Image
News
Brilliant white male characters more believable, some viewers say in communication professor's study
Brilliant characters often play key roles in movies and TV shows. However, when these characters are played by women and people of color, some audience members dismiss them as unrealistic, even if they portray real people and events, a recent study found.
University of Illinois Urbana-...
Image
Travis Dixon named David L. Swanson Professor of Communication
In a ceremony hosted by the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, communication professor Travis Dixon was honored as the new David L. Swanson Professor of Communication.
Dixon, whose research focuses on the prevalence...
Image
Will social media polls accurately predict the winner of the U.S. presidential election?
Communication professor JungHwan Yang, a co-principal investigator on a research project and a website that examine the informal polls about the U.S. presidential election posted on X, formerly Twitter. Yang spoke with News Bureau research editor Sharita Forrest about the project.
Image
White people more likely to confront authors of racist online posts to set discussion rules
White people surveyed in a recent study indicated they would be more likely to confront those who post racist content on social media if their objective were to defend the norms for political discussions rather than to change the person’s prejudiced beliefs.
Communication professors...
Image
The Bad Rap for Rap
Professor Travis Dixon studies how stereotypes influence and affect audiences of media content. In a recent collaborative project, Professor Dixon investigated the prevalence of stereotypes associated with rap music, such as substance abuse, misogyny, and violence. His project found that such...