Chelsea Reynolds

Center Director and Associate Professor,

Journalism & Mass Comm

[email protected]

1111 S. Broadway Suite 100 Los Angeles, CA 90015
Mail code: 2020

Campus: Dtphx
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Long Bio

Chelsea Julian Reynolds, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Center for Media & Communities at the ASU California Center, where she is an associate professor in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Her work supports the Cronkite School's Los Angeles-area media initiatives and programming partnerships. She also facilitates Cronkite-led research collaborations. Her projects offer a lens into the power of media to not only inform, but to create relationships across cultural divides that inspire people to work together.

Reynolds lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Nilo, and their cat, Little Mama. She enjoys Pilates, hiking, and exploring the great culinary landscape of Southern California.

Research
Dr. Reynolds is an expert in critical-qualitative approaches to mass communication research. Her individual research program focuses on sexual communication and media representations of LGBTQ+ communities. Her ongoing projects investigate reportage about sex trafficking and sex work in diverse news outlets, including adult industry media. Reynolds's academic writing has been published in top interdisciplinary journals such as Journal of Sex Research; Communication, Culture & Critique; Journalism & Mass Communication Educator; Media Report to Women; and Journal of Communication Inquiry. She is the author of a textbook, "Sexual Communication: Research in Action" (2022).

Service
Reynolds is the vice-chair of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC) Publications Committee and is incoming head of the AEJMC Commission on the Status of the LGBTQ+ Community. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Mary Ann Yodelis Smith Award for Feminist Scholarship. She serves on the editorial board of Journalism & Communication Monographs and she is a judge for the Shaufler Prize in Journalism. She is a member of the ASU LGBTQ Faculty & Staff Association.

Career
Professionally, Reynolds spent time in the magazine industry at Men's Health, Better Homes and Gardens, Midwest Living, and in nonprofit comms at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and the Association of Health Care Journalists. Before joining ASU, she was an associate professor of journalism at California State University, Fullerton.

Education

Ph.D. Mass Communication, University of Minnesota 2017
M.A. Journalism, University of Missouri 2012
B.A. Magazine Journalism, English, Iowa State University 2008

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Alternative media, critical discourse analysis, cultural and critical studies, health communication, journalism, law and policy, LGBTQ+, mental health, qualitative methods, sexual communication, sexuality, social construction of reality, social media, surveillance, theories of power, trauma

Research Group

Critical Media Studies Research Cluster

Publications

Reynolds, C. (2025). The Potter Box in strategic communication ethics. In D. Holtzhausen, J. Fullerton, & B. K. Lewis (Eds.), Principles of Strategic Communication (2nd ed.). Routledge.

Reynolds, C. (2024). “This is not a slippery slope” versus “the queer sex panic is just beginning”: Discourse about FOSTA-SESTA in ideologically diverse US mass media, 2017-2023. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 48(4), 504-523.
https://doi.org/10.1177/01968599231220925

Arrey, T., & Reynolds, C. (2023). “I definitely would appreciate a little more validation”: Toward an ethics of care in college newsrooms and journalism education. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 78(2), 142-164.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958231153267

Reynolds, C., Suwinyattichaiporn, T., & Bruschke, J. (2022). Sexual Communication: Research in Action. Kendall-Hunt. https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/sexual-communication-research-action

Reynolds, C. (2021). “Craigslist is nothing more than an internet brothel”: sex work and sex trafficking in US newspaper coverage of craigslist sex forums. The Journal of Sex Research, 58(6), 681-693. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2020.1786662

Lance, Z. L., & Reynolds, C. J. (2021). “Going virtual helped me learn that I can handle everything”: Campus magazine production as a high impact practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 76(4), 448-468.
https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958211023254

Reynolds, C. (2021). Magazines that made me: VICE. Journal of Magazine Media 22(1), 19-20. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jmm.2021.0029.

Reynolds, C. (2020). “My zines, so far, aren't as political as other works I've produced”: Communicative capitalism among queer feminist zinesters. Communication, Culture & Critique, 13(1), 92-110.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcz037

Reynolds C. (2020). Pedagogy of the stressed: Mental health in the mass communication classroom and on campuses. In Carter-Olson C., Everbach T. (Eds.), AEJMC master teacher series: Testing Tolerance: Addressing Tough Topics in the Journalism and Mass Communication Classroom (pp. 43–58). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Reynolds, C. (2020). The “woke” sex discourse: Sexuality and gender in online consumer magazines. The Handbook of Magazine Studies, 180-197.

Reynolds, C. (2019). Building theory from media ideology: Coding for power in journalistic discourse. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 43(1), 47-69.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859918774797

Reynolds, C. (2017). Hanging up the smoking jacket: Productive oppression and Playboy's impacts on mediated sexualization. Journal of Magazine Media, 18(1).
https://doi.org/10.1353/jmm.2017.0002

Reynolds, C. (2016). “8 things Latin moms say about men and sex” vs. “The 19 most frustrating things about casual dating”: Sexuality and relationships in Cosmo for Latinas online and Cosmopolitan online. Media Report to Women, 44(3), 12-18.

Reynolds, C. (2015). “I am super straight and I prefer you be too:” Constructions of heterosexual masculinity in online personal ads for “straight” men seeking sex with men. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 39(3), 213-231.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0196859915575736

Research Activity

Forthcoming:

Reynolds, C. & DeFoster, R. (In Press). Critiquing the Drake-Kendrick rap battle: The Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show and the hip hop theory of punishment. Race / Gender / Class / Media, 6th edition, R. Lind (ed). Routledge.

Reynolds, C. & Ayala, J. (In Production). Special issue: Mental Health in the Headlines. Journalism & Media.

Under Review:

Hays, C., Kehrberg, A., Reynolds, C. & Achtzehn, H. (Under Review). An imperfect archive:
Deplatformed queer speech in Sensitive Content magazine.

Luna, C., Reynolds, C. & Zain, A. (R&R). “The AI challenged me to think about things differently”: Designing a Custom AI Assistant to Teach Critical Media Literacy.

Mendez, L., Reynolds, C., Arroyