ABOUT Stacy Smith, Ph.D.

Stacy L. Smith (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1999) is an Associate Professor of Entertainment at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California.  Her research focuses on children’s responses to mass media portrayals (television, film, video games) of violence, gender and hypersexuality.  Dr. Smith has written nearly 50 journal articles and book chapters on content patterns and effects of the media on youth.  Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication Research, and Media Psychology.  Dr. Smith has also received multiple "top paper" awards for her research from the Instructional Developmental Division of the International Communication Association.



Most recently, she has been assessing portrayals of males and females in children’s media.  This body of research informs the work of The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, a program started by Academy Award winner Geena Davis.  The results from Dr. Smith’s research have appeared in a variety of popular media outlets, such as USA Today, The Boston Globe, MSNBC, salon.com, and People.