Robin Blom

Professor in School of Journalism and Strategic Communication

Phone:765-285-8737

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Room:AJ 285A

About Robin Blom

Dr. Robin Blom is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Strategic Communication and an affiliate faculty member in Ball State’s honors college. He also serves as the director of the Unified Research Lab (URL) to facilitate research projects in eye tracking, psycho-physiology, and user experience.

His research focuses on the role of cognitive bias in acceptance of misinformation to better understand why people believe things that are false and do not believe things that are true. He also studies the role of news reporters in wrongful conviction cases. 

Dr. Blom’s “The honors of the Nobel Peace Prize” course has been recognized by Partners in Peace, a collaboration between the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, and the National Collegiate Honors Council (NCHC). Blom formally accepted this recognition on behalf of Ball State University in a ceremony with Jørgen Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. He also teaches courses about media theory and media analytics.

Some of the other courses Dr. Blom has developed include: “Eyewitness misidentification and social injustice,” “Pseudoscience and conspiracy theories,” “Disney storytelling,” and “Disney culture and culture in Disney.” He also teaches courses about media theory, media analytics, and sociology of news.

Professional Experience

• Ball State University: Assistant/Associate Professor/Professor, 2013-present
• Michigan State University: Instructor and Teaching Assistant, 2007-2013
• Point Park University: Teaching Assistant, 2006-2007

Education

• Ph.D., Media & Information Studies, Michigan State University
• M.A., Journalism & Mass Communication, Point Park University
• B.A., Journalism, Hogeschool van Utrecht

Selected Research and Publication

• Blom, R. (2026). News expectancy violations and emotion. In M. Soto-Sanfiel & V. Salojärvi (Eds.), The handbook of journalism and emotion. Wiley. 
• Blom, R. (2023). Lippmann’s triangular relationship on the crime scene: Pseudo-environments convicting the innocent. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 18(2-3), 141-159.
• Blom, R. (2023). The awkward moment when you agree with news outlets that you normally distrust. Media & Communication, 11(4). Open Access.
• Blom, R. (2022). Eyewitness memory in journalistic context: An interdisciplinary research agenda to study post-event misinformation effects. Journalism Practice, 17(9), 1962-1979.
• Blom, R., & Huang, K.-T. (2021). Eyewitness memory contamination through misleading questions by reporters. Newspaper Research Journal, 42(30), 346-363.

Honors and Awards

• Partners in Peace, National Collegiate Honors Council, 2024 - present
• Ball Brothers Honors College Faculty Fellow, 2020-2022
• Distinguished Researcher Award, College of Communication, Information, and Media, 2019
• High Technology Award, College of Communication, Information, and Media, 2016
• Martha Rayne Award for Media History Research, Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, 2011