Junck Colloquium with Jennifer Hoewe

Join us for the first March Junck Research Colloquium event of 2024-25, as we welcome Jennifer Hoewe, Ph.D. for a talk examining the link between news enjoyment and important political outcomes.

We will serve lunch at noon, with the talk to follow at 12:30 p.m. We request that attendees register below to help with food planning.

SPEAKER

Jennifer Hoewe, Ph.D.

Jennifer Hoewe is an associate professor of political communication in the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. She also holds a faculty appointment in Purdue’s Department of Political Science and is currently a visiting scholar at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Hoewe’s research program focuses on how political issues and groups of people are depicted in media content and how those depictions influence media consumers, particularly in terms of their cognitive processing, their attitudes and their own identity. Her research falls at the intersection of political communication and media psychology, where she places emphasis on  how the relationship between media and politics factors into perceptions of oneself (e.g., identity) as well as perceptions of others (e.g., stereotypes). 

Keynote

The News We Enjoy: Why we consume bad information and what to do about it

News consumers have shifted from using news for the purpose of learning and being informed to also desiring enjoyment from their news use. Hoewe will explain why this shift happened by considering recent changes in the information environment. She will explore the link between news enjoyment and important political outcomes using experimental and survey data. She will provide suggestions for where we go from here, including changes in news creation and solutions for news consumers.