Saraswathi Bellur, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Communication University of Connecticut

  • Storrs CT

Saras Bellur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut.

Contact

University of Connecticut

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Biography

Saras Bellur is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Situated in the broad area of media effects paradigm, her research involves understanding the psychological and physiological effects of interactive media on key communication processes and outcomes. Her work adopts an interdisciplinary approach by combining theories from various disciplines such as media effects, human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-mediated communication (CMC), social cognition and health communication.

Areas of Expertise

Interactive Health Technologies
Media Interfaces
Human-Computer Interaction
Mediated Content

Education

Pennsylvania State University

Ph.D.

Mass Communications

University of Mysore

M. A.

Journalism & Mass Communication

Bangalore University

B. A.

Journalism, English Literature & Psychology

Languages

  • Hindi
  • Tamil
  • English

Social

Media

Media Appearances

Tweeting while watching TV makes show less enjoyable, study finds

NBC "Today"  

2019-07-10

“This kind of behavior is encouraged by the television and movie industry because they’re thinking about it in terms of user engagement. But user engagement may not necessarily translate into enjoyment,” co-author Saraswathi Bellur, an assistant professor of communication at the University of Connecticut, told TODAY.

“Just because you’re engaged doesn’t actually mean you may actually enjoy the show.”

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It’s harder to enjoy a TV show while tweeting about it, study says

Tribune Publishing  print

2019-07-09

The UConn Department of Communication found in its study that tweeting reduces viewers' ability to immerse themselves into the TV narrative.

"Social media metrics are an important and widely used measure of user engagement, (but) engagement may not necessarily mean enjoyment," Saraswathi Bellur, a UConn assistant professor of communication who co-authored the study, said in an email.

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Want to enjoy TV? Then don't live-tweet the shows, study warns

Washington Times  online

2019-07-02

The most significant impact of the two-screen experience was on viewers’ ability to “transport” into the narrative and become immersed in the televised story.

“Despite its popularity, live-tweeting has potential pitfalls on audience experience,” said Saraswathi Bellur, assistant professor in communication, who led the research.

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Articles

News Informatics: Engaging Individuals with Data-Rich News Content through Interactivity in Source, Medium, and Message

CHI '22: Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

S. Shyam Sundar, Haiyan Jia, Saraswathi Bellur, Jeeyun Oh, and Hyang-Sook Kim

2022-04-01

This paper introduces the concept of “news informatics” to refer to journalistic presentation of big data in online sites. For users to be engaged with such data-driven public information, it is important to incorporate interactive tools so that each person can extract personally relevant information. Drawing upon a communication model of interactivity, we designed a data-rich site with three different types of interactive features—namely, modality interactivity, message interactivity, and source interactivity—and empirically tested their relative and combined effects on user engagement and user experience with a 2 (modality) × 3 (source) × 2 (message) field experiment (N =166). Findings shed light on how interface designers, online news editors and journalists can maximize user engagement with data-rich news content. Certain interactivity combinations are found to be better than others, with a structural equation model (SEM) revealing the underlying theoretical mechanisms and providing implications for the design of news informatics.

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Do You Enjoy TV, while Tweeting? Effects of Multitasking on Viewers’ Transportation, Emotions and Enjoyment

Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media

Suji Park, Xiaowen Xu, Brenda Rourke & Saraswathi Bellur

2019-06-21

The present study seeks to extend the extant body of work on media multitasking by examining the impact of second screen use (tweeting while watching television) on transportation into a narrative and enjoyment of a TV sitcom, mediated through affective experiences. In a between-subjects experiment, participants watched a TV show with or without tweeting about it. The findings support the assumption that media multitasking decreases people’s experience of transportation, which then impairs their emotional responses; reduced emotions further decrease enjoyment of the show. However, trait empathy does not moderate the impact of concurrent TV-viewing and tweeting.

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Apps and Autonomy: Perceived Interactivity and Autonomous Regulation in mHealth Applications

Communication Research Reports

Saraswathi Bellur & Christina DeVoss

2018-08-20

Thousands of smartphone apps geared toward monitoring health behaviors are released regularly. Even as developers flood the market with mHealth apps, consumers seem overwhelmed with choices and report lack of sustained use, which raises questions about their efficacy. An online survey (N = 513) found that perceived interactivity not only has a direct effect but also exerts an indirect effect via greater autonomous regulation on users’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward mHealth apps. Frequency of tracking and updating personal data showed significant effects on behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical suggestions for the design and evaluation of mHealth apps are discussed.

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