About

Dana Mastro is Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a B.A. in History from UCLA, an M.A. in Communication-Urban Studies from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in Communication from Michigan State University. Her research focuses on understanding the influence of media on perceptions of self and others, as well as on intergroup dynamics in society. She documents patterns in the representation of various groups across media platforms and genres and investigates how exposure to these characterizations affects media users' cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. Her work incorporates a broad range of quantitative methods, including content analyses, experiments, and longitudinal studies, and draws from diverse theoretical frameworks such as social identity theory and self-categorization theory. Professor Mastro is a Fellow of the International Communication Association and has published in numerous reputable journals and books. She has received funding from private and federal agencies and has held leadership roles in professional associations, including chairing divisions of the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association. Her teaching includes courses in media theory, mass communication, media and stereotyping, and media and intergroup processes.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Linguistics
• Pedagogy
• Developmental psychology
• Communication
• Multimedia
• Anthropology

Selected publications

• Exploring the Relationship Between Exposure to Media Depictions of Undocumented Immigrants, Identity Management, and Undocumented Immigrants’ Family Communication Profiles

  Communication Research · 2025-08-11

  article

  Using longitudinal survey data from 366 undocumented college students, a latent profile analysis was conducted to identify groups of students according to their identity management strategies (outlined by social identity theory), as reflected in protection-oriented and strengths-based family communication. The “ high competition and creativity” profile frequently engaged in communication suggesting social competition and creativity. The “ partial competition and creativity” profile often communicated about undocumented-related barriers (reflecting social competition), while to a degree, also sharing optimism for the future (indicating social creativity). The “limited competition, mobility, creativity” profile engaged in low levels of communication across all strategies. Health and wellbeing were mostly stable over time across profiles; however, the “high competition and creativity” profile reported more anxiety and stomachaches, and the strongest undocumented identity. Finally, exposure to media depictions of undocumented immigrants was associated with membership in the “high competition and creativity” profile as opposed to the “limited competition, mobility, creativity” profile.

  PublisherDOI

• Media Depictions of Minority Groups: A Meta-Analytic Review Examining the Effects of Positive and Negative Portrayals on Outgroup Evaluations

  Media Psychology · 2025-05-03 · 5 citations

  review

  After more than five decades of research on media depictions and outgroup evaluations, there remains a need for a comprehensive analysis that includes both positive and negative portrayals across a wide range of racial, ethnic, and religious groups. This meta-analysis of 60 studies from 49 articles fills this gap, revealing that negative media depictions of racial and ethnic minorities (<i>k</i> = 56, <i>n</i> = 16,476) lead to unfavorable evaluations of these groups, while positive portrayals (<i>k</i> = 24, <i>n</i> = 7,899) produced the opposite effect. Both positive and negative portrayals yield similar effect sizes, highlighting media’s dual potential to shape intergroup attitudes. Importantly, these findings remain consistent, with no significant moderating influences detected based on the target outgroup (Black, Latinx, Immigrant/Refugee, MENA), outcome type (cognitive, affective, behavioral, policy), media type (text or film/TV), genre (entertainment or news), or study design (cross-sectional or experimental). These results highlight the robustness of the observed effects in the context of media portrayals and their impact on intergroup outcomes.

  PublisherDOI

• Representation Matters: A Practitioner’s Guide to Ethnic-Racial Development in Children

  2025-12-16

  other
  PublisherDOI

• Reinvention mediates impacts of skin tone bias in algorithms: implications for technology diffusion

  Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · 2024-08-06 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Two studies examine how skin tone bias in image recognition algorithms impacts users’ adoption and usage of image recognition technology. We employed a diffusion of innovations framework to explore perceptions of compatibility, complexity, observability, relative advantage, and reinvention to determine their influence on participants' utilization of image recognition algorithms. Despite being more likely to encounter algorithm bias, individuals with darker skin tones perceived image recognition algorithms as having greater levels of compatibility and relative advantage, being more observable, and less complex and thus used them more extensively compared to those with lighter skin tones. Individuals with darker skin tones also displayed higher levels of reinvention behaviors, suggesting a potential adaptive response to counteract algorithm biases.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Chapter 18 Representation Matters: Ethnic/Racial Depictions in US Entertainment Media and the Implications for Audiences

  2024-10-07

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Influencing Others through Race-Related Expression

  2024-04-25

  book-chapterSenior author

  The current content analysis examines celebrity political expression among the most followed female Black, Latina, and White celebrities across two platforms (i.e., Instagram & Twitter). Race/ethnicity-related political expressions were sampled during the four-weeks preceding the 2020 presidential election, yielding a sample of 837 posts. Assumptions rooted in the social identity model of collective action (SIMCA) were applied to determine which message features would be expected to have the most significant potential influence among followers of the same racial/ethnic identity. This framework focuses on three primary predictors of collective action identified in the model: group identity, group injustice, and collective efficacy beliefs. These are argued to serve as causal influences on social mobilization. The current analysis suggests distinct profiles of political posting across these celebrity groups. Black celebrities were likelier to use message features that addressed disparities impacting their group, focusing on topics tied to the justice system and using framing devices signaling injustice (i.e., moral outrage, violation, and protection). On the other hand, posts from Latina celebrities centered on group identity and often emphasized optimism in the framing. Finally, White celebrities posted most often about topics and groups they did not belong to.

