Associate Professor of Communication at UC Santa Barbara; Co-director of Credibility and Digital Media@UCSB

Andrew Flanagin joined the department in 1996 after earning M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Communication Theory and Research from the Annenberg School for Communication, at the University of Southern California. Prior to this, he earned a B.A. in Sociology and American Studies from Yale University and worked for several years as a Management Systems Consultant, Systems Analyst, Computer Programmer, and a Foreign Liaison and Technology Transfer Specialist. These experiences reflect his overarching interest in the use of technologies in contemporary society.

Professor Flanagin’s research focuses on the ways in which communication and information technologies structure and extend human interaction, with particular emphases on processes of organizing and information evaluation and sharing. His specific research interests span four interrelated areas: (1) Collective organizing, particularly as influenced by the use of contemporary technologies. Recent research in this domain emphasizes features of the contemporary media environment that disrupt the traditional assumptions of collective action theory and create novel opportunities for information sharing and collective activity. (2) People’s perceptions of the credibility of information gathered and presented online (see www.credibility.ucsb.edu). For example, work on web credibility credibility has examined media, source, site, and message credibility by considering the effects of web design characteristics, sex of the information source and receiver, and various user factors. (3) Organizational technology use. Representative study topics include technological implementation efforts, organizational assimilation and communication technology use, processes of knowledge management using new technologies, and computer-mediated group work, including considerations of online group performance, argument and decision making online, and the role of member sex and anonymity in computer-mediated groups. (4) The use of emerging technologies. Research in this area examines several types of technology (e.g., chat rooms, instant messaging, email, and numerous information sharing environments) by focusing on various phenomena related to technology usage (e.g., social pressures on technological adoption and uncertainty reduction through mediated information exchange).

Related to this research program, Professor Flanagin teaches courses on technologies and organizations, the Internet and Web, collaborative technologies, communication theory, research methods, and organizational theory and new forms of organizing.

Professor Flanagin has published several dozen research articles, in books and in various international journals, including Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, Organization Science, New Media & Society, Journal of Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, The Electronic Journal of Communication / La revue électronique de communication, Communication Yearbook, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Business Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Computers in Human Behavior, Computers and Education, Communication Research Reports, and the International Journal of Police Science and Management. He has also received grant funding, totaling almost one million dollars, from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation to support his research, and has served on the Editorial Boards of Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Research Reports.

In addition, Professor Flanagin’s research has been presented at several national conferences as well as at international conferences in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Korea, Mexico, and Slovenia.

Links: Home page | Credibility and Digital Media@UCSB

Research Sample: Excerpt from [Title here] (Citation here)

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