Faculty/Staff Directory

Imran

Mazid

mazidi@gvsu.edu

Associate Professor

279 LSH

616-331-2494

M/W 11 a.m. - 12.00 p.m. by appointment.

Advertising and Public Relations

Dr. Imran Mazid is Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations in the School of Communications at Grand Valley State University. He coordinates the Advertising and Public Relations program and directs the Biometrics and Innovation Lab. His work connects theory and practice to advance ethical, evidence-informed, and publicly accountable ways for organizations to engage digital publics.

Dr. Mazid’s scholarship addresses a central paradox of digital public life. Platforms can expand connection, visibility, and civic participation while also amplifying misinformation, fragmented attention, unequal influence, and distrust. This tension drew him to message design, the study of how communicative choices shape what people notice, engage, believe, and share. It guides his work: How can organizations design and govern communication technologies in ways that foster engagement without compromising ethics, accountability, or the public good?

His research examines how organizations create strategic communication that earns attention, sustains engagement, and shapes judgment in fragmented digital environments. Using computational methods, content analysis, and experiments, he studies relationships among message design, attention, emotion, engagement, and audience response. His work combines large-scale social and digital data with evidence about how people encounter and evaluate communication.

Dr. Mazid’s current projects focus on artificial intelligence in public relations, including AI governance, virtual influencers, and AI-generated content. He examines not only whether emerging technologies improve communication performance, but also how they reshape credibility, participation, power, and organization-public relationships. His research informs ethical, responsive, and accountable communication practice amid rapid technological change.

His work has appeared in Public Relations Review, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Public Relations Journal, Journal of Health Communication, International Journal of Communication, South Asian Popular Culture, and Action in Teacher Education, among other outlets. 

In the classroom, Dr. Mazid asks: What does a student need on the first day of work, and what will still matter in the tenth year of a career? He translates research into experiential learning that prepares students to evaluate and direct communication technologies with purpose, judgment, and care. He developed the three courses that anchor GVSU’s Social Media Badge program, as well as courses in influencer strategy, search engine optimization, crisis communication, and digital brand storytelling.

His AI Storytelling Lab, prompt-writing training platform, and Social Media Analytics toolkit move students beyond technical proficiency. Students learn to evaluate the evidence behind message decisions, assess how platform design shapes visibility and engagement, identify whose interests communication systems serve, and recognize their responsibilities to affected publics. In 2026, he received the Pew Teaching with Technology Award for using technology to promote practical, critical, and ethical learning.

Through research, curriculum innovation, and applied learning, Dr. Mazid works to improve how communication is designed, evaluated, governed, and taught, helping organizations engage publics with ethical judgment, empirical rigor, and commitment to the public good.

Administrative Roles

Coordinator, Advertising and Public Relations Program 

Coordinator, Biometrics and Innovation Lab 

Coordinator, Social Media and Analytics Badge 

CAP 105: Technology in Public Relations and Advertising 

CAP 210: Fundamentals of Advertising 

CAP 320: PR Management and Cases 

CAP 331: Social Media Analytics

COM 680: Crisis Communication 

COM 680: Persuasion

Ph.D., Mass Communication, Ohio University

MEd., Educational Research, Ohio University

M.A., Communication Studies, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

M.S.S., Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka

B.S.S. (Hons), Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka

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