Natalie Bazarova
Associate Vice Provost, Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation, Office of the Provost
Professor, Department of Communication
Professor Bazarova leads the Cornell Social Media Lab (SML), which investigates the dynamic relationship between communication technology and social behavior across various socio-technical contexts. The SML’s work involves designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to enhance online privacy and safety, promote digital and AI literacy, and encourage prosocial behaviors in social media. By integrating multidisciplinary perspectives, her research examines how people interact with new affordances and modalities of communication technologies and the resulting changes and effects on people’s well-being and social behaviors. These insights have informed her work on building and evaluating tools and interventions to promote safe and productive engagement with technologies for youth and other vulnerable populations, including asylum seekers and refugees, older adults susceptible to information manipulation and cybersecurity risks, teenagers who have experienced digital harms and abuse, and people with psychological distress and history of self-injury. She directs Social Media TestDrive, an experiential digital literacy program dedicated to teaching youth digital literacy skills, and co-directs the Digital and AI Literacy Initiative, whose goal is to design, evaluate, and disseminate community-driven and evidence-based solutions that promote the public’s critical and informed engagement with technologies.
Education
- PhD, Cornell University
Awards & Honors
Top Paper Award (2020), Communication and Technology Division, International Communication Association
Facebook Privacy Research Award (2020) for Developing Novel Interventions for Diverse Populations, Contexts, and Data Types
NSF Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace EAGER Award (2020) "Addressing social media-related cybersecurity and privacy risks with experiential learning interventions"
Faculty Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring (2019), CALS, Cornell
Cornell Institute of Social Sciences Collaborative Project Award (2018) “Prosocial Behaviors in Social Media”, 2018-2021.
PRYDE Award (2017) for Productive Social Media Use for 4-H programs in New York State, Cornell University
Top Four Paper Award (2017), Human Communication and Technology Division, NCA
Courses Taught
COMM3400/INFO3400: Social Behavior and Technology
COMM6460: Human Communication and Technology
COMM 4980: Communication Teaching Experience
COMM 2990: Directed Research Experience
COMM 7970: Graduate Independent Study
INFO 4900: Independent Reading and Research
COMM 4990: Independent Research
COMM 2820: Research Methods in Communication Studies
Contact Information
479 Mann Library Building
Ithaca, NY 14853
nnb8 [at] cornell.edu
Additional Links
Selected Publications
- Bhandari, A., Ozanne, M., Bazarova, N. N., & DiFranzo, D. (2021). Do you care who flagged this post? Effects of moderator transparency on bystander behavior. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 00, 1-17.
- Kruzan, K., Whitlock, J., & Bazarova, N. N. (2021). Examining the relationship between use of a mobile peer-support application and self-injury outcomes. A longitudinal mixed-method study. Journal of Medical Internet Research Mental Health (JMIR), 8(1):e21854.
- Masur, P., DiFranzo, D., & Bazarova, N. (2021). Behavioral contagion on social media: Effects of social norms, design interventions, and critical media literacy on self-disclosure. PLoS ONE 16(7): e0254670.
- Bazarova, N. N., & Masur, P. (2020). Towards an integration of individualistic, networked, and institutional approaches to online disclosure and privacy in a networked ecology. Current Opinion in Psychology, 36, 118–123.
- Chang, P., Bazarova, N. N., & Wethington, E. (2020). How older adults with chronic pain manage social support interactions with mobile media health communication. Health Communication, 8, 1–13. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1846272
Natalie in the news
News
News
Sixteen faculty and staff in Cornell’s contract colleges have received 2023-24 State University of New York Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence, which recognize superior professional achievement.
- Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management
- Department of Communication