About me

Meet Your New Colleagues Interview—Fall 2023, at Stony Brook University

Hi! I’m Matthew, a scholar, teacher, and communicator working at the intersection(s) of digital media, social change, and rhetoric and communication theory.

As a researcher, I study how people affect technology—and how technology affects people—in communication efforts toward social change. I’m interested in how new media technologies, user practices, and cultural trends can generate and constrain possibilities for participation in public life. My scholarship has appeared in journals like The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and Public Relations Inquiry. I’m currently working on a book project tentatively titled Just Participating: Formatting Critical Sensibilities When There’s Just Too Much, about the challenges of participation in digital and political environments that demand our engagement.

I’m an incoming Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at at Stony Brook University on Long Island, NY, where I’m also associated faculty with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department and affiliate faculty of the Center for Changing Systems of Power. From 2023-2025, I was an IDEA Fellow in Ethical AI, Information Systems, and Data Science and Literacy in the School of Communication and Journalism/Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science® and the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. At SBU, I teach courses about digital media, social justice, and rhetorical criticism. In Fall 2025, I’m teaching COM346: Race, Class, and Gender in Media and COM306: Modes of Media Criticism.

Dissertation Defense—April 12, 2023, at the University of Maryland, College Park.

I received my Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Maryland, where I also received a graduate certificate in Digital Studies in the Arts and Humanities. I’m originally from Spokane, WA, and I’m a proud graduate of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA.

Besides academic research and teaching, I have also worked as a freelance copy editor, Twitter bot-creator, video producer, and journalist.

Please feel free to explore my posts to see my work, or view my CV.

You can reach me for talks, expert interviews, and commentary via my SBU Experts page, on Twitter/X @matthew_paul, on Bluesky @mattsalzano.bsky.social, Mastodon @salzano@aoir.social, or via email: matthew (DOT) salzano (AT) stonybrook.edu or mattsalzano (AT) gmail (DOT) com.