Faculty and Staff Profile

Ashley McKenzie

Educational Background

2021, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ph.D., Media and Communication
2022, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cancer Control and Research Training Program

2018, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.A., Mass Communication

2016, Clemson University, Communication Studies and English

Courses Taught

COMM 3660: Media Psychology
COMM 8240: Health Campaigns and Interventions

Profile

Dr. Ashley Hedrick McKenzie is an assistant professor of health communication at Clemson University. She completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and she graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill with a Ph.D. in media and communication and a M.A. in mass communication. Dr. McKenzie's research explores the relationship between attitudes and beliefs—such as stigma, gender role ideologies, victim blaming, and rape myths—and a variety of sexual health issues, including cervical and breast cancer prevention, sexual violence prevention, HIV prevention, and human trafficking education. She is particularly interested in using online spaces and digital health interventions to change attitudes, beliefs, and health outcomes.

Research Publications

McKenzie, A.H. & Kresovich, A. (2023). Identification/Parasocial Interaction Theory. The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. (eds E. Y. Ho, C. L. Bylund, J. C. M. van Weert, I. Basnyat, N. Bol and M. Dean). Wiley.

McKenzie, A.H., Shegog, R., Savas, L.S., Healy, C.M., Shay, L.A., Preston, S., Coan, S., Teague, T., Frost, E., Spinner, S.W., Vernon, S.W. (in press). Parents’ stigmatizing beliefs about the HPV vaccine and their association with information seeking behavior and vaccination communication behaviors. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.

McKenzie, A.H., Friedman, B. G., Dillman Carpentier, F. R., Lazard, A. J., Salazar, L. F., & Shegog, R. (2023). Recognize & Resist: An Online Health Intervention to Promote Writing About Sexual Consent and Egalitarian Gender Roles Among One Direction Fanfiction Writers. Health Communication, 1-12.

Hedrick, A., Friedman, B., & Johnston, A. (2022). Adolescents’ victim-blaming responses to narratives about sex trafficking: Strategies for curriculum development. Violence Against Women.

Hedrick, A. (2021). Media consumption and rape myth acceptance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Health Communication. doi:10.1080/10810730.2021.1986609

Lazard, A., Collins, M. K. R., Hedrick, A., Varma, T., Love, B., Valle, C. G., Brooks, E., & Benedict, C. (2021). Using social media for peer-to-peer social support among young adults with cancer. JMIR Cancer. doi: 10.2196/28234

Lazard, A., Collins, M., Hedrick, A., Horrell, L., Varma, T., Valle, C., Love, B. & Benedict, C. (2021). Initiation and Changes in Use of Social Media for Peer Support Among Young Adults with Cancer. Psycho-Oncology. doi: 10.1002/pon.5758

Hedrick, A. (2020). “He’s so bad but he does it so well:” Interviews with One Direction fans about writing romantic and erotic fiction online. Sex Education.
doi: 10.1080/14681811.2020.1852075

Hedrick, A. (2020). One Direction real person fiction on Wattpad.com: A textual analysis of sexual consent. Feminism & Psychology.
doi: 10.1177/0959353520958896

Hedrick, A. & Dillman Carpentier, F.R. (2020). How current and potential Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) users experience, negotiate, and manage stigma: Disclosures and backstage processes in online discourse. Culture, Health, and Sexuality. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2020.1752398