Brian McKernan

Faculty Bio

My research focuses on conspiracy theories and how political actors use digital platforms for persuasion. I also help design and study applications to combat harmful misinformation, increase political transparency, and strengthen reasoning.

PhD, University at Albany, SUNY, 2013
Sociology

MA, Fordham University, 2006
Sociology

BA, Saint Anselm College, 2004
Criminal Justice

Past Courses

CMS 113: Media, Culture, and Society
CMS 244: Digital Cultures
CMS 270: Political Communication
CMS 312: Intro to Cultural Studies
CMS 393: Internship Program I
CMS 394: Internship Program II

Publications

Healthier information ecosystems: A definition and agenda
Introne, J., McKernan, B., Corsbie-Massay, C. L., Rohlinger, D. & Tripodi, F. B. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. Vol n/a (Issue n/a) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/asi.24949

Narratives of volunteering and social change in wartime Ukraine
Boichak, O. & McKernan, B. (2024). Cultural Sociology. Vol 18 (Issue 1) , pages 48--71.

The perpetual unfolding of the Iranian Revolution: Coverage of a historical video game in U.S. media outlets
McKernan, B. & Pourtaher, E. (2024). Yowei Kang, Kenneth C. C. Yang, Michał Mochocki, Jakub Majewski, Paweł Schreiber (Eds.), Routledge. , pages 98-114.

“Fake and Fraudulent” vs. “An American Right”: Competing Imaginaries of the Vote in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign
Stromer-Galley, J., McKernan, B., Khoury, C. & Kim, P. (2024). Costley White, Khadijah; Kreiss, Daniel; McGregor, Shannon C; Tromble, Rebekah (Eds.), Oxford University Press. , pages 54--60.

Echo chambers, cognitive thinking styles, and mistrust? Examining the roles information sources and information processing play in conspiracist ideation
McKernan, B., Rossini, P. & Stromer-Galley, J. (2023). International Journal of Communication. Vol 17 , pages 1102--1125. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19244

A Human-Centered Design Approach to Creating Tools to Help Journalists Monitor Digital Political Ads: Insights and Challenges
McKernan, B., Stromer-Galley, J., Korsunska, A., Bolden, S. E., Rossini, P. & Hemsley, J. (2022). Digital Journalism. , pages 1--20. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2064321

Flexible versus structured support for reasoning: enhancing analytical reasoning through a flexible analytic technique
Stromer-Galley, J., Rossini, P., Kenski, K., McKernan, B., Clegg, B., Folkestad, J., Østerlund, C., Schooler, L., Boichak, O., Canzonetta, J., Martey, R. M., Pavlich, C., Tsetsi, E. & McCracken, N. (2021). Intelligence and National Security. Vol 36 (Issue 2) , pages 279--298. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1841466

Political messaging over time: A comparison of US presidential candidate Facebook posts and tweets in 2016 and 2020
Stromer-Galley, J., Rossini, P., Hemsley, J., Bolden, S. E. & McKernan, B. (2021). Social Media+ Society. Vol 7 (Issue 4) , pages 20563051211063465.

Advertising on Facebook: transparency, but not transparent enough
Stromer-Galley, J., Rossini, P. G., McKernan, B. & Hemsley, J. (2020). Jackson, Daniel; Sarver Coombs, Danielle; Trevisan, Filippo; Lilleker, Darren; Thorsen, Einar (Eds.), Poole, Englad :The Centre for Comparative Politics and Media Research, Bournemouth University. https://www.electionanalysis.ws/us/president2020/section-5-social-media/advertising-on-facebook-transparency-but-not-transparent-enough/

Privacy in crowdsourcing: A review of the threats and challenges
Xia, H. & McKernan, B. (2020). Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

Digital texts and moral questions about immigration: Papers, Please and the capacity for a video game to stimulate sociopolitical discussion
McKernan, B. (2019). Games and Culture. , pages 1555412019893882.

Beyond the medium: Rethinking information literacy through crowdsourced analysis
Boichak, O., Canzonetta, J., Sitaula, N., Taylor, S., McKernan, B., Rossini, P., Clegg, B., Kenski, K., Martey, R., McCracken, N., Østerlund, C., Myers, R., Folkestad, J. & Stromer-Galley, J. (2019). , pages 420-429.

