Frank Waddell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - Department of Journalism
Office: 3067 Weimer
Phone: 352-294-1627
Email: frank.waddell@ufl.edu
Frank Waddell, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - Department of Journalism
Dr. T. Franklin Waddell is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.
His current research interests are at the intersection of new technology and online storytelling including work related to automated news, the psychology of online comments, and the effects of social television.
Dr. Waddell’s research has been published in a variety of journals including first author articles at Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, New Media & Society, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Communication Monographs, Digital Journalism, Journalism Studies, Electronic News, Journal of Media Psychology, International Journal of Communication, Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, and ACM CHI, among other outlets. His work has also earned top paper honors at divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
Dr, Waddell teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in research methods, communication theory, and mass communication statistics. In 2017, he was awarded for “Outstanding Service on Behalf of Graduate & Professional Students” by the University of Florida Graduate Student Council. In 2018, he was awarded the “Excellence Award for Assistant Professors” at the University of Florida.
Areas of Expertise
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Communication Technology, Disinformation / Misinformation, Media Psychology and Media Effects, Trust
Education
Ph.D., Mass Communication, Pennsylvania State University, 2016
M.A., Communication, Virginia Tech, 2012
B.A., Communication, Virginia Tech, 2010
News
- Four UFCJC Faculty Included in 2024 Stanford Top 2% Scientists List (October 7, 2024)
- New Study Validates Scale to Measure Sexual Stereotyping of Female Journalists (April 14, 2024)
- What Does TV Teach Us about Transracial Adoption? (January 30, 2024)
- Frank Waddell Receives KTA Research Grant to Investigate Audience Expectations for AI-Generated News (October 19, 2023)
- Hesitancy in the Home: The Relationship Between Family Communication Patterns and Willingness to Talk About Covid-19 Vaccination (June 28, 2023)
- All News About Frank Waddell →
Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
Lewis, N., Nashmi, E., & Waddell, F. (2024). Testing the social media produsage hypothesis. Communication Studies. DOI: 10.1080/10510974.2023.2301133
Waddell, F., Sparks, J., & Moss, C. (2024). Using sex to get the story: Testing reliability and validity of a scale measuring a sexist stereotype of female reporters. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. DOI: 10.1080/08838151.2024.2337878
Moss, C., & Waddell, F. (2023). Is this us? Perceived realism and learning outcomes of entertainment media portrayals of transracial adoption. Communication Studies. DOI: 10.1080/10510974.2023.2263919
Moss, C., & Waddell, F. (2023). The happiest streaming platform on earth: The role of presumed influence in the parental control decision process. New Media and Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448231215486
Waddell, F., & Moss, C. (Accepted). Fake news in the family: How family communication patterns and conflict history affect the intent to correct misinformation among family members. Communication Studies. DOI: 10.1080/10510974.2023.2196432
Waddell, F., Moss, C., Ivory, J., & Holz-Ivory, A. (2022). Character portrayals in digital games: A systematic review of more than three decades of existing research. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.. DOI: 10.1080/08838151.2022.2100376
Moss, C., Waddell, F., & Thomas, S. (2022). Hesitancy in the home: The relationship between family communication patterns and willingness to converse about Covid-19 vaccination. American Behavioral Scientist. DOI: 10.1177/0002764222114611
Waddell, F., Chernin, K., Niemand, A., & Christiano, A. (Accepted). The effect of documentary and fictional narratives on dehumanization of refugees and stereotype reversal. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.
Waddell, F., Overton, H., & McKeever, R. (Accepted). Does sample source matter for theory? Testing model invariance with the influence of presumed influence model across Amazon Mechanical Turk and Qualtrics Panels. Computers in Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2022.107416
Golan, G., Waddell, F., & Barnidge, M. (2021). Competing identity cues in the hostile media phenomenon: Source, nationalism, and perceived bias in news coverage of foreign affairs. Mass Communication & Society. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2021.1884263
Kirilenko, A., Ma, D., Stephenkova, S., Su, L., & Waddell, F. (Accepted). Detecting early signs of overtourism: Bringing together indicators of tourism development with data fusion. Journal of Travel Research..
Waddell, F. (Accepted). Who thinks that female journalists have sex with their sources? Testing the association between sexist beliefs, journalist mistrust, and the perceived realism of fictional female journalists. Journalism Studies.
Shelton, S., & Waddell, F. (Accepted). Does ‘inspiration porn’ inspire? How disability and challenge impact attitudinal evaluations of advertising. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising. DOI: 10.1080/10641734.2020.1808125
Waddell, F., McClean, D., & Ivory, J. (Accepted). Toxic teammates or obscene opponents? How cooperation and competition influence hostility towards teammates and opponents in an online game. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research.
Waddell, F. (Accepted). When inspiration comes with baggage: How prior moral transgressions affect feelings of elevation and disgust. Communication Research Reports. DOI: 10.1080/08824096.2019.1641479
Waddell, F. (Accepted). Attribution practices for the man-machine marriage: How perceived human intervention, automation metaphors, and byline location affect the perceived bias and credibility of purportedly automated content. Journalism Practice. DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2019.1585197
Waddell, F. (Accepted). Can an algorithm reduce the perceived bias of news? Testing the effect of machine attribution on news readers’ evaluations of bias, anthropomorphism, and credibility. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.
