Michelle Seelig is a Professor at the University of Miami in the Department of Interactive Media. She received her Ph.D. in mass communication from Florida State University and teaches courses in interactive media, user experience design, media activism, communication theory, and qualitative research. Seelig’s research focuses on the profound and rapid technological and cultural changes affecting society. Her work is driven by a desire to leverage all forms of media to communicate social issues and foster the development of interventions, apps, and educational initiatives that promote prosocial goals. Additionally, Seelig critically examines how malicious actors spread harmful narratives on digital and social media and their societal effects. What interests Seelig most is the connection between visualizing phenomena related to people, spaces, and places, as well as global social changes, and identifying effective advocacy methods through various media. Her research employs a variety of methodologies to tackle a wide range of questions, including traditional and virtual ethnography, content, textual and visual analysis, case studies, focus groups, interviews, and surveys.
Featured Publications
Book
Seelig, M.I. (2016). Communicating the Environment Beyond Photography. NY: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
Refereed Journal Articles
Shata, A. & Seelig, Michelle (In press). “Is It Real Enough? A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Perceived Realism and Engagement in Transmedia Edutainment for Promoting Sustainable Development Behaviors,” Communication & Society.
Jia, X., Ahn, S., Seelig, M., & Morgan, S. (2024). The role of health belief model constructs and content creator characteristics in social media engagement: Insights from COVID-19 vaccine Tweets. Healthcare, 12(18), 1845, https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12181845
Chuan, C.-H., Seelig, M., Tsai, W.-H. S., and Tao, W. (2024). Applying the Situational Theory of Problem Solving to motivate pro-environmental behavior change. Public Relations Journal, 17(3), https://instituteforpr.org/prj-vol-17-issue-3-article-8
Klofstad, C., Christley, O., Diekman, A., Enders, A., Funchion, J., Hemm, A., Kübler, S., Littrell, S., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M., Verdear, D., Wuchty, S., & Uscinski, J.E. (2024). The New Satanic Panic, Political Science Quarterly, qqae081, https://doi.org/10.1093/psquar/qqae081
Chuan, C.-H., Seelig, M., Tsai, W.-H. S., and Tao, W. (2024, online first). Eco Warrior: A Theory-based mobile app for forming and sustaining pro-environmental behavior change. Mobile Media & Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579241271066
Klofstad, C., Christley, O., Diekman, A., Kübler, S., Enders, A., Funchion, J., Littrell, S., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M., Verdear, D., Wuchty, S., Drochon, H., & Uscinski, J. (2024, online first). Belief in white replacement. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2024.2342834
Millet, B., Tang, J., Seelig, M., Petit, J., & Sun, R. (2004). In Twitter we trust(ed): How perceptions of Twitter’s helpfulness influence news post credibility perceptions and news engagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 155, 108185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2024.108185
Littrell, S., Klofstad, C., Diekman, A., Funchion, J., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M., Verdear, D., Wuchty, S., & Uscinski, J. E. (2023). Who knowingly shares false political information online? Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review. https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-121
Seelig, M.I. (2023). Is it possible to create a favorable impression of greenness on skin care websites? Journal of Marketing Communications, 29(4), 358-378. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2022.2028880
Tao, W., Tian*, S., Tsai, W. S., & Seelig, M.I. (2022). The Power of emotional appeal in motivating behaviors to mitigate climate change among Generation Z, Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing. https://doi.org/10.1080/10495142.2022.2133058
Seelig, M.I., Deng, H. & Liang, S. (2022). A frame analysis of climate change solutions in legacy news and digital media, Newspaper Research Journal, 43(4), 370-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/07395329221112391
Uscinski, J., Enders, A., Klofstad, C., Seelig, M.I., Drochon, H., Premaratne, K., & Murthi, M. (2022). Have beliefs in conspiracy theories increased over time? PloS One, 17(7), e0270429. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270429
Deng, H., Seelig, M. I., & Sun*, L. Y. (2022). Understanding Chinese international students’ perception of flu vaccination on US college campuses. Journal of American College Health, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2022.2103381
Uscinski, J., Enders, A., Diekman, A., Funchion, J., Klofstad, C., Kuebler, S., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M., Verdear*, D., & Wuchty, S. (2022). The psychological and political correlates of conspiracy theory beliefs. Scientific reports, 12(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25617-0
Seelig, M.I. & Deng, H. (2022). Connected, but are they engaged?: Exploring young adults willingness to engage online and offline. First Monday, 27(3-7), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v27i3.11688
Enders, A., Uscinski, J.E., Klofstad, C., Wuchty, S., Seelig, M.I., Funchion, J., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., & Stoler, J. (2022). Who supports QAnon? A case study in political extremism. The Journal of Politics. https://doi.org/10.1086/717850
Shata, A. & Seelig, M.I. (2021). The Dragonfly Effect: Analysis of the social media women’s empowerment campaign in Egypt. Journal of Creative Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/09732586211036551
Shata, A. & Seelig, M.I. (2021). Women empowerment campaign in Egypt: Are they really empowering? A campaign creators’ perspective. Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, 14(3), 350-365. https://doi.org/10.1163/18739865-20219104
Enders, A.M., Uscinski, J.E., Seelig, M.I., Klofstad, C.A., Wuchty, S., Funchion, J.R., Murthi, M., Premaratne, K., & Stoler, J. (2021). The relationship between social media use and beliefs in conspiracy theories and misinformation. Political Behavior, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-021-09734-6
Enders, A.M., Uscinski, J.E., Klofstad, C.A., Premaratne, K., Seelig, M.I., Wuchty, S., Murthi, M. & Funchion, J.R. (2021). The 2020 presidential election and beliefs about fraud: Continuity or change? Electoral Studies, 72, e102366. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102366
Uscinski, J.E., Enders, A., Seelig, M.I., Klofstad, C., Funchion, J. Everett, C., Wuchty, S., Premaratne, K. & Murthi, M. (2021). American politics in two dimensions. American Journal of Political Science, 65(4), 877-895. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12616
Enders, A.M., Uscinski, J.E., Klofstad, C.A., Seelig, M.I., Wuchty, S., Murthi, M.N., Premaratne, K. & Funchion, J. R. (2021). Do Conspiracy beliefs form a belief system? Examining the structure and organization of conspiracy beliefs. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 9(1), 255-271. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.5649
Simmons, J.V., Carcioppolo, N., Peng, W., Huang, Q., Seelig, M.I., Katz, R., Potter, J. (2021). 90 days: An investigation of a short entertainment-education film to improve HIV status disclosure among Black women living with HIV in Miami-Dade County. Social Science & Medicine, 270, e113683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113683
Seelig, M.I., Sun, R. Deng, H., & Pal, S. (2021). Is it all for show?: Environmental brand identification on skin care and cosmetic websites. Journal of Marketing Communications, 27(4), 436-456. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527266.2019.1685566
Uscinski, J.E., Enders, A.M., Klofstad, C., Seelig, M.I., Funchion, J., Everett, C., Wuchty, S., Premaratne, K., & Murthi, M. (2020). Why do people believe COVID-19 conspiracy theories?. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.37016/mr-2020-015
Seelig, M.I. (2019). Popularizing the environment in modern media. The Communication Review, 22(1), 45–83.https://doi.org/10.1080/10714421.2019.1569449
Seelig, M.I., Millette, D.M., Zhou*, C., & Huang*, J. (2019). A new culture of advocacy: An exploratory analysis of social activism on the web and social media. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 27(1), 15-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2019.1540418
Seelig, M.I. (2018). Social activism: Engaging Millennials in social causes. First Monday, 23(2-5), https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v23i2.8125