Faculty & Staff Spotlight Talia

Meet Talia Stroud

What do you currently do at UT? 
-"I teach undergraduate and graduate classes on public opinion, media effects, and quantitative methods and conduct research on the role of the media in a democracy, most recently looking at the effects of social media. I serve as the director of the Center for Media Engagement."

Where are you from? 
-"Montana"

How and when did you decide to work in communication? 
-"Part-way through my graduate work, I decided to pursue an academic career in communication when I realized that faculty have an amazing job: they get to work with students, think about new ideas, and pursue research!"

What’s one of the most memorable things that happened during your Undergraduate Years?
-"My statistics professor, Dr. Beth Chance (!), offered me a chance to work with her on a public opinion survey. She really opened my eyes to the power of statistics and the ability to make a difference in communities."

What’s one of the most memorable things that happened during your Graduate Years?
-"I had the opportunity to work on the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey, a survey of 30k+ adult Americans fielded every night to understand how their attitudes and behaviors change during elections."

What are you proudest of?
-"My family, my advisees, and the opportunity to work with the amazing people in the Center for Media Engagement and the Moody College."

What is a fun fact about you that most people here don’t know?
-"My current book-in-progress is on a new topic for me: my co-author and I are working to understand how to communicate about science in an era characterized by polarization and misinformation."

If you could go back in time, what’s one piece of advice you would give to yourself?
-"You’re going to make mistakes and things won’t always work out – do your best to fix things when you can and then focus on the wins instead of dwelling on the failures."

Scott and Talia Stroud staging a debate in Talia's CMS 345P Course