  PublisherDOI

• Disentangling Latinos and Immigrants: The Role of Shame and Anger in Response to Group-Threatening News Coverage

  2024-04-25 · 1 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  Although immigration is a highly complex sociopolitical human rights concern, the media persistently frames the issue around a narrow set of themes primarily pertaining to cultural, economic, and physical threats, with a focus nearly exclusively on immigration from Mexico. Although the implications of exposure to these harmful narratives have received some attention from researchers and advocacy groups, the focus has centered nearly entirely on effects among White voters. Scant scholarship has examined the social, political, and emotional implications of consuming this content among Latino American media users. The current study examines the consequences of exposure to news coverage depicting immigrant Latinos in negative, group-threatening ways among non-immigrant Latino audiences. With a sample of 340 non-immigrant Latinos recruited through an online survey service, this study explores the circumstances under which Latinos experience vicarious shame and anger when exposed to group-threatening news coverage. Results from this study provide support for frameworks testing vicarious emotions in mediated contexts and advance current research in this domain by illuminating the potential for specific media messages to evoke ingroup-directed affective responses and impact group identity. The roles of ethnic identity and salient group membership in these processes are additionally examined.

  PublisherDOI

• US Media and Diversity

  2024-04-25 · 3 citations

  bookSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Motivations underlying Latino Americans’ group-based social media engagement

  Journal of Communication · 2023-05-24 · 4 citations

  article

  Abstract Guided by the Social Identity Model of Collective Action, the current research utilizes a three-wave longitudinal study collected pre and post the 2020 U.S. Presidential election to examine the motivations underlying Latino Americans’ group-based social media engagement (N = 1,050). Results revealed that Time 1 group (Latino) identity increased Time 2 perceptions of social media as efficacious in improving group outcomes, which in turn increased Time 3 group-based social media engagement. Although T1 Latino identification was not significantly associated with T2 perceptions of personal or group-based injustice, the former (but not the latter) increased T3 group-based social media engagement. Our findings reflect that marginalized group members engage with social media in part because they believe it is efficacious in improving their disadvantageous group status. This may be an especially attractive strategy for those who face individual experiences of unjust treatment.

  PublisherDOI

• Race and Communication

  2023-07-22

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  There is little doubt that media use has a meaningful influence on how we view and treat members of our own and other ethnic/racial identities. Exposure to negative and disparaging representations of ethnic/racial groups in the media has been found to contribute to the development of stereotypes, prompt bias, promote prejudice and discrimination, and even undermine the esteem of ethnic/racial media users. Alternatively, seeing more constructive depictions can reduce stereotyping and encourage more favorable interracial relations in society. Given these considerable consequences, determining how and how often ethnic/racial groups are depicted in the media is meaningful. However, it is important to interpret such effects within the appropriate context. First, it should be acknowledged that media use is only one of numerous factors that can influence attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding one’s own and other ethnic/racial groups. Thus, none would argue that self-concept, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, or other aspects of interracial dynamics in society stem from any single cause (including media). This does not mean, however, that media use cannot causally increase the likelihood of such outcomes. Instead, it suggests that factors ranging from the amount of time one spends with media, to the number and quality of representations of different groups across media, to one’s own experiences and values, together and individually, can contribute to ethnic/racial views and dynamics at the individual and societal levels. It is also important to acknowledge that the statistical effects of media use are small. In other words, when you consider the magnitude of the influence of media exposure on user’s racial attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, the impact is modest. This should not be assumed to mean that the practical effects on interethnic/interracial outcomes are inconsequential. Small effects can still have pronounced implications when considering the massive size of the population of media users alongside the fact that media use is cumulative across time, platforms, and devices. This means that even a small effect can have a considerable impact as the influence accumulates across multiple exposures throughout the day, over a lifetime, and across the vast population of media users in society. Indeed, nearly everyone in society uses media, repeatedly throughout the day and across time, which nearly guarantees that the bulk of the population has been exposed to the messages about race/ethnicity offered in its content, potentially contributing to the ways that people think about and behave toward ethnic/racial groups at any given time.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alexander Sink

  10 shared

• Andrea Figueroa-Caballero

  9 shared

• Anita Atwell Seate

  University of Maryland, College Park

  8 shared

• Elizabeth Behm‐Morawitz

  7 shared

• Ron Tamborini

  6 shared

• David Stamps

  Bentley University

  6 shared

• Michelle Ortiz

  Saint Thomas Hospital

  6 shared

• Erin Blecha

  British Athletics

  5 shared

Awards & honors

• University Distinguished Teaching Award (2019)
• Top Paper Award (2019)
• Fellow of the International Communication Association (2018)
• Top Paper Award (2018)
• Teaching & Mentoring Award (2015)