Vanessa Higgins

Vanessa Higgins, Ph.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
College of Fine Arts and Communication
512.245.5555
vhjoyce1@txstate.edu

Areas of Interest: Media Effects, Political Communication, International Communication, Transnational Media, Latin American media, Latino media, Agenda-setting and Public Opinion, Journalists' roles, Digital Media, Research Methods

Dr. Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce specializes in Media Effects, Latin American and Transnational Media. She received a Ph.D. in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin, a Masters in Journalism from The University of Texas at Austin and a BS in Social Communication from Pontifícia Universidade Católica, São Paulo, Brazil.

Higgins Joyce has previously worked as an Assistant Professor in the Journalism Division of Southern Methodist University and also taught journalism courses online, with the distance learning and MOOC platform of The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. She worked extensively with Public Opinion Research companies in São Paulo, Brazil, conducting research for major political campaigns. She has also worked as a journalist for a couple of pioneering online journalism websites in Brazil, reporting on local art and Brazilian soccer.

Her research has recently been published in a chapter of the book Agenda Setting in a 2.0 World: New Agendas in Communication, in the Encyclopedia of Humor Studies and also in the journals Journalism and Journal of Global Mass Communication. Higgins Joyce is interested in the exchange of information and communication across national boundaries, and the increased interconnectedness with recent technology, and the effects that these exchanges have in people’s perceptions of issues and communities.