Student
Jimmy Ochieng
PhD candidate
Jimmy Ochieng, PhD student, The Media School
"I'm from Kenya, on the eastern side of Africa. A professor I had for my master’s degree encouraged me to apply to other universities [for my doctorate]. I think a number of things stood out about IU when choosing where to go. One is the diversity and depth of the faculty. And then the other thing is the resources that are available in the department, as well as the interdisciplinary approaches to education.
My research focuses on the relationship between the media, the politicians, and the people. It’s looking not only at societal outcomes, but also attitudes and beliefs of audiences because this influences how they behave, especially when it comes to holding leaders accountable and engaging in political processes.
I've worked on two projects. One got published last week and is trying to look at what it is when you look at Black Twitter that makes people want to take a vaccine or reject a vaccine. Some of it has to do with misinformation being peddled around, but that misinformation does not exist in a vacuum. It is informed by previous historical injustice which has happened against them that makes them not want to take a vaccine.
The other study I participated in is trying to look at the third-person effect in terms of misinformation about COVID-19 conspiracy theories. My dissertation is trying to look at how transnational media like BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, for example, influence how people in Africa believe false narratives about conflicts that are happening in other continents in the world.
In the context of this case study that I want to do, I think one of the biggest challenges has been to get participants, especially since I'm far away from home. But luckily enough, there are some institutions that have been able to come up with an analysis here. So there is also some data, which is American-based, of participants across a significant number of African countries. So at least that allows us to overcome a challenge, which maybe four or five years ago, I wouldn't have been able to. I hope to combine both teaching and research because I believe there's a kind of dynamic relationship between the two."
Written By Erin Stafford
Photos By Grace Urbanski