Muniba Saleem

Mentoring grad students is a combo of honesty, trust, and high expectations, plus the hope that your guidance helps students find clarity and growth. You’re never certain. When a student recognizes your efforts, it changes you too. Feeling grateful today for a gift that reminded me why I do this. 💙

Check out this theory-driven piece offering an important framework for scholars interested in how diverse media content can be used for intergroup socialization. Truly impressive work by @len-s.bsky.social to publish as a sole author while in grad school! @mediamosaiclab.bsky.social

Huge congratulations to @nibasaleem.bsky.social & @ismaharif.bsky.social for receiving a Top Paper Award in the Intergroup Communication division at #ICA25! 🏆

We’re so proud of your well-deserved recognition and the amazing work presented at this year's @icahdq.bsky.social! 🎉

#COMMSky #AcademicSky

Related to @ismaharif.bsky.social research interests within the @mediamosaiclab.bsky.social

Super proud of @len-s.bsky.social for receiving the Dissertation Award for Social Impact for her exciting dissertation proposal! Check out her work with @mediamosaiclab.bsky.social

Hey-o #CommSky!👋🏽
#ICA2025 week = lab squad on the move to Denver! ✈️

Our lab is heading to @icahdq.bsky.social later this week, and we are all super stoked to share the amazing work our lab members have been a part of! #AcademicSky 🥳

👇🏽 Here's where you can find us on Sunday, June 15th for #ICA25 👇🏽

Is that @garciaerick.bsky.social we see? 👀

Come support this awesome team of @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social COMM graduate students (@overbye.bsky.social, Xinyi Zhang, and @laurentwang.bsky.social) on Sunday, June 15th!

P.S. We love collaboration with our fellow media labs! @mediaskill.bsky.social ✨

So proud of @nmolinarogers.bsky.social for achieving this milestone! She will be starting her postdoctoral position at UCLA working with the incredible @snsoroka.bsky.social

Very interesting paper! Related to the ideas @ismaharif.bsky.social is working on within the @mediamosaiclab.bsky.social

Testing the bi-directional influence of media and identity: a longitudinal study of Muslim American adolescents Abstract. Guided by social identity gratification theory, this study examines the reciprocal relationship between media consumption and social identity amo

📖 Read the full manuscript here: doi.org/10.1093/hcr/...

✅ Key takeaway: Media environments play a complex, active role in shaping how Muslim American youth understand who they are, especially in a social context where their identity is often stigmatized.

🧠 Why does this matter? For marginalized youth, media isn’t just background noise, it can affirm or undermine identity. The language, genre, and platform matter for how youth think about their self and collective identities.

📺 Not all media types had the same effects: Native-language entertainment media was positively associated with centrality & private esteem English-language media varied across levels of analysis. Social media → linked to declines in private esteem over time

📈 We used latent growth curve modeling to test bi-directional effects. We found stronger evidence for media shaping identity, rather than identity shaping media choices, especially in within-person changes across the three-year period.

Guided by the Social Identity Gratification Theory, we tracked 220 ethnically and linguistically diverse Muslim American adolescents to examine how different types of media consumption (in native & English language) and identity development interact over time.

🧵New publication alert! with @ismaharif.bsky.social Does media shape identity, or does identity guide media use? Our new 3-year study with Muslim American youth tests this bi-directional link @rcgd-isr.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social @hcr-journal.bsky.social @theispu.bsky.social

📖 Read the full manuscript here: academic-oup-com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/hcr/advance-...

✅ Key takeaway: Media environments play a complex, active role in shaping how Muslim American youth understand who they are, especially in a social context where their identity is often stigmatized.

🧠 Why does this matter?
For marginalized youth, media isn’t just background noise, it can affirm or undermine identity.
The language, genre, and platform matter for how youth think about their self and collective identities.

📺 Not all media types had the same effects:

Native-language entertainment media was positively associated with identity centrality & private esteem

English-language media varied across levels of analysis (within versus between)

Social media → linked to declines in private esteem over time

📈 We used latent growth curve modeling to test bi-directional effects. We found stronger evidence for media shaping identity, rather than identity shaping media choices, especially in within-person changes across the three-year period.

Guided by the Social Identity Gratification Theory, we tracked 220 ethnically and linguistically diverse Muslim American adolescents to examine how different types of media consumption (in native & English language) and identity development interact over time.

🚨New pub alert! 🚨 Out now in @mediapsychmep.bsky.social, our (w/@nibasaleem.bsky.social, Ian Hawkins, Steve Rains, Dana Mastro) meta-analysis finds that positive depictions of minority groups lead to favorable evaluations, & negative depictions to unfavorable evaluations, by majority group members.

This one was a journey. Jobs changed, roles changed, zip codes changed, babies were born, but the meta-analysis kept going. Grateful to the brilliant team (most not on Sky) who made it happen. @stewartcoles.bsky.social
@rcgd-isr.bsky.social @ucsantabarbara.bsky.social @mediamosaiclab.bsky.social

NCA National Awards: Call for 2025 Nominations - National Communication Association Submit Now National Award Calls Click on the accordion below to access the calls.

NCA Division Awards deadline is May 15, 2025! If you or your students are doing great work in communication, apply or spread the word. Recognition matters. 🏆💬 #NCA2025
www.natcom.org/nca-national...

Ah yes, masks at protests? Totally unacceptable. But ICE agents pretending to be “police” while covering their faces to arrest someone with a valid student visa? Completely fine, apparently.

Love that consistent commitment to free speech and constitutional rights. Really inspiring stuff. 🙃

I’m told this is a real letter. It basically says, “We’ll destroy Columbia unless you destroy it first.”

Listen to every word.

The myth of “objective journalism” has allowed biases to go unchecked for too long.

#MediaBias #RepresentationMatters #DEI #NewsroomDiversity

So next time you see a news story, ask yourself:
❓Who wrote this?
❓Whose voice is centered?
❓What assumptions are baked into the framing?
❓What stories are missing altogether?