Erica Scharrer

Professor

Faculty
Erica Scharrer
Contact
Email
Email
Phone
Location
S330 Integrative Learning Center

Interests

My research interests involve the study of media as agents of socialization, particularly around gender and/or aggression. I am also quite interested in the role of media in the lives of children and adolescents, and I study young people's responses to media literacy education.

My recent articles have appeared in Journal of Children and Media and Journal of Advertising. I recently edited a book called Children, Media, and Technology: Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and published the second edition of my co-authored book, Quantitative Research Methods in Communication: The Power of Numbers for Social Justice with Srividya Ramasubramanian. 

Education

PhD, Syracuse University

CV

Courses Taught

Undergraduate: Children, Teens, and Media; Media Violence. Graduate: Quantitative Methods; Media Literacy; Content Analysis

Publications

Ciccone, M., Zhou, C. Y., Underwood, T., Ali Durrani, A., McCauley, B., Miller, L., & Scharrer, E. (2026). Introducing the ethics of actors in systems (EASY) approach to digital advertising literacy through the views of early adolescents. Journal of Advertising, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2025.2602476

Scharrer, E., Durrani, A., & Suren, N. (2024). Remixing gender in advertising: A qualitative study of early adolescents’ views of gender targeting in commercials. Advertising & Society Quarterly, 25(4). https://muse.jhu.edu/article/949993

Martins, N., Scharrer, E., & Riddle, K. (2024). News exposure, depression, and PTSD symptoms among adolescents in the US: A case study of the Uvalde shooting. Journal of Children and Media, https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2024.2443664

Zhou, C., Scharrer, E., & Durrani, A. (2024). Deconstructing gender: A mixed methods study with U.S. early adolescents. Journal of Children and Media. 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2024.2394948

 

 

Current Projects

Current work includes studies of adolescents' responses to media literacy education on social media influencers, personalized online ads, and AI as well as teen boys' media use and conceptions about masculine gender roles and norms.