I’m Sara Grady, a media psychologist interested in entertainment and its functional uses in our everyday lives.
That is, how stories make us think and feel – and how we use them in our daily lives and relationships.
My research explores questions such as:
What media do we turn to in times of stress and adversity?
How do we use narratives to feel connected and signal affiliation in our social groups?
Why do we care about fictional characters and events enough to revisit them time and again, or talk about them with friends?
What motivates narrative entertainment processing and how is it so intrinsically rewarding?
I examine both media messages and the effects they have on people using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. This includes content analysis and experimental procedures as well as non-invasive and behavioral measures of processing, selection and effects.
My research has won several awards and appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research and Journal of Media Psychology.
About
I came to research via media publishing & production, campaign design, organizational development, and informal science education.
Interested in knowing more about Sara Grady and her path as a scholar? Click here
Contact
grady.367 [at] osu [dot] edu
I’m also sometimes on Bluesky
Sara Grady Sara Grady Sara Grady Sara M Grady
Sara M. Grady 