Biography
Frank Waddell's current research interests are at the intersection of new technology and online storytelling. His work typically examines how established media effects are moderated by the affordances of new communication technologies, with topics recently explored including machine automated news, the psychology of online comments and the effects of social television.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Artificial Intelligence
Media Violence
Media Effects
Online News
Fake News
Media Appearances (2)
Hollywood's sexist stereotypes have real consequences for female journos
The Star online
2021-06-21
While the works may be fictional, this unethical behavior on screen is detrimental to women working everyday journalism jobs, according to American researcher Frank Waddell.
Hollywood sexism still tarnishes female journalists
Futurity online
2021-06-15
When a fictional female journalist appears on screen, chances are she’s about to sleep with one of her sources. It’s a trope that infuriates actual women in news media—and it can have real-life consequences, says University of Florida researcher Frank Waddell.
Articles (3)
Who Thinks that Female Journalists Have Sex with their Sources? Testing the Association Between Sexist Beliefs, Journalist Mistrust, and the Perceived Realism of Fictional Female Journalists
Journalism StudiesT Franklin Waddell
2021-06-10
A troubling trend in television and film is the female reporter who uses sexual temptation to unethically obtain information from male sources. Which viewers are most likely to believe that sexist tropes about female reporters are realistic?
Competing Identity Cues in the Hostile Media Phenomenon: Source, Nationalism, and Perceived Bias in News Coverage of Foreign Affairs
Mass Communication and SocietyGuy J Golan, et al.
2021-03-05
The global media ecology offers news audiences a wide variety of sources for international news and interpretation of foreign affairs, and this kind of news coverage may increase the salience of both domestic and national partisan identity cues.
Does ‘Inspiration Porn’ Inspire? How Disability and Challenge Impact Attitudinal Evaluations of Advertising
Journal of Current Issues & Research in AdvertisingSummer S Shelton and T Franklin Waddell
2020-12-07
Disability community members have voiced concerns about advertising’s representations of persons with disabilities (PWDs). “Inspiration porn” in advertising often takes the form of showing a PWD completing challenging, physical tasks. Furthermore, it explored whether indicators of inspiration mediated the relationship. Ads featuring PWDs increased effectiveness and this effect was mediated by meaningful affect and physical indicators of elevation.
Social