Magdalena Wojcieszak Elected as an International Communication Association Fellow

A College of Letters and Science communication professor studying online information selection and the democratic effects of new media was recently named a fellow of the International Communication Association, the largest academic association of communication scholars with over 7,000 members in over 80 countries. 
 
Magdalena Wojcieszak, a professor in the Department of Communication at UC Davis, joins a prestigious group of researchers that accounts for only 4.5% of the organization’s overall membership. According to ICA, fellow status is a recognition of “distinguished scholarly contributions to the broad field of communication.” To achieve fellow status, nominees must receive endorsement from a majority of current fellows and approval from ICA’s Board of Directors.   
 
“I feel incredibly honored and happy,” said Wojcieszak, who noted that it’s heartening to receive support from eminent scholars in her field. “Because imposter syndrome is real — and, at least in my case, hasn’t been subsiding with tenure, professorship, grants or publications — receiving this recognition also serves as a reminder that, yes, you have accomplished something important in your career.”  
 
Wojcieszak’s current work aims to identify the role that interest and political biases play in news media recommendation algorithms and how to minimize those biases.  

 
“We know that many citizens avoid news, are not interested in public affairs information, and do not follow any politicians, journalists or news organizations on social media,” she said. “As part of my large European grant (European Research Council), I found that just 3.4% of all URLs visited by large samples in the U.S., Poland and the Netherlands over nine months are news, and only between 14% (Netherlands) and 36% (U.S.) of these are hard news visits.”  

 
“Such low exposure to quality news and public affairs information is democratically problematic,” she added.  

Wojcieszak is currently investigating strategies to incentivize greater consumption of quality, verified and diverse news through computational methods, including identifying the role that recommendation algorithms play in creating and minimizing potential problems. 

According to Wojcieszak, such research is perfect for a campus like UC Davis that promotes interdisciplinary collaborations. She’s part of a unique initiative called the Designated Emphasis in Computational Social Science, which facilitates collaborations across disciplines, including communication and computer science.  
 
“This makes possible broader innovative research and broader and more impactful contributions than what would be possible if one only stays within their discipline,” Wojcieszak said.   

 

Learn More About Magdalena Wojcieszak

Wojcieszak’s research is directly inspired by her experiences growing up in communist Poland in a family of journalists. Early in life, she became acutely aware of the social and political importance of media and communication. Wojcieszak’s father would show her pages of the newspaper he worked for with entire lines missing (yes, propaganda and censorship!), and she remembers wondering what impact that missing sentence or paragraph could have on Polish citizens and the democratizing society. Learn more about Wojcieszak’s story in a featured faculty profile from the Department of Communication.