Saleem Alhabash

Assistant Professor of Public Relations Michigan State University

  • East Lansing MI

Expert in social and new media

Contact

Michigan State University

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Media

Biography

Saleem Alhabash is an Assistant Professor of Public Relations and Social Media, jointly appointed by the Department of Advertising and Public Relations, and the Department of Media and Information. His research focuses on the processes and effects of new and social media. More specifically, Saleem’s research investigates the cognitive and emotional responses, and psychological effects associated with using social networking sites and playing serious/persuasive video games. His research is geared toward understanding how new communication technologies can be utilized in cross-cultural and international communication, with emphasis on changing attitudes and stereotypes of foreign nations. Saleem received his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He brings a diverse experience in global media and strategic communication.

Industry Expertise

Media - Online
Social Media
Research
Education/Learning

Areas of Expertise

Advertising and Public Relations
Media and Information
Social Media
Journalism
Editing
Persuasion and Emotional Response

Accomplishments

Top Faculty Paper (Third Place)

2011-01-01

Awarded by the The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Advertising Division

Top Faculty Paper (Second Place)

2011-01-01

Awarded by the The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Minorities and Communication Division

Top Student Poster Award

2010

Awarded by the Society for Psychophysiological Research

Education

University of Missouri

Ph.D.

Journalism

2011

University of Missouri

M.A.

Journalism

2008

Birzeit University

B.A.

Journalism and Political Science

2005

Affiliations

  • Games for Entertainment & Learning (GEL) Lab @ MSU
  • Muslim Studies Program @ MSU

News

Facebook's Targeted Ads Are More Complex Than It Lets On

Wired  online

2018-04-25

Facebook marketers rarely however stick to one category to target you. To identify an audience who will engage with a specific advertisement, marketers need to know how to best combine these categories.

“Interest doesn’t mean you like the topic, it just means you keep looking at it or something like that,” says Content Harmony's Jamison. A user might, for example, show an interest in Donald Trump, but it doesn’t mean they like the president, it just means they read stories related to him. To target people who genuinely like Trump, marketers would need to combine an interest in him with another category. But users don't always know how these combinations happen, or why, making it difficult to know the exact reasons you may be seeing an ad targeted to you. Facebook does allow you to click the three dots in the corner of any advertisement and view some information about why you're seeing it, but it's difficult to get a clear picture.

"Whatever information goes into sense-making about an individual and grouping people into different groups and segments is much more than demographic," says Saleem Alhabash, a professor at Michigan State University and the co-director of its Media and Advertising Psychology Lab. "It's the things you interact with, every URL you click on—not only on Facebook but elsewhere on the internet—also how you interact with your friends, all of this gets muddled into making sense of you and providing you with relevant ads."

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Facebook Has Ability to Let Advertisers Know When Teens Feel ‘Worthless.’ What Are the Implications?

Yahoo  online

2017-05-02

Saleem Alhabash, Ph.D, an assistant professor of public relations and social media at Michigan State University, agrees, telling Yahoo Beauty that this kind of technology has the potential to be more effective at targeting people than self-reported measures, like surveys, which are subject to dishonesty.

“From an advertising/marketing perspective, knowing the emotional state the consumers are experiencing is essential to learning more about them, but more importantly, it is critical for making sense of which type of messages and appeals might be effective when consumers are experiencing such emotions,” he says.

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Burger King launches TV ad that triggers Google Home: clever marketing trick or invasive ploy?

Christian Science Monitor  online

2017-04-13

On Wednesday, a Burger King television ad likely became the first ever to intentionally trigger smart devices like Google Home and Android phones.

The response to the new ad highlights many of the concerns associated with privacy and security concerns in an increasingly digital world. But while this might be the first ad to target users who already own a Google Home or other listening smart device, privacy-invading strategies companies use to target customers are nothing new, says Saleem Alhabash, a professor of Public Relations and Social Media at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.

"Behavioral targeting has been applied for quite some time now," Dr. Alhabash tells The Christian Science Monitor in an email. "Advertisers, including Google, have been recording our digital traces and through algorithmic manipulation, providing us with tailored ads that are more meaningful to us."

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Journal Articles

Pathways to Virality: Psychophysiological Responses Preceding Likes,Shares, Comments, and Status Updates on Facebook

Media Psychology

Saleem Alhabash, Nasser Almutairi, Chen Lou & Wonkyung Kim

2018-01-11

Facebook use has become habitual to social network site (SNS) users, yet little is known about the psychological processes at play while using this platform. This study explored how psychophysiological responses vary as a function of liking, commenting, sharing, or posting status updates interactions on Facebook’s newsfeeds. Participants were instructed to enact common Facebook activities or viral behaviors (like, share, comment, and update a status) in brief segments, while their psychophysiological responses were recorded. Our results showcase different approaches to dealing with psychophysiological responses for undefined, uncontrolled (organic) stimuli. We contrasted Facebook organic use segments that ended with pressing on the like button to those that did not end with liking the Facebook post. In the second method of data analysis, we analyzed psychophysiological data at the participant level using the 10 sec preceding the enactment of the 4 viral behaviors. Our findings showed that, indeed, the pathways leading up to performing online behaviors are diverse, thus indicating different underlying psychological processes. Findings’ theoretical and practical implications are discussed within the broader context of understanding social media behaviors.

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A tale of four platforms: Motivations and uses of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat among college students?

Social Media+ Society

2017

The current research explores differences between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in terms of intensity of use, time spent daily on the platform, and use motivations. The study applies the uses and gratifications (U&G) approach to contrast the four platforms. A cross-sectional survey of college students (N = 396) asked participants to indicate the intensity of using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat as well as nine different use motivations. Findings show that participants spent the most time daily on Instagram, followed by Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter, respectively. They also indicated the highest use intensity for Snapchat and Instagram (nearly equally), followed by Facebook and Twitter, respectively. With regard to use motivations, Snapchat takes the lead in five of the nine motivations. Findings are discussed in relation to the U&G approach and uniqueness of different social media and social networking sites (SNSs).

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Understanding online safety behaviors: A protection motivation theory perspective

Computers & Security

2016

Internet users experience a variety of online security threats that require them to enact safety precautions. Protection motivation theory (PMT) provides a theoretical framework for understanding Internet users' security protection that has informed past research. Ongoing research on online safety recommends new motivational factors that are integrated here in a PMT framework for the first time. Using PMT, a cross-sectional survey (N = 988) of Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) users was conducted to examine how classical and new PMT factors predicted security intentions. Coping appraisal variables were the strongest predictors of online safety intentions, especially habit strength, response efficacy, and personal responsibility. Threat severity was also a significant predictor. Incorporating additional factors (i.e., prior experiences, subjective norms, habit strength, perceived security support, and personal responsibility) into the conventional PMT model increased the model's explanatory power by 15%. Findings are discussed in relation to advancing PMT within the context of online security for home computer users.

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