Dr. Valerie Barker

Bio

Doctor Valerie Barker holds emeritus status in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University. She was the first chair of the Digital and Social Media Research Task Force. Her research focuses on the antecedents to involvement with social media and other online genres. She has investigated the role of gender, culture, and age in these domains. Barker's current research focuses on the influence of social identity in social mobile use. Her publications have appeared in the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, New Media & Society, the Journal of Social Media in Society and Cyberpsycology, Behavior and Social Networking. Additionally, she has authored several book chapters as well as numerous conference papers (which include 14 top paper awards). She is currently partnering with Dr. David Dozier in a program of research about news consumption, civic engagement, and information acquisition.