Professor of Communication; Director, Center for Information Technology and Society, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mark and Susan Bertelsen Chair of Technology and Society, Distinguished Professor of Communication, Fulbright Senior Scholar, Fellow of the International Communication Association, Fellow of the Amsterdam School of Communication Research
Joseph B. Walther is a Distinguished Professor in Communication, the Mark and Susan Bertelsen Presidential Chair in Technology and Society, and the Director of the Center for Information Technology and Society at UCSB. His teaching and research focus on computer-mediated communication and social media in personal relationships, groups, educational settings, and inter-ethnic conflict, topics on which he has contributed several original theories and numerous experiments and surveys. Students interested in working on projects related to these topics should get in touch to explore possibilities.
Prior to joining UCSB, Prof Walther was the Wee Kim Wee Professor in Communication Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and previously at Michigan State University, Cornell, RPI, and Northwestern. He is a fellow at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He’s also a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA) and a Distinguished Scholar in the National Communication Association (NCA). He’s received the NCA’s Woolbert Award for articles that have stood the test of time and changed thinking in the communication discipline for more than ten years, and the ICA’s Chaffee Award for career productivity and influence.
Social Media Revolution Series
Online 'likes' for toxic social media posts prompt more − and more hateful − messages
Dec 05, 2023 09:19 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
The rampant increase of hate messages on social media is a scourge in todays technology-infused society. Racism, homophobia, xenophobia and even personal attacks on people who have the audacity to disagree with someone...
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