Dr. Ivanka Pjesivac
About: Dr. Pjesivac teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in digital storytelling, public opinion, and international communication. She studies international and cross-cultural communication, media trust and credibility, and effects of digital news content.
Education
- Ph.D., Communication and Information, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- M.S., Communication and Information: Journalism and Electronic Media, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- Bachelor’s Degree, French Language and Literature, University of Belgrade, Serbia
Research Interests and Activities
Dr. Pjesivac’s research focuses on international and cross-cultural communication, media trust and credibility, and effects of digital news content. Within the realm of international and cross-cultural studies, Dr. Pjesivac has mainly studied the roles of cultural contexts in journalism processes, as well as the relationship between political regimes and media systems. Her second research area has examined the factors and processes that affect news credibility and trust across media platforms and national borders. In the area of digital news processing, she has combined design and cognitive variables and tested their impact on information recall, comprehension, and visual attention to information graphics used in news. Recent research efforts include emotional and cognitive effects of immersive journalism, as well as the effects of media messages used in health and science communication. Dr. Pjesivac has presented her research at national and international conferences, winning the awards for top papers from ICA, AEJMC, and BEA. In 2017, with her co-author Grace Ahn, she was named AEJMC Emerging Scholar for their study on immersive journalism. In 2018, Dr. Pjesivac received a fellowship from the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia for participation in Berlin Seminar in Transnational European Studies. Her research was published or accepted for publication in journals such as Journalism: Theory, practice, and criticism, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism Studies, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Health Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Journalism Practice, Newspaper Research Journal, International Communication Gazette, The Journal of International Communication, Visual Communication Quarterly, Electronic News, Global Media and Communication, Surveillance and Society. PLoS ONE, and International Communication Research Journal. Her doctoral dissertation was the finalist for the AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award and the winner of the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the College of Communication and Information at the University of Tennessee.
Imre, I., Wenger, D., Reilley, M. P., & Ivanka Pjesivac (April, 2023). “Teaching media literacy in the age of misinformation,” panel to be presented at the annual meeting of Broadcast […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac & Imre, I. (February 13, 2023). Media landscapes in Serbia and Croatia. Guest talk presented at the University of Toronto. The talk covered media landscapes in Serbia and […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac, Eldredge, S., Dalton, E., & Miller, L. (2023). “Between the facts and a hard place: Trust judgments and affective responses in information-seeking processes during Early COVID-19,” Health Communication. […]
Read MoreHarlow, S., Camaj, L., & Pjesivac, I. (2022). Protest reporting across clientelist media systems. International Communication Gazette. Advance online publication: doi.org/10.1177/1748048522114686 Abstract:Most protest paradigm studies examining news media’s portrayals of protesters are based on an […]
Read MoreCurtis, M.G., Whalen, C.C., Ivanka Pjesivac, & Kogan, S. M. (2022) “Contextual Pathways Linking Cumulative Experiences of Racial Discrimination to Black American Men’s COVID Vaccine Hesitancy.” Journal Racial and Ethnic […]
Read MoreHelmus, T., Shaikh, M., & Ivanka Pjesivac. (September 2022). “Countering Propaganda and Disinformation: How Communications can Help Preserve Democracy.” Panel participant in Propaganda and Democracy panel series organized by The […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac, S. Eldredge, E. Dalton, and L. Miller. (May 2022). “Between the facts and the hard place: Trust judgments and affective responses in information-seeking processes during early COVID-19.” Paper presented […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac, Leslie Klein (PhD student), Wenqing Zhao (PhD student),Xuerong Lu (recently graduated PhD student), and Yan Jin. (May 2022). “Factors that impact COVID-19 conspirational beliefs and health-related behaviors.” Poster presented at […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac, Leslie Klein (PhD student), I Imre, and A. Petrov (August, 2022). “Biden’s Saigon:” A metaphor analysis of Sputnik’s coverage of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Poster presented at […]
Read MoreDalton, E. D., Miller, L. E., Pjesivac, Ivanka, & Eldredge, S. A. (2022). Information-seeking barriers and strategies in maternity care: a framework analysis of nurses’ goals, plans, and actions. Journal […]
Read MoreIvanka Pjesivac, Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, Solyee Kim (former PhD student) & Andrea Briscoe (current PhD student) (in press). “360-degree journalism as a gateway to information seeking: The role of enjoyment and spatial presence.” Journalism Practice. Advance online […]
Read MoreAbstract: To further investigate the role of conspirational beliefs on health-related behaviors during a health pandemic such as COVID-19, we conducted an online survey among U.S. adults (N = 798) […]
