Yotam Ophir (PhD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2018) is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University at Buffalo. He studies political and science communication, with a focus on media effects, persuasion, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism. 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), and Journal of Communication (JOC). His book “Misinformation & Society” was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2025, and his co-authored book, Democracy Amid Crisis, was published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. 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 the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and is a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2024, he was selected as one of 10 “Early Carrer Scientists to Watch” by Science-News Magazine. In 2023, he received the “Exceptional Scholar: Young Investigator Award” from the University at Buffalo and in 2025 the SUNY's Chancellor’s Horizon Award for Faculty Research and Scholarship.

Educational Background

• PhD, University of Pennsylvania
• MA, University of Haifa, Israel
• BA, University of Haifa, Israel

Recent Courses

• COM 240: Introduction to Mass Communication
• COM 468: Misinformation & Society
• COM 515: Communication Theories
• COM 681: Computational Methods
• AI 325: AI and the Information Environment

Current Research

• Studying public perceptions of science and its impact on attitudes, policy support, and behaviors (surveys, experiments)
• Exploring extremist misinformation around political, cultural, and scientific topics (computational and manual content analysis, network analysis)
• Understanding public reaction to emerging Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications (content analysis, surveys, experiments) 

Selected Publications

Ophir, Y. (2025). Misinformation & Society. Wiley-Blackwell. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Misinformation+and+Society-p-9781394236466

Ophir, Y., et al., (2025). Media Matters: A Mixed-Method Look into the Research on Misinformation and Communication Over 30 Years. Annals of the International Communication Association. 10.1093/anncom/wlaf016. https://academic.oup.com/anncom/advance-article/doi/10.1093/anncom/wlaf016/8232798

Ophir, Y., et al., (2024). The Politicization of Climate Science: Media Consumption, Perceptions of Science and Scientists, and Support for Policy. Journal of Health Communication. 10.1080/10810730.2024.2357571. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10810730.2024.2357571

Ophir, Y., et al., (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. 10.1073/pnas.2213838120. https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2213838120

Ophir, Y., et al., (2022). Weaponizing Reproductive Rights: A Mixed-Method Analysis of White Nationalists' Discussion of Abortions Online. Information, Communication, and Society, 26(11), 2186-2211. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077654. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2077654