Waddell, F., & Bailey, E. (Accepted). Is social television the "anti-laugh track?" Testing the effect of negative comments and canned laughter on comedy reception. Psychology of Popular Media Culture. DOI: 10.1037/ppm0000154
Waddell, F., Bailey, E., & Davis, S. (Accepted). Does elevation reduce viewers’ enjoyment of media violence? Testing the intervention potential of inspiring media. Journal of Media Psychology.
Waddell, F. (Accepted). A robot wrote this? How perceived machine authorship affects news credibility. Digital Journalism. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2017.1384319
Waddell, F. (Accepted). The Authentic (and Angry) Audience: How Perceptions of Comment Authenticity and Sentiment Impact News Evaluation. Digital Journalism.
Waddell, F. (Accepted). When Comments and Quotes Collide: Testing the Effects of Crowd Produced and Journalist Selected Exemplars. Journalism Studies. DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2018.1533415
Waddell, F., & Sundar, S. (Accepted). #thisshowsucks! The overpowering influence of negative social media comments on television viewers. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
Sundar, S., Jung, E., Waddell, F., & Kim, K. (Accepted). Cheery companions or serious assistants? Role and demeanor congruity as predictors of robot attraction and use intentions among senior citizens. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. DOI: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
Waddell, F., & Bailey, A. (Accepted). Inspired by the crowd: The effect of online comments on elevation and universal orientation. Communication Monographs. DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2017.1369137
Waddell, F. (Accepted). The effect of counter-exemplars and victim expectations on crime perceptions and hostile attitudes towards racial minorities. International Journal of Communication. Retrieved from http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/6798
Waddell, F. (Accepted). This tweet brought to you by a journalist: How comment gatekeeping influences online news credibility. Electronic News. DOI: 10.1177/1931243117739946
Waddell, F. (Accepted). What does the crowd think? How online comments and popularity metrics affect news credibility and issue importance. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/1461444817742905
Dardis, F., Schmierbach, M., Sherrick, B., Waddell, F., Aviles, J., Kumble, S., & Bailey, E. (Accepted). Adver-where? Comparing the effectiveness of banner ads and video ads in online video games. Journal of Interactive Advertising. DOI: 10.1080/15252019.2016.1223572
Waddell, F. (Accepted). The allure of privacy or the desire for self-expression? Identifying users’ gratifications for ephemeral, photograph-based communication. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2015.0677
Ott, H., Pavan, S., Vafeiadis, M., & Waddell, F. (Accepted). The more informative, the better: The effect of message interactivity on product attitudes and purchase intentions. Journal of Promotion Management. DOI: 10.1080/10496491.2015.1107011
Waddell, F., Sundar, S., & Auriemma, J. (2015). Can customizing an avatar motivate exercise intentions and health behaviors among those with low health ideals?. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(11), 687-690. DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0356
Waddell, F., & Ivory, J. (2015). It’s not easy trying to be one of the guys: The effect of avatar attractiveness, avatar sex, and user sex on the success of help-seeking requests in an online game. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(1), 112-129. DOI: 10.1080/08838151.2014.9982 21
Limperos, A., Waddell, F., Ivory, A., & Ivory, J. (2015). Psychological and physiological responses to stereoscopic 3D presentation in handheld digital gaming: Comparing the experiences of frequent and infrequent game players. PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 23(4), 343-351. DOI: 10.1162/PRES_a_00204
Ivory, A., Fox, J., Waddell, F., & Ivory, J. (2014). Sex role stereotyping is hard to kill: A field experiment measuring social responses to user characteristics and behavior in an online multiplayer first-person shooter game. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 148-156. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.026
Sherrick, B., Hoewe, J., & Waddell, F. (2014). The role of stereotypical beliefs in gender-based activation of the Proteus Effect. Computers in Human Behavior, 38, 17-24. DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.010
Waddell, F., Ivory, J., Conde, R., Long, C., & McDonnell, R. (2014). White man’s virtual world: A systematic content analysis of gender and race in massively multiplayer online games. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 7(2), 1-14. DOI: 10.4101/jvwr.v7i2.7096
Research
Research Keywords
Online News, Automated Journalism, Social Television, Media Violence
Research Areas
- Media Effects, Media Psychology
Courses
Syllabi from the current and three previous semesters:
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MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Fall 2024 (PDF)
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MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2024 (PDF)
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MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2024 (PDF)
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MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Spring 2024 (PDF)
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MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Fall 2023 (PDF)
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MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2023 (PDF)
Research Keywords
Online News, Automated Journalism, Social Television, Media Violence
Research Areas
- Media Effects, Media Psychology
Courses
Syllabi from the current and three previous semesters:
- MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Fall 2024 (PDF)
- MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2024 (PDF)
- MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2024 (PDF)
- MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Spring 2024 (PDF)
- MMC 6455 - Mass Communication Statistics - Fall 2023 (PDF)
- MMC 6457 - Mass Communication Statistics 2 - Fall 2023 (PDF)