Specialties

• ADV 490: Social media analytics*
• ADV 492: Tech and advertising campaigns
• ADV 581: Quantitative research methods in advertising*

* made the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students

Background

Dr. Su is a faculty affiliate at the Institute of Communications Research, the Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA), and the Informatics Programs. She is on the editorial board of Environmental Communication and has served as a reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and more than 20 journals.

Su’s research examines the interplay between media and society, with a particular focus on how social media and new technologies influence human communication and social behaviors in the context of scientific and health topics. It has appeared in New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, Telematics and Informatics, Science Communication, Health Communication, Environmental Communication, and Science and Public Policy, among other peer-reviewed publications.

Awards

Su is currently a co-principal investigator on an NSF-funded project that examines the effectiveness of using humor for communication about science, particularly on social media. As a principal investigator, she is also leading a CDA project that computationally analyzes tweets about an emerging food technology, with the aim of understanding branding strategies and public opinion.

Research and Creative Endeavor

Su’s key research areas include studies on social norms, humor, incivility, social media, engagement metrics, virtual assistants, big data, machine learning, brand communication, science communication, health communication, and environmental communication.

Critical strands of her current work involve:

1. Optimizing the use of digital tools to improve scientific literacy and debunk misinformation;
2. Helping communicators design digital media tools and messages that will enhance public understanding of, and engagement with, science and health topics;
3. Using text analytics to understand public opinion related to controversial or emerging science, technological, and health issues; and
4. Using data-driven approaches to develop marketing strategies that will help brands and technology companies engage with consumers more effectively online.

Methodologically, Su’s research involves the use of surveys, experiments, and computational approaches such as large-scale text analytics.

She is enthusiastic about engaging in a range of interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects on science and health issues. She also enjoys collaborating with students, and encourages them to contact her if they are interested in learning more about her research or working with her on projects.

Select Publications

• Lee, S.^#, Yao, M., & Su, L. Y.-F. (forthcoming). Expressing unpopular opinion or trolling: Can dark personalities differentiate them? Telematics and Informatics, 63. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2021.101645
• Gong, Z.^#, Su, L. Y.-F., Zhang, J. S.^#, Chen, T.^#, & Wang, Y.-C. (2022). Understanding the association between date labels and consumer-level food waste. Food Quality and Preference. 96. doi: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104373
• Su, L. Y.-F., McKasy, M., Cacciatore, M. A., Yeo, S. K., DeGrauw, A., & Zhang, S. J.^# (2022). Generating science buzz: An examination of multidimensional engagement with humorous scientific messages on Twitter and Instagram. Science Communication, 44 (1), 30-59. doi: 10.1177/10755470211063902
• Su, L. Y.-F., Scheufele, D. A., Brossard, D., & Xenos, M. A. (2021). Political and personality predispositions and topical contexts matter: Effects of uncivil comments on science news engagement intentions. New Media & Society, 23(5), 894-919. doi: 10.1177/1461444820904365
• Yeo, S. K., Cacciatore, M. A., Su, L. Y.-F., McKasy, M., & O’Neill, L. (2021). Following science on social media: The effects of humor and source likability. Public Understanding of Science, 30(5), 552-569. doi:10.1177/0963662520986942
• Yeo, S. K.*, Su, L. Y.-F.*, Cacciatore, M. A., McKasy, M., & Qian, S^#. (2020). Predicting intentions to engage with scientific messages on Twitter: The roles of mirth and need for humor. Science Communication, 42(4), 481-507. doi: 10.1177/1075547020942512 (*equally contributed)
•  Lee, T. K. & Su, L. Y.-F. (2020). When a personal HPV story on a blog influences perceived social norms: The roles of personal experience, framing, perceived similarity, and social media metrics. Health Communication, 35(4), 438-446. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1567440
• Yeo, S. K., Su, L. Y.-F., Scheufele, D. A., Brossard, D., Xenos, M. A., & Corley, E. A. (2019). The effect of comment moderation on perceived bias in science news. Information, Communication & Society, 22(1), 129-146. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1356861
• Su, L. Y.-F., Xenos, M. A., Rose, K. M., Wirz, C. D., Scheufele, D. A., & Brossard, D. (2018). Uncivil and personal? Comparing patterns of incivility in comments on the Facebook pages of news outlets. New Media & Society, 20(10), 3678-3699. doi: 10.1177/1461444818757205
• Su, L. Y.-F., Scheufele, D. A., Bell, L., Brossard, D., & Xenos, M. A. (2017). Information-sharing and community-building: Exploring the use of Twitter in science public relations. Science Communication, 39(5), 569-597. doi: 10.1177/1075547017734226
• Su, L. Y.-F., Cacciatore, M. A., Liang, X., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D. A., & Xenos, M. A. (2017). Analyzing public sentiments online: Combining human- and computer-based content analysis. Information, Communication & Society, 20(3), 406-427. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2016.1182197
• Spartz, J. T., Su, L. Y.-F., Griffin, R., Brossard, D., & Dunwoody, S. (2017). YouTube, social norms and perceived salience of climate change in the American mind. Environmental Communication, 11(1), 1-16. doi:10.1080/17524032.2015.1047887
• Su, L. Y.-F., Cacciatore, M. A., Brossard, D., Corley, E. A., Scheufele, D. A., & Xenos, M. A. (2016). Attitudinal gaps: How experts and lay audiences form policy attitudes toward controversial science. Science and Public Policy, 43(2), 196-206. doi:10.1093/scipol/scv031
• Su, L. Y.-F., Akin, H., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D., & Xenos, M. (2015). Science news consumption patterns and their implications for public understanding of science. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(3), 597-616. doi: 10.1177/1077699015586415
• Su, L. Y.-F., Cacciatore, M. A., Scheufele, D. A., Brossard, D., & Xenos, M. (2014). Inequalities in scientific understanding: Differentiating between factual and perceived knowledge gaps. Science Communication, 36(3), 352-378. doi: 10.1177/1075547014529093
• # a student author/co-author at the time of submission

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