Dr. Jennifer Hoewe
Hello and welcome!
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I am an associate professor within the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. I also hold a courtesy appointment within Purdue's Department of Political Science.
Additionally, I am the Associate Director of the Center for American Political History, Media, and Technology (CAPT). I am also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Purdue Research in Media Effects (PRIME) Lab (an affiliated lab with CAPT). I formerly served as Head of the Communication Theory and Methodology Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) as well.
​My research program falls at the intersection of political communication and media psychology. I primarily study the cognitive processing undertaken when consuming media and the effects of that media content. I also use media content as inspiration for studies of media effects by first considering how issues and individuals are portrayed in the media.
I have authored more than 50 scholarly publications. My work has been published in Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Media Psychology, and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, among others. My book, Enjoyment is Breaking News, will be published by The MIT Press in September 2026. It details how the news environment has evolved in recent decades and explains the impact of those changes on news consumers, concluding with recommendations for journalists and the public moving forward.
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In 2025, I received the Early Career Award from the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School at Penn State University, which recognizes the top graduate from the past 10 years. In recognition of my research program, I received the 2021 Excellence in Discovery and Creative Endeavors (EIDCE) Award from the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue, which is the College’s highest recognition for scholarly achievement. Also, my recent publication on information literacy was named a Top 20 Article of 2024 by the Library Instruction Round Table of the American Library Association. My co-authored work published in Science Communication received the AEJMC Science, Health, Environment and Risk Communication (ComSHER) Article of the Year Award in 2017. I was honored to receive the Promising Professor Award from the Mass Communication and Society Division of AEJMC in 2020, which is given for excellence and innovation in teaching. I was awarded the W. Charles Redding Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Brian Lamb School of Communication in 2022. Additionally, The Arts Federation, which is the arts council for 14 counties in Indiana, selected me for the Outstanding Instructor Award in 2024. I was a Visiting Scholar at the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2024, at which time I delivered the Mary Junck Research Colloquium lecture.
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While a doctoral student at Penn State, I received the University Graduate Fellowship, the Excellence in Communication Doctoral Award, which is awarded to the most successful Ph.D. student in the College, and the Davis Award for commitment to ethical academic work. I earned my master’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University, where I was recognized as the Outstanding Graduate Student. I completed my undergraduate work at Grand Valley State University, where I received the I Am Grand Valley Leadership Award. Prior to my career in academia, I worked as a journalist and as the press assistant for a member of Congress.