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Neelam Sharma

Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies in Communication

Office: Frazier Hall 216 D

(208) 282-3471

neelamsharma@isu.edu

Education:

BC, Commerce, Panjab University; MA, Mass Communication, Panjab University; PhD, Public Communication and Technology, Colorado State University

Emphasis:

Journalism, Media Psychology, International Communication, Research Methods

Courses Taught:

CMP 1110: Media Writing; CMP 2241: Introduction to Public Relations; CMP3311: Business and Political Reporting, CMP 3309/5509: Communication Inquiry, CMP 4403/5503: Mass Communication & Society, CMP 6601: Communication and Media Studies

Dr. Neelam Sharma earned her Ph.D. in Public Communication and Technology from Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Her research interests include new media, journalism, media psychology, and international communication. Her research appears in journals including the International Journal of Communication, Psychology of Popular Media, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Global Media and Communication, and the Atlantic Journal of Communication, among others. She is currently working on her solo-authored book on women journalists and online abuse and hatred in India. This book is under contract with Peter Lang Publishers as a part of the AEJMC-Peter Lang Scholar sourcing series. Dr. Sharma is also the recipient of the Senior Research Fellowship from the American Institute of India Studies (AIIS) for the year 2023-2025 to research her book in India. Before starting her doctoral studies, Dr. Sharma worked as a journalist with The Times of India and The Indian Express in India.

Selected Publications:

  • Sharma, N. & Sivakumar, G. (2023). Social media, political discourse and the 2019 elections in India: Journalists’ perspectives on the changing role of the mainstream media in setting political agenda. Global Media and Communication journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665231186252.
  • Sharma, N. (2022). Digital moral outrage, collective guilt, and collective action: An examination of how Twitter users expressed their anguish during the COVID-19-related migrant crisis in India. Journal of Communication Inquiry, https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599221081127.
  • Sharma, N. (2022). Populist leaders, and the social media platforms: analyzing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic use of Twitter in the run-up to 2019 and 2014 elections. Media Asia journal. DOI: 10.1080/01296612.2022.2135269 
  • Sharma, N. (2021). An examination of viewers’ mental model drawings after they watched a transgender-themed TV narrative. Psychology of popular media culture. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000314
  • Sharma, N. (2021). Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy: Understanding patriarchal modernity and women’s role in colonial Bengal. Media Watch Journal, 12 (2), 227-238, http://doi.org/10.15655/mw/2021/v12i2/160148.
  • Sharma, N. (2020). The role of viewers’ performance of a narrative on their beliefs about transgender persons. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 1-19, https://doi.org/10.1080/15456870.2020.1794866.
  • Sharma, N. (2020). Deriving meanings out of a fictional text: Analyzing readers’ performance of a narrative in India by using a mental models’ approach. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 17 (1). https://www.participations.org/Volume%2017/Issue%201/6.pdf
  • Sharma, N. (2016). What do readers’ mental models represent? Understanding audience processing of narratives by analyzing mental models drawn by fiction readers in India. International Journal of Communication, 10, 26. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3911.
  • Sharma, N. (2020). Real-life projections and narrative engagement: A link between narrative transportation, real-life projections, and identification with characters in a polarizing TV drama about transgender persons. In S.S. Dunn & G. Nisbett (Eds) Innovations and Implications of Persuasive Narrative. Peter Lang Publications.

Awards & Honors

  • Senior Research Fellowship, American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), 2023-2025. 
  • Professional Freedom & Responsibility (PF&R) Chair - International Communication Division- (AEJMC)- 2022-2023
  • Kopenhaver Center Fellow, 2021: The Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, AEJMC.
  • Teaching Chair- Entertainment Studies Interest Group - Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC)- (2021-22).
  • Faculty Senator - College of Arts & Letters (2021-2024).
  • ISU Office of Research: Internal Small Research Grants (2021) $2000.
  • ISU College of Arts & Letters- Travel Grant (2020, 2021, 2022).
  • CAL course release award (Spring 2022; Spring 2023)
  • Graduate Instructor of the Year (2014-2015), Department of Journalism and Media Communication, CSU, Spring 2016.
  • Young Journalist of the Year Award, 2005. Press Club, Chandigarh (India).