TRACE: A stigmergic crowdsourcing platform for intelligence analysis
Xia, H., Østerlund, C., McKernan, B., Folkestad, J., Rossini, P., Boichak, O., Robinson, J., Kenski, K., Myers, R. & Stromer-Galley, J. , pages 440-448.

Video games, contestation, and meaning: A strong program approach to studying artistic legitimation
McKernan, B. (2019). American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Vol 7 (Issue 1) , pages 174-213. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-018-0060-3

Analyzing iterative training game design: A multi method postmortem analysis of CYCLES Training Center and CYCLES Carnivale
Shaw, A., McKernan, B., Stromer-Galley, J., Saulnier, E., Rhodes, M., Folkestad, J., Taylor, S., Kenski, K., Clegg, B. & Strzalkowski, T. (2018). Multimodal Technologies and Interaction. Vol 2 (Issue 3)

The Morality of Play: Video Game Coverage in The New York Times From 1980 to 2010
McKernan, B. Games and Culture. Vol 8 (Issue 5) , pages 307-329.

The Temporal Attentive Observation (TAO) Scale: Development of an instrument to assess attentive behavior sequences during serious gameplay
Folkestad, J., McKernan, B., Martey, R., Rhodes, M., Kenski, K., Shaw, A., Stromer-Galley, J., Clegg, B. & Strzalkowski, T. (2018). Technology, Knowledge and Learning. Vol 23 (Issue 1) , pages 65-81.

User-centered design and experimentation to develop effective software for evidence-based reasoning in the intelligence community: The Trackable Reasoning and Analysis for Crowdsourcing and Evaluation (TRACE) Project
Stromer-Galley, J., Rossini, P., Kenski, K., Folkestad, J., McKernan, B., Martey, R., Clegg, B., Østerlund, C. & Schooler, L. (2018). Computing in Science & Engineering. Vol 20 (Issue 6) , pages 35-42.

Balancing play and formal training in the design of serious games
Martey, R., Stromer-Galley, J., Shaw, A., McKernan, B., Saulnier, T., McLaren, E., Rhodes, M., Folkestad, J., Taylor, S., Kenski, K., Clegg, B. & Strzalkowski, , T. (2017). Games and Culture. Vol 12 (Issue 3) , pages 269-291.

Analytics-driven design: Impact and implications of team member psychological perspectives on a serious games (sgs) design framework.
Folkestad, J., Robinson, D., McKernan, B., Martey, R., Rhodes, M., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., Clegg, B., Shaw, A. & Strzalkowski, T. (2015). C. S. Loh, Y. Sheng, & D. Ifenthaler (Eds.), Springer. , pages 275-300.

Effective mitigation of anchoring bias, projection bias, and representativeness bias from serious game-based training
Clegg, B., McKernan, B., Martey, R., Taylor, S., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., Saulnier, E. T., Rhodes, M., Folkestad, J., McLaren, E., Shaw, A. & Strzalkowski, T. (2015). Procedia Manufacturing. Vol 3 , pages 1558–1565.

The meaning of a game: Stereotypes, video game commentary and color-blind racism
McKernan, B. (2015). American Journal of Cultural Sociology. Vol 3 (Issue 2) , pages 224-253.

We don’t need no stinkin’badges: The impact of reward features and feeling rewarded in educational games
McKernan, B., Martey, R., Stromer-Galley, J., Kenski, K., Clegg, B., Folkestad, J., Shaw, A., Saulnier, T. & Strzalkowski, , T. (2015). Computers in Human Behavior. Vol 45 , pages 299-306.

Reality check: Real housewives and fan discourse on parenting and family.
Wu, J. & McKernan, B. (2013). K. M. Ryan, D. A. Macey (Eds.), Lexington Books. , pages 119-133.

The morality of play: Video game coverage in The New York Times from 1980 to 2010
McKernan, B. (2013). Games and Culture. Vol 8 (Issue 5) , pages 307-329.

Politics and Celebrity: A Sociological Understanding
McKernan, B. (2011). Sociology Compass.