Afrooz
Mosallaeipour

Afrooz Mosallaeipour's research examines how visual communication in digital media shapes public understanding of pressing social and environmental issues, with implications for strategic communication, health communication, and technology-driven public engagement. She study how images—embedded in the fast-moving, algorithmically curated environment of social media—affect audience attitudes, emotions, behaviors, and knowledge. This work applies to a range of contexts, from communicating climate change and public health risks to informing public awareness of emerging technologies such as generative AI. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives from communication, media studies, and technology, she employs computational analysis, content analysis, and experimental design to address questions at the intersection of media, technology, and public engagement.

Mosallaeipour was awarded the COMPASS (Consortium on Media Policy Studies) fellowship, a program from the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University’s Media, Inequality & Change Center. This fellowship allowed her to spend the summer of 2024 at Free Press, a media advocacy non-profit, gaining firsthand experience in U.S. federal policymaking and contributing to the policy process through her research and writing. Additionally, she is a research affiliate at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC), where she collaborates with the experimental research team. Her work has been published in top-tier journals such as Digital Journalism and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and earned national recognition.

At the core of Mosallaeipour's current work is her dissertation on the platformization of climate change news on Instagram, alongside several projects at the intersection of AI, social media news, and audience research. Through this program of research, she aims to deepen scholarly understanding of communication in today’s evolving media environment while also generating actionable insights for journalists, policymakers, and technology developers.

ORCID