Osei Appiah, Ph.D.

Professor, School of Communication, The Ohio State University

Dr. Appiah is an ICA Fellow and renowned communication and race scholar who has written and lectured about the impact of strategic communication messages in media on ethnic minorities, and the role stereotypes play on intergroup interaction. His research program attempts to provide a better understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and psychological mechanisms at work when people are exposed to ethnic-specific messages in the media and the impact of cultural identity on audiences’ responses to strategic communication messages.

His recent work tackles rarely and inadequately addressed questions concerning the fears Whites and Blacks have regarding talking about specific racial issues with each other and the important role partisanship may play in this process. Few studies have explored the role that race and political partisanship play in people’s expectations of engaging in interracial conversations about current race-specific political issues. Conversations about race-specific issues with interracial partners can be important to combat prejudice and foster mutual understanding.

Dr. Appiah has been effective in demonstrating to mainstream readers, journal editors, and reviewers about the importance of race and “why race matters” in the field of communication by emphasizing the theoretical contribution and broad implications of his studies. He has tested theories such as distinctiveness theory, social comparison theory, and social identity theory but also has contributed to theory building by developing his cultural voyeurism framework. Cultural voyeurism facilitates meaningful mediated contact, which in turn helps promote positive interracial interaction. The acquisition of knowledge derived from cultural voyeurism can aid cross-cultural understanding and contribute to the reduction of racial prejudice.

He was former Chair of the Department of Advertising at Temple University and has served as Head of the Advertising Division of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC). He has won several teaching and research paper awards.

Dr. Appiah holds a B.A. in communication from Santa Clara University, an M.S. in communication from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. in communication from Stanford University. His professional experience includes market research at Yankelovich Partners, Inc., product marketing and customer research at Apple Computer, Inc., and sports marketing at Nike, Inc. He has also worked as a professor-in-residence and a multi-cultural media consultant for Ogilvy & Mather advertising agency in New York.

Dr. Appiah's recent work reveals fascinating new insights about the dynamics of politics, partisanship, and conversations about race-related issues in the USA. The findings challenge assumptions about racial identity and suggest that partisan divisions have become more influential than racial divisions in shaping willingness to engage in difficult conversations. Click this link to listen to this SciPod audio that briefly summarizes two research articles on the topic.