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Professor of Communication, UMass Amherst

Erica Scharrer is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She studies media content, opinions about media, media effects, and media literacy, focusing mainly on the topics of gender and violence. She received her PhD in 1998 from Syracuse University. Co-author of three books (the most recent titled, Media and the American Child) and editor of the Media Effects/Media Psychology volume of the International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, she has published studies of the ways that gender and violence are depicted in video game ads, the tendency of young people to think media violence influences others but not themselves, and the distribution of housework among men and women appearing in television commercials, among other topics.

Experience

  • 2011–present
    Professor, Department of Communication University of Massachusetts Amherst