dr. Alexander Schouten

Bio

I am an assistant professor of Business Communication & Digital Media. My research and teaching interests include social media use, online collaboration, and online impression management. Specific topics of study include the social psychology of online communication technology, social and digital media, identity management, social influencers, online dating, IT & organizations, virtual & augmented reality, qualitative and quantitative research methodology.

Besides teaching & research, I developed and initiated the New Media Design track within the Communication and Information Sciences department. I am also the bachelor thesis coordinator. I have practical and management experience at interface of technology, organization, and communication. My research skills include: network analysis, multivariate & multilevel analysis, and structural equation modeling. I know  my way around Google Analytics, SEO, Python, SQL, PHP, and basic web development (HTML, CSS, JS).

Expertise

My research focuses on the social consequences of online communication technologies and social media. Specifically, I investigate the specific design characteristics that define communication technologies. These design characteristics, or affordances, in turn affect how people experience these technologies, how they use them, and how they are affected by them. The specific topics I study are (a) how social media affect communication in professional settings, (b) how influencers present themselves on social media and how this affects their followers’ attitudes and behaviors, (c) the effect of visual versus textual information in online dating profiles, (d) how virtual & augmented reality may change interpersonal communication, and (e) the consequences of online interaction for social development.

Teaching

I teach courses on online communication technology and digital media, such as Social Media at Work, Business Information Technology, and Social Media Analytics. I have supervised more than a 100 bachelor and master theses and 5 PhD's.

Courses

• Business, Technology & Innovation
• Social Media at Work
• Communication Theory

Highlights

You can download my full CV here. You can download a short resume (in Dutch) here.

Recent publications

1. People-nearby applications use and local community experiences - Dise…

   Gatti, F., Procentese, F., & Schouten, A. P. (2023). People-nearby applications use and local community experiences: Disentangling their interplay through a multilevel, multiple informant approach. Media Psychology, 26(3), 278-305.

2. Adolescents' Online Communication and Self-Disclosure to Online and O…

   Mýlek, V., Dedkova, L., & Schouten, A. P. (2023). Adolescents' Online Communication and Self-Disclosure to Online and Offline Acquaintances: Differential Effects of Social Anxiety and Depressed Moods. Journal of Media Psychology. Advance online publication.

3. Online Proctoring: Privacy Invasion or Study Alleviation? - Discoveri…

   Terpstra, A., Rooij, A. D., & Schouten, A. (2023). Online Proctoring: Privacy Invasion or Study Alleviation? Discovering Acceptability Using Contextual Integrity. In CHI '23: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-20). Article 167 (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings). ACM.

4. Influencer advertising on Instagram - Product-influencer fit and numb…

   Janssen, L., Schouten, A. P., & Croes, E. A. J. (2022). Influencer advertising on Instagram: Product-influencer fit and number of followers affect advertising outcomes and influencer evaluations via credibility and identification. International journal of advertising, 41(1), 101-127. Advance online publication.

5. Robomorphism - Examining the effects of telepresence robots on betwee…

   Schouten, A. P., Portegies, T. C., Withuis, I., Willemsen, L. M., & Mazerant-Dubois, K. (2022). Robomorphism: Examining the effects of telepresence robots on between-student cooperation. Computers in Human Behavior, 126, Article 106980.