Qualifications:
B.A., Santa Clara University
M.S., Cornell University
Ph.D., Stanford University
Quick Introduction:
Media effects on ethnic minorities.
Description:
My professional experience includes market research at Yankelovich Partners, Inc., product marketing and customer research at Apple Computer, Inc., and sports marketing at Nike, Inc. I also worked as a professor-in-residence and a multi-cultural media consultant for Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency in New York.
I enjoy teaching courses that examine the strategic design, execution, and evaluation of advertising and other promotional elements in the marketing communications process. In my courses I attempt to provide an academic perspective rooted in theory while utilizing my professional experience in market research, product marketing, and sports marketing. I hope students who take my courses will find them lively, practical, and intellectually stimulating. Moreover, I hope students in my courses will gain a better understanding of and appreciation for mass communication and begin to value the practical application of academic research in solving real-world marketing communication problems.
My main research interests are the effects of strategic communication messages on ethnic minorities, and the impact of ethnic identity on audiences’ responses to new media. My research is designed to uncover more effective ways to get ethnic minorities to respond to persuasive communication messages designed to change consumer and health behavior among members of their community. Recently, I’ve begun exploring the effects of violent video games on players’ perceptions of race, gender, self-esteem, body image, and aggressive attitudes and behaviors.
My research has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Human Communication Research, Howard Journal of Communications, Communication Research, Health Communication, Media Psychology, and The Journal of Applied Social Psychology. I have also served as Head of the Advertising Division of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC).
Given my research often focuses on advertising, I feel compelled to watch a lot of television and television commercials. I enjoy watching shows like Law and Order, CSI, The Unit, Breaking Bad, and Pardon the Interruption. Occasionally, you can catch me playing basketball on campus, using my famous “cross-over” dribble to shake unsuspecting undergrads and anyone else who may falsely believe I’m too old and slow to still be playing. I am a playground legend in my hometown of Long Beach, California—WEST SIDE!!!!
Research:
Selected Recent Publications Related to Strategic Communication:
Watson, S., Appiah, O., & Thorton, C. (in press). The effect of name on preinterview impressions and occupational stereotypes: The case of Black sales job applicants. Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
Hoplamzian, G. J., & Appiah, O. (in press). Viewer responses to character race and social status in advertising: Blacks see color, Whites see class. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising. 34(1).
Appiah, O. & Eighmey, J. (Eds). (2011). The Psychology of Persuasion: Perspectives for Theory, Research, and Application in a Diverse World. San Diego, CA: Cognella Academic Publishing.
Elias, T., & Appiah, O., Gong. L. (2011). Effects of Blacks’ strength of ethnic identity and Product Presenter Race on Black Consumer Attitudes: A multiple-group model approach. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 11(1).
Elias, T., & Appiah, O. (2010). A tale of two social contexts: Race-specific testimonials on commercial web sites and their effects on numeric majority and numeric minority consumer attitudes. Journal of Advertising Research, 50(3), 250-264.
Appiah, O., & Elias, T. (2009). Ethnic Identity and the Effects of Ethnically-Targeted and Ethnically-Ambiguous Computer-Generated Agents on Browsers Evaluations of a Commercial Website (pp. 159-180). In N. T. Wood & M. R. Solomon (Eds.). Virtual Social Identity and Consumer Behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Eastin, M., Appiah, O., & Cicchirillo, V. (2009). Identification and the influence of cultural stereotyping on post game play hostility. Human Communication Research, 35(3), 337-356.
Appiah, O., & Liu, Y. (2009). Effectively reaching the model minority: Ethnic differences in responding to culturally embedded targeted- and non-targeted advertisements. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 31(1), 27-41.
Knobloch-Westerwick, S., Appiah, O., & Alter, S. (2008). News selection patterns as a function of race: The discerning minority and the indiscriminating majority, Media Psychology, 11(3), 400-417.
Hoffman, L. H., & Appiah, O. (2008). Measuring race as a cultural component of social capital: Black religiosity, political participation, and civic engagement.The Howard Journal of Communications, 19(4), 334-354.
Goodall, C. E., & Appiah, O. (2008). Adolescents’ perceptions of Canadian cigarette package warning labels: Investigating the effects of message framing.Health Communication, 23(2), 117-127.
Appiah, O. (2007). The effectiveness of “typical-user” testimonial ads on Black & White browsers’ evaluations of products on commercial web sites: Do they really work? Journal of Advertising Research, 47(1), 14-27.
Appiah, O. (2006). Rich media, poor media: The impact of audio/video vs. text/picture testimonial ads on browsers’ evaluations of commercial web sites and online products. Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 28(1), 73-86.
Abraham, L., & Appiah, O. (2006). Framing of news stories: The role of visual imagery in priming racial stereotypes. The Howard Journal of Communications, 17(3), 183-203.
Appiah, O. (2004). Effects of ethnic identification on web browsers attitudes toward, and navigational patterns on, race-targeted Sites. Communication Research, 31(3), 312-337.
Appiah, O. (2003). Americans online: Differences in surfing and evaluating race-targeted web sites by Black and White users. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 47 (4), 534-552.
Appiah, O. (2002). Black & White viewers' perception & recall of occupational characters on television. Journal of Communication, 52 (4), 776-793.