Shannon Burth

Doctoral Advisor: Srivi Ramasubramanian, Ph.D.

Education:
M.A., Media Studies, Syracuse University, 2023
B.A., Communication, State University of New York at Geneseo, 2020

Courses Taught:
COM 107 (Communications and Society; January 2025 - May 2025)
COM 346 (Race, Gender, and Media; August 2025 - current)

Areas of Research: Media literacy, critical media literacy, representation, activism, entertainment media, and critical pedagogy in higher education

Presentations & Publications:

[Top Paper Award] Burth, S., Ramasubramanian, S., Scrivner, A., & Alajmi, F. (Forthcoming). How Student Journalists Shape Global Social Movements: Analyzing Gaza Solidarity Encampments Across 14 Campus Newspapers. National Communication Association, Aurora, Colorado. November, 2025. 

Burth, S., Green, K. N., Johnson, T., Mu, D., Ni, A., & Gambino, A. (August 2025). Navigating Personal Ethics When Researching Power Dynamics as Emerging Scholars (panel). Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, San Francisco, California. 

Lee, Y., Burth, S., Bowman, N., & Ramasubramanian, S. (August 2025). Gen Z's Responses to Outdated Cultural Depiction Labels: A Mixed Methods Study. Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, San Francisco, California. 

Burth, S., Ramasubramanian, S., Scrivner, A., Hanrahan, M. & Alajmi, F. (June 2025). Student Journalism as Witnessing, Solidarity, and Resistance: An Analysis of Pro-Palestine Campus Protests in Student-Run Newspapers in New York (research escalator session). International Communication Association, Denver, Colorado. 

Ramasubramanian, S. & Burth, S. (November, 2024).  Arts-based Maternal Mental Health Manual (panel). National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. 

Burth, S., Ramasubramanian, S., Bowman, N. D., & Lee, Y. E. (November 2024). Audience Reactions to Outdated Cultural Depiction (OCD) Labels: Dominant, Negotiated, and Oppositional Readings. National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. 

Santia, M., Burth, S., de Carvalho, R., & Ramasubramanian, S. (November 2024). Indigenous Peoples’ Day or Columbus Day? A Decolonial Analysis of News Narratives in CNN and Fox News. National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA. 

Ramasubramanian, S., Burth, S., McMillian, M., Bhatti, S. J., Riles, J. M, Behm-Morawitz, E., Yin, M. (June 2024). The Role of Media Literacy & Identities in Youth Civic Engagement and Media Activism. International Communication Association, Gold Coast

Bowman, N. D., Lee, Y. E., Ramasubramanian, S., Burth, S. (June 2024) Exploring Audience Responses to Outdated Cultural Depictions Labels on Older Entertainment Media: A Mixed Methods Study. International Communication Association, Gold Coast. 

[Top Poster Award] Burth, S. & Lee, Y. E. (April 2024). The Role of Critical Media Literacy and Identity on Audience Responses to Outdated Cultural Depiction Labels on Older Entertainment Media. RIT Student Research in Communication Conference, Rochester, NY. 

Burth, S. (November 2023) DEI and Media Literacy (panel), National Communication. Association, National Harbor, MD.

Burth, S., Riewestahl, E., Foster, B., Johnson, P., Tully, M., Mihailidis, P. & Ramasubramanian, S. (October 2022). “The 6E’s of Media Literacy Impact: A Framework to Understand Differential Outcomes of Media Literacy Practices.” 3rd Annual Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. California State University, Oakland, CA. 

Ramasubramanian, S., Baker, E., Burth, S., Bhatti, S. J., McKoy, K., Yin, M. (October 2022). “Fostering the Future of Research within a Collaboratory for Data Equity, Social Healing, Inclusive Futures and Transformation.” 3rd Annual Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas. California State University, Oakland, CA. 

Ramasubramanian, S., McMillian, M., Bhatti, S., Burth, S., J., Riles, J. M., & Behm-Morawitz, E. (in press). Youth media culture, participatory politics, and digital resistance. Journal of Media Literacy Education.

Ramasubramanian, S., Burth, S., & Johnson, P. R. (2025) Media Literacy Education. In E. Scharrer (Ed.). Children, Media, and Technology: Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003453123-6.  

Ramasubramanian, S., Scharrer, E., & Burth, S. (2025). Doing research on media psychology and social justice. In K. Dill-Shackleford & N. Bowman (Eds.)., Oxford Handbook of Media Psychology (2nd edition). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197689875.013.0008

Mihailidis, P., Foster, B., Burth, S., Ramasubramanian, S., Tully, M., & Johnson, P. R. (2025). Centering Relation in Media Literacy Practice. Journal of Media Literacy Education,  17(1), 134-149. https://doi.org/10.23860/JMLE-2025-17-1-9

Burth, S., Riewestahl, E., Ramasubramanian, S., Foster, B., Johnson, P., Mihailidis, P. & Tully, M. (2024). Mapping Media Literacy Impact: A Review of Literature and Call for Equity.”Annals of the International Communication Association. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.2024.2354357 

Foster, B., Mihailidis, P., Johnson, P. R., Burth, S., Riewestahl, E., Tully M., & Ramasubramanian, S. (2024). Designing equitable media literacy interventions for critical youth agency. Global Studies of Childhood, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106231208445

Johnson, P. R., Tully M., Foster, B., Burth, S., Riewestahl, E., Mihailidis, P., & Ramasubramanian, S. (2024). Developing a framework for equitable media literacy practice: Voices from the field. Communication, Culture, & Critique. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcae023 

Ramasubramanian, S., Burth S. & MacMillian, M. (2024). Data Justice: The Role of Data in Media and Social Justice. In S. Ramasubramanian & O.O. Banjo (Eds.). Oxford Handbook of Media & Social Justice. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197744345.013.13.  Full text. 

Books:

Mihailidis, P., Foster, B., Johnson, P. R., Burth, S. Ramasubramanian, S., & Tully M. (in press). Equitable media literacies: Pedagogies and practices for more inclusive and just civic futures. Routledge. 

Bio: Burth is a critical, mixed-method scholar with research interests that include media literacy, critical media literacy, activism, representation and critical pedagogy in higher education. 

During her time at Syracuse University, Shannon has participated in multiple research assistantships ranging in focus from data literacy to representation in historical media to media framing of student protesters to how old/outdated media content is labeled for audiences. In all cases, at the core of these projects is questioning and interrogating the things we miss or take for granted in our media use or content, and importantly how those things impact minorities or oppressed groups.  

She also bridges the gap between her research and teaching by again foregrounding what we often take for granted in media content, using concepts of critical media literacy to encourage students to reflect on their own media use, as well as the media they will one day create in the industry. She has served as instructor of record for COM 107 (Communications and Society) and currently serves as Instructor of Record for COM 346 (Race, Gender, and the Media). 

She is a member and the research team leader of the CODE^SHIFT (Collaboratory for Data Equity, Social Healing, Inclusive Futures, and Transformation) team, which is a multidisciplinary “collaboratory” research lab space for communication and data justice. She is also a part of the Mapping Impactful Media Literacy team, which explores how impact and equity are understood and applied in media literacy practice and research.