Michelle A. Amazeen

Dr. Michelle A. Amazeen is the associate dean of research and an associate professor of mass communication at Boston University’s College of Communication. She also directs the Communication Research Center. Dr. Amazeen’s research focuses on persuasion and misinformation, exploring the nature and persuasive effects of misinformation and efforts to correct it. She uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to produce results with practical applications for journalists, educators, policymakers, and consumers, helping them recognize and resist persuasion and misinformation in the media.

Dr. Amazeen is one of 22 prominent scholars worldwide who contributed to The Debunking Handbook 2020. Since 2021, she has been ranked among the top 2% of highly-cited scholars globally by Stanford University. Her research has been published in leading academic journals and cited over 60 times in policy documents worldwide. She has served as an expert contributor to the Australian Academy of Science, the European Research Council, and the US Institute for Museum and Library Services. Additionally, she has presented her research to the US Federal Trade Commission, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the US Food and Drug Administration.

Currently, Dr. Amazeen is a co-investigator on the Boston University Climate Disinformation Initiative, focusing on climate issues in native advertising. Her upcoming book, Content Confusion: News Media, Native Advertising, and Policy in an Era of Disinformation (MIT Press) is set to be published in November 2025.

Her career in the communication industry began by “selling air” and managing the student sales staff at WPGU Radio in Champaign, Illinois. Before returning to academia, she worked client side in the Corporate Research Department of Montgomery Ward’s Signature Group and later researched the effectiveness of advertising and marketing campaigns for the S.C. Johnson account at Millward Brown. A post-midnight encounter with a brand equity perceptual map of toilet bowl cleaners led Amazeen to reassess her professional aspirations. She now enjoys challenging herself and her students to critically evaluate our media environment.

Bluesky: @commscholar.bsky.social