
Theresa M. de los Santos
Biography
Theresa de los Santos is an assistant professor of communication in the Communication Division at Pepperdine University in Malibu. She obtained a bachelor of arts degree in broadcast journalism and political science and a master of arts degree in media communication from Pepperdine. She earned her PhD in media communication at University of California, Santa Barbara. She is an Emmy award-winning television news producer, formerly working at FOX 6 in San Diego and on the FOX 11 Morning News and Good Day L.A. at KTTV in Los Angeles. As a news producer she covered Hurricane Katrina, the Malibu wildfires, and the immigrations protests of 2006, which made her step back and question the impact of the language used in news messages on audiences. As a result, her research focuses on the effect of discrete emotions in news coverage on attitude, opinion, and behavior change. At Pepperdine she teaches in the areas of journalism, media, and research methods and leads the broadcast co-curricular programs.
Education
- PhD in Media Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2014
- Dissertation: "Emotionally Charged: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Online News Information Seeking, Processing, and Sharing"
- MA in Media Communication, Pepperdine University, 2008
- BA in Telecommunications (Broadcast Journalism), Pepperdine University, 2001
Topics
- Journalism
- Media Communication
- Research Methods
Courses
- JOUR 590 – Special Topics in Journalism (4 units)
- JOUR 330 – Journalism Presentation Principles (4 units)
- JOUR 241 – Introduction to News Writing and Editing (4 units)
- JOUR 251/351, MPRD 261/361 – Journalism, Media Production Practicum (1 unit)
- COM 300 – Introduction to Communication Research Methods (3 units)
- COM 260 – Introduction to Media (4 units)