Dr. Jennifer Hoewe
Hello and welcome!
My research program falls at the intersection of political communication and media psychology. I study how political issues and groups of people are depicted in media content and how those depictions influence media consumers. My research focuses on the cognitive processing undertaken when consuming media and the effects of that media content (examined through experimental and survey research). I also uses media content as inspiration for studies of media effects by first considering how issues and individuals are portrayed in the media (examined through content analyses).
I am an associate professor of political communication at Purdue University within the Brian Lamb School of Communication. I also hold a courtesy appointment within Purdue's Department of Political Science. I am a Co-founder of the Purdue Research in Media Effects (PRIME) Lab and a Faculty Fellow with the Center for American Political History and Technology (CAPT). I am also the former Head of the Communication Theory and Methodology Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).
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. 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 co-authored work published in Science Communication received the AEJMC Science, Health, Environment and Risk Communication 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. In 2024, I received the Outstanding Instructor Award from The Arts Federation, which is the arts council for 14 counties in Indiana. 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.