Iowa State is full of faculty with a story to tell. Daniela Dimitrova, associate professor of journalism and communication, is a prime example. Dimitrova’s story is one of not only passion, but also of purpose and dedication.

Dimitrova has devoted her time to studying the impact of the media on political issues. More specifically, she has been studying how social media affects voter knowledge of political issues and voter participation.

“It’s truly fascinating to me how important the media is in society,” Dimitrova said.

Because she grew up in Bulgaria, a country with a history of restricted media, Dimitrova’s interest in political communication was sparked at an early age.

“I wanted to know, why was our coverage so different than coverage in other countries?” Dimitrova said. 

Dimitrova’s interest in political communication followed her to college, where she double majored in journalism and mass communication and political science and international relations from the American University in Bulgaria. Her interest continued to lead her to a master’s degree from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Last year, Dimitrova received the chance to act upon her interest. Her request for a year-long Faculty Professional Development Assignment was granted by Iowa State, allowing her to study in both Sweden and Bulgaria.

Her first project was based in Sweden. She studied data from a recent national election in order to discover what contributions the media had on the election. Her research led her to the discovery that although online media had a weak effect on political knowledge, it had a strong effect on political participation.

“I had discovered a democratic dilemma. People were participating more, but they didn’t know more,” Dimitrova said.

Based on her work in Sweden, Dimitrova wrote an academic article that was eventually published in the journal Communication Research.

Her second project led her back to Bulgaria. Dimitrova explained that before the Cold War, Bulgaria had a closed media model. Dimitrova’s goal, therefore, was to study the validity of media coverage of elections taking place after the Cold War.

“Nobody else had done this kind of research before,” Dimitrova said.

Dimitrova spent hours upon hours in the library, studying newspapers starting from the beginning of the Post-Cold War period.

“It was a tedious project, but in the end, it was worth it,” Dimitrova said.

Now that Dimitrova is back in Iowa, she has turned part of her focus to a more local level. She is currently studying how social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, affected the caucus in Iowa.

Dimitrova’s passion for political communication has driven her to conduct a variety of studies. Her purpose, however, remains constant.

“My goal, ultimately, is to provide more information to people about media impact in society, which will hopefully lead to a more effective democracy,” Dimitrova said.

Aside from her extensive research, Dimitrova continues to teach at Iowa State. Her current courses include a graduate seminar on media framing and a special topics class on covering world news.

“My working experience with Dr. Daniela has been great. She is passionate about media impact research, and very knowledgeable in related areas,” said Shuyang Qu, Dimitrova’s graduate assistant.