Marisa A. Smith is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences in the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, as well as the School of Journalism. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Political Science.

Her research investigates race and identity in politics, examining how racialized topics are framed in media, how identity is leveraged in politics, and how exposure to these narratives in digital information ecosystems fosters racial identity and attitudes, ultimately influencing political decision-making. Her work uses computational approaches (e.g., NLP, LLMs, supervised machine learning), surveys, and experiments to: (a) recognize the frames prevalent in digital media, (b) evaluate the intent underlying these media frames, (c) understand how audiences might interpret this content considering the history of race in the U.S., and (d) determine the potential policy implications of these interpretations.

To address these research areas, she integrates perspectives from political communication, computational social science, and race and media effects. Her research considers the social, historical, and political context of the United States, employing a critical lens to examine the real-world impact of digital information on democracy. By examining political information, including disinformation, and its effects, she investigates how race, identity, and power shape political opinions, polarization, and civic engagement.

Her research has been published in Political Communication, Mass Communication and Society, New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, and Politics, Groups, and Identities.

research keywords: race and identity, disinformation, media effects, social media, computational analysis

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