Magdalena Wojcieszak

Professor

Education

  • Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, 2009
  • M.A. University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication, 2006
  • M.A. Summa cum Laude (highest distinction), Warsaw University, Sociology, 2003
  • European Union Fellowship, Università degli Studi di Urbino Italy, Sociology, 2001
  • Certificate For Undergraduate Studies, Warsaw University Institute of International Relations, 1999

About

Before joining UC Davis, Professor Wojcieszak was an associate professor of political communication at Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. Before that she worked at the IE School of Communication, IE University in Spain.

Professor Wojcieszak is interested in how the changing media environment creates both opportunities and challenges for informed publics, tolerant citizenry, and responsive governance. More specifically, she examines how media use and political talk affect opinion dynamics on both individual and societal level, and how these influence perceptions, knowledge, prejudice and tolerance, among other cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral outcomes relevant to diverse societies.

Professor Wojcieszak is the board member at large for Europe of the International Communication Association. She also serves as the editor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research and on the editorial boards of Journal of Communication, Political Communication and EastBound electronic journal.

Her work has appeared in the Journal of Communication, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Communication, Communication Research, Political Psychology, New Media & Society, among other journals.

Research Focus

Professor Wojcieszak’s research focuses on how people select political information in the current media environment and on the effects of these selections on attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors. She also examines the effects of mass media, new information technologies, and various message types on tolerance, perceptions, and polarization, as related to intergroup relations. Her current interests include ways to minimize selective exposure and biased information processing.

Publications

Wojcieszak, M. & Azrout, R., & DeVreese, C. (forthcoming). Waving the red cloth: Exposure to Media Coverage of a Contentious Issue Triggers Polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly.

Wojcieszak, M. & Azrout, R. (2016). I saw you in the news: Quantity and quality of mediated intergroup contact improve outgroup attitudes above and beyond direct contact. Journal of Communication. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcom.12266/full

Yang, J., Rojas, H., Wojcieszak, M., et al. (2016). Why Are “Others” So Polarized? Perceived Political Polarization and Media Use in 10 Countries. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 21(5), 349-367. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12166/full

Wojcieszak, M. & Kim, N. (2015). How to Improve Attitudes toward Disliked Groups: The Effects of Narrative versus Numerical Evidence on Political Persuasion. Communication Research. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215618480

Wojcieszak, M., et al. (2015). Integrating Muslim Immigrant Minorities: Effects of Narrative and Statistical Messages. Communication Research. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0093650215600490

Wojcieszak, M., Bimber, B., Feldman, L., & Stroud, N.(2015). Partisan News and Political Participation: Exploring Mediated Relationships. Political Communication 33(2), 241-260. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2015.1051608

Wojcieszak, M. (2014). Preferences for Political Decision-Making Processes and Issue Publics. Public Opinion Quarterly, 78(4), 917-939. https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/poq/nfu039

Wojcieszak, M. & Price, V. (2012). Facts versus Perceptions: Who Reports Disagreement during Deliberation and are the Reports Accurate. Political Communication, 29, 299-31. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2012.694984

Wojcieszak, M. (2012). On Strong Attitudes and Group Deliberation: Relationships, Structure, Changes and Effects. Political Psychology, 33, 225-242. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23260332?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Wojcieszak, M. (2011). Deliberation and Attitude Polarization. Journal of Communication 61, 596–617. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01568.x/full

Wojcieszak, M. (2011). Computer-Mediated False Consensus: Radical Online Groups, Social Networks and News Media. Mass Communication & Society, 14, 527-546. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15205436.2010.513795

Wojcieszak, M. (2011). When Deliberation Divides: Processes Underlying Mobilization to Collective Action. Communication Monographs 78, 324 – 346. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637751.2011.589459

Wojcieszak, M. (2010). “Don’t Talk to Me”- Effects of Ideologically Homogeneous Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties on Extremism. New Media & Society, 12, 637-65. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444809342775

Wojcieszak, M. & Price, V. (2010). Bridging the Divide or Intensifying the Conflict? How Disagreement Affects Strong Views about Sexual Minorities. Political Psychology, 31, 315-339. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20721296

Wojcieszak, M. & Mutz, D. (2009). Online Groups and Political Discourse: Do Online Discussion Spaces Facilitate Exposure to Political Disagreement? Journal of Communication, 59(1), 40-56. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2008.01403.x/full

Wojcieszak, M. (2009). Carrying Online Participation Offline: Mobilization by Radical Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties. Journal of Communication, 59 (3), 564-586. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01436.x/full

Teaching

Professor Wojcieszak has been teaching graduate level classes on public opinion, political communication, communication campaigns, and research methods. In particular, she has created an award-winning elective course on Strategic Campaigns: How to Reach and Persuade People in Fragmented Media Environments, and was a core professor for a graduate course Citizens and Public Opinion, both at the University of Amsterdam. She has also designed several graduate (e.g., Political Communication, Media and Persuasion, Research Methods in Communication) and undergraduate courses (e.g., Media Effects, Media and Minorities) at the IE University and IE Business School, Spain. In addition, she has given short lectures and workshops to practitioners.

Awards

Awards and Grants

  • European Research Council ERC Starting Grant, Citizens exposed to dissimilar views in the media: investigating backfire effects; 1,500,000€, 2017-present
  • Spanish Ministry of Economy, Narrative tools to reduce prejudice. Effects of similarity, imagined contact, empathy and narrative voice; PI Juan José Igartua, University of Salamanca, 34,000€, 2016-present
  • Polish National Science Foundation, Persuasion and Misinformation in News PI Konrad Maj, Warsaw School of Social Psychology, 36,000€, 2014
  • Amsterdam School of Communication Research, Univ. of Amsterdam; Competitive Internal Funding, Media and Integration, PI M. Wojcieszak, 34,000€, 2013-present
  • Polish National Science Foundation Persuasion and Misinformation in News (with Konrad Maj, Warsaw School of Social Psychology), 36,000€, 2014-present
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation - Democratically Important Media Effects, Selective Exposure, and the Forced-Choice Error Problem (with B. Bimber, L. Feldman, L. Newman, & N. J. Stroud), 45,000€, 2010-2013
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, symposium organization - Transnational Connections: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Opinion and Political Communication, 15,000€, 2011
  • Center for Sociological Studies, Ministry of the Presidency, Spain, What Politics do we want? Support for Stealth Democracy in Spain (with Joan Font, CSIC and Clemente Navarro, Univ. Pablo de Olavide, Spain), 2010-2011
  • 2010 – 2012
  • Junta Castilla y Leon, Spain, Political Effects of Forced versus Selective Exposure to News Media (with B. Bimber, L. Feldman, L. Newman, & N. J. Stroud), 16,000€, 2010-2012
  • Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, symposium organization - Transnational Connections: Challenges and Opportunities for Political Communication, 20,000€, 2010
  • Junta Castilla y Leon, Spain, symposium organization - Transnational Connections: Challenges and Opportunities for Public Opinion and Political Communication, 10,000€, 2010

Honors

  • Honorable mention, Kaid-Sanders Best Article of the Year Award, Political Communication Division, International Communication Association, 2017
  • Young Scholar Award, International Communication Association, 2016
  • Elected Board Member at Large, International Communication Association, 2012-present
  • Co-laureate by Polish National Science Foundation (PNSF), 2009-2013
  • Laureate by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, 2010-2013
  • World Association of Public Opinion Research Outstanding Paper Presentation, 2012
Documents