Assistant Professor Imran Mazid and Associate Professor Faye Yang have both received Catalyst grants from Grand Valley State University to support their current research projects.
Catalyst grants support works of scholarship or creative activity that develops innovative and transformative ideas to the point where they can successfully garner new external funding.
Mazid’s research project is titled “Identifying the Determinants of Social Presence Strategies: An Examination of Campaign Message Strategies, Virality, and the 2020 Gubernatorial Elections.” The study will be an examination of the Facebook and Instagram posts by 22 candidates in the 2020 gubernatorial candidates using CrowdTangle, a cloud-based analytics tool. The study will investigate the relationships between social presence, political personalization, and social media virality. He anticipates more than 15,000 posts will be examined.
“I will examine the key determinants of social presence strategies,” said Mazid, who has studied social media in political campaigns before. “I will employ content analysis to examine these political campaign messages.”
Yang’s project is titled “Taking a Stand: How Purpose-Driven Advertising Can Help Brands to Thrive in Uncertain Times.” The idea for the project came from the fact that current social, political and economic shifts and the ongoing global pandemic have caused advertising to take a more active role in addressing societal problems. Yang mentions in particular Nike ads featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick as a purpose-driven ad that started a trend.
“Many companies and their brands are under tremendous pressure, and it can feel like they’re “damned if they do, and damned if they don’t” in responding to current social and political issues,” Yang said. “Because of the traditional divide between business’s economic concerns and its social ones, purpose-driven ads move advertising into uncharted territory, and not much is yet known about the consequences of taking a stand on particular social or political issues.”
Yang’s project will include interviews with both professionals and academics to uncover valuable insights into how advertising’s function is shifting today.
“I am interested in finding out, what is advertising’s position in the new marketing mix?” Yang said. “Also, how can advertising integrate brands’ economic interests with their social concerns? What is advertising’s social role in relation to nonprofit organizations or government agencies? What do advertising education programs need to change to stay current with the new economy?”
Results of both studies will be shared on this blog when professors Mazid and Yang complete their research.
enLIGHTen 
One thought on “Professors Mazid, Yang earn Catalyst grants for research”