Read MorePjesivac, I., Wojdynski, B., & Geidner, N. (2021). Television infographics as orienting response: An eye-tracking study of the role of visuospatial attention in processing of television news. Abstract: This experimental […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined the coverage of 2020 American elections on Croatian Public Service Television’s (HRT) website. The results of the content analysis of the census of HRT’s stories about […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined the effects of directional cues in immersive journalism by conducting a randomized between-subjects three-condition lab experiment (N=131) with community participants using three versions of originally produced […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examines media coverage of social protests in Montenegro, where the demand for free media was front and center during the 2019 anti-government protests. Relying on the theoretical […]
Read MoreAbstract: Maternal mortality is becoming a “normal” experience in the U.S. as more women die from pregnancy-related complications. Though prevalent in Black women experiences, pregnancy-related complications cut across every race. […]
Read MoreAdditional author: Patricia Moy Abstract: This paper reports qualitative and quantitative data from a national online panel survey of Latinos (N=720) after the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Participants reported in […]
Read MoreAbstract: In a between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, adult readers of a large metropolitan daily newspaper (N=70) viewed and evaluated one of two versions of the same online news feature: one with […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study employed international news flow theory to test the impact of the determinants of foreign news flow on the comprehensiveness of textual and multimedia coverage of Syrian refugee […]
Read MoreAbstract: This panel will provide a discussion on benefits and challenges of teaching journalism innovation and will offer tips on how to include technology innovation in journalism classes. It will […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study used a multi-method approach to examine the framing of GMOs in two American newspapers, The New York Times and the Washington Post (2000-2016), and to test the […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined otherization framing of people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa in American print news from 1987-2007. The results of a content analysis of a representative sample of […]
Read MoreAbstract: In today’s globalized world a country’s image is an important consideration because it can influence that country’s politics and economy (Shimko, 1991;Viosca et al., 2005). Scholars have noted that […]
Read MoreAbstract: This study examined the perceptions of media roles among journalism students in Serbia and Croatia (N=401). The results showed that the most important were citizen-oriented and watchdog roles and […]
Read MoreTeaching Specialties
Dr. Pjesivac’s teaching specialties include undergraduate and graduate courses in digital storytelling, public opinion, international communication and broadcast reporting.
Experience
Prior to receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Pjesivac worked for nearly a decade at the news department of Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade, Serbia. Her career at RTS included reporting news about political, foreign affairs, and war crimes issues. She covered most of the significant political events in Serbia from 2003 to 2007 and was RTS’s permanent correspondent from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, the Netherlands. During her journalistic career, she pursued several professional development programs in France, Switzerland, and the United States, and collaborated with CNN on stories concerning Serbia. During her work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Pjesivac also had a position on a DataONE (Data Observation Network for Earth) research team, where she has conducted multinational survey research and analysis for the Usability and Assessment Working Group of the world-wide project for scientific data archiving.
Awards and Fellowships
Dr. Pjesivac’s research efforts have been awarded several times:
- April 2019: Top Paper 1st place Open Paper Category – News Division of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA)
- May – June 2018: Fellow – Berlin Seminar in Transnational European Studies; Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia and Department of German and Russian Languages and Literatures and the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at the University of Notre Dame
- August 2017: Kopenhaver fellow – Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for Advancement of Women in Communication at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) annual conference in Chicago, IL.
- May 2017: Top faculty paper – Visual Communication Studies Division of the International Communication Association (ICA)
- 2017: Grant – Online News Association Challenge Fund for Journalism Innovation Grant for the project “Virtual Water Infrastructure Crisis” : Co-principal investigator
- 2017: Grant – Kappa Tau Alpha Chapter Adviser Research Grant: Principal investigator
- 2017: Grant – Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Emerging Scholar Grant: “Virtual Reality Journalism: Emotions and News Credibility” : Principal investigator
- August 2015: Finalist (top 4) for the AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award
- August 2015: Top faculty paper (second place) – International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
- April 2015: Outstanding Dissertation Award, College of Communication and Information, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- 2013: Two grants for dissertation research: Principal investigator
- 2012, 2013: Two scholarships for pursuing a career in international communication
- April 2013: University of Tennessee Chancellor’s Award for Extraordinary Professional Promise
- April 2013: Best Debut Paper (second place) – News Division of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA)
- August 2012: Research Award – Kappa Tau Alpha, National Honor Society
- August 2012: Top student paper (first place) – International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)
- Spring 2012: Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award, College of Communication and Information, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
- 2010-2012: Two scholarships for graduate studies
