معرفی
Dr. Patrick C. Meirick serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Oklahoma's Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, teaching courses including Introduction to Statistics (COMM 2513) and Mass Media Effects (COMM 4643) in Spring 2024. His Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota (2002) anchors a career bridging academic research and seven years of award-winning journalism experience as a reporter, editor, and columnist.
His research program centers on political communication fragmentation through three interconnected lenses:
- Political/Health Misinformation: Analyzing how partisanship, affective polarization, and "fake news" drive false beliefs
- Third-Person Perception: Investigating self/other media influence beliefs and democratic consequences
- Political Advertising Dynamics: Examining message factors (negativity, sponsorship) and audience attributes (partisanship, knowledge) in ad effectiveness
Analysis of his recent publications reveals a cohesive trajectory examining public agenda fragmentation and misinformation proliferation. The 2019 book A Nation Fragmented (co-authored with Jill Edy) establishes a framework for understanding declining consensus on national priorities, while subsequent studies dissect mechanisms like ad watch impacts on campaign accuracy and motivated reasoning in sustaining misperceptions—particularly evident in works on "death panels" and Bush legacy perceptions.
Dr. Meirick actively shapes scholarly discourse as associate editor of Mass Communication and Society, with prior service on five editorial boards and reviews for 30+ journals. His pre-academic journalism career informs his empirical approach to media effects, though details of current advising, grants, or research teams remain unspecified in available sources.
