Alexandra Merceron

Alexandra M. Merceron is a strategic communication professional, educator, and scholar with more than 20 years of experience helping organizations use the power of digital, social, and traditional media to influence publics and manage reputations. Since joining Columbia’s faculty in 2017, Merceron has taught and developed courses in Strategic Communication Management, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, Communication Research & Insights and Digital Communication Strategy.

Alexandra is interested in exploring individual citizens' knowledge and perceptions of personal cyber-security. In her research, she has found that there is a third-person effect when it comes to perceived cyber-security of digital platforms, threat detection, and the ability to identify misinformation, which ultimately impacts trust in digital platforms. Exploring this further, and to what extent trust in digital platforms impacts their adoption and use, has wide-ranging implications for governments, the media, financial institutions, healthcare, marketers and other entities that are growing increasingly reliant upon digital platforms

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