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With much of our country and the world navigating an uncharted course through the short- and long-term impact of COVID-19, we extend our most heartfelt and best wishes for the health and safety of you and your families. Our concerns and support extend beyond our own community to all who are affected by this health crisis. We know that many of our alumni and friends across the world are being impacted by this issue, and we continue to keep you in our thoughts during these challenging times.
As you may know, the University at Buffalo has implemented a distance learning model for our students and is moving to a remote work accommodation for our faculty and staff to the extent possible. It’s important to share that, in this ever-evolving situation, our two guiding principles are the health and safety of our community, and the continued academic progress of our students.
In many ways, it is your ongoing support of UB that enables the university to provide the resources to support our community in these difficult times. Whether your gifts have been to the UB Fund, or to a specific scholarship or research initiative, each and every day we put your contributions to work where they will have the maximum impact at UB. Thank you for your investment and commitment to UB.
While we won’t be able to see you in person at UB programs and events in the short term, we are working on ways to keep your connection to UB – and to each other – strong. Pursuant to recent University, CDC and local health department guidelines, all alumni, in-person gatherings, including events, conferences, meetings and other forums, are being cancelled or postponed until at least early June.
Noteworthy Alumni
Media effects and persuasion; Misinformation, conspiracy theories, and extremism; Computational social science; Health and science communication; Political communication
Yotam Ophir (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 2018) studies political and science communication (media effects, persuasion, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism), using mixed-method approaches, including computational text mining, network analysis, experiments, and surveys. Dr. Ophir’s work was published in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), Journal of Communication (JOC), and Communication Methods and Measures (CMM). His coauthored book, “Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, & Persuasion” was published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. His sole-authored book “Misinformation & Society” is expected to be published in 2025. Dr. Ophir is the head of the Media Effects, Misinformation, and Extremism (MEME) lab, is a member of UB’s Center for Information Integrity, and is a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2023, he received the “Exceptional Scholar: Young Investigator Award” from UB.
Educational Background
Recent Courses
Current Research
Selected Publications
Ophir, Y., Walter, D., Jamieson, P., & Jamieson, K. H. (2023). Factors Assessing Science's Self-Presentation (FASS model) and their Effect on Conservatives' and Liberals' Support for Funding Science. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213838120
Walter, D., & Ophir, Y. (2024). Meta-Theorizing Framing in Communication Research (1992-2022): Towards Academic Silos or Professionalized Specialization? Journal of Communication. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqad043
Ophir, Y., Pruden, M. L., Walter, D., Lokmanoglu, A. D., Tebaldi, C., & Wang, R. (2022). Weaponizing Reproductive Rights: A Mixed-Method Analysis of White Nationalists' Discussion of Abortions Online. Information, Communication, and Society, 26(11), 2186-2211. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077654
Ophir, Y., Walter, N., Walter, D., Velho, R. M., Lokmanoglu, A. D., Pruden, M. L., & Andrews, E. A. (2022). Vaccine Hesitancy Under the Magnifying Glass: A Systematic Review of the Uses and Misuses of an Increasingly Popular Construct. Health Communication. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2054102
Ophir, Y., Walter, D., Arnon, D., Lokmanoglu, A., Tizzoni, M., Carota, J., D’Antiga, L., & Nicastro, E. (2021). The framing of COVID-19 in Italian Media and its Effects on Community Mobility: A Mixed Method Approach. Journal of Health Communication, 26(3), 161-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1899344