RESEARCH
To date, most of my research projects have focused on diversity in the media (particularly on representations of gender, race/ethnicity, and age). In addition, I have conducted research in the areas of advertising, new media, and health communication. My research projects have employed both qualitative and quantitative methods and are often comparative in nature. My main research areas are outlined in the following.
Main Research Areas
Diversity in the Media
I have conducted numerous studies on diversity in the media, particularly on the representations of gender, race/ethnicity, and older people in television advertising. Some research has assayed the intersection of these representations (e.g., gender representations of older people), other work has analyzed consumers’ and practitioners’ perceptions of such representations (e.g., a survey of 185 Japanese advertising practitioners and 1,834 consumers) as well as their effects on the audience (e.g., an experiment on the effects of stereotypical gender portrayals), while most of my recent studies have addressed representational differences between cultures (e.g., the representation of gender on Internet dating sites across seven cultures).
New Media and Society
Several of my research projects have focused on the role new media plays in society and how it mirrors, changes, and shapes the world, including studies in such diverse areas as the gender digital divide, the use of social media in the workplace, the effect of social media on body image concerns, gender stereotypes in online dating sites, and how new media has changed journalism.
Advertising, Culture, and Society
In most of my research, I have analyzed how advertising content relates to its respective culture and society. In addition to single-country studies on Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines, I have conducted several comparative studies of 2–13 countries. Beyond content, I have surveyed consumers and practitioners regarding advertising phenomena and investigated how advertising relates to life satisfaction.
Health Communication
The majority of my work in the area of health communication has centered on media effects on the body image, including the effects of social media on body image concerns and a comparative study on the effects of body talk on Facebook on teenagers’ self-esteem. In addition, I am also involved in several other health communication–related research projects, such as a comparative research study on news selection in the context of depressive symptoms.
Comparative Media and Communication Studies
Many of my research projects are comparative in nature. They include comparisons between two cultures (e.g., a comparison of gender stereotypes in Spanish- and English-language television advertisements in the United States), three cultures (e.g., a comparison of the representations of older people in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea), and multiple cultures (e.g., a comparative analysis of the nudity of male and female characters in television advertising in 13 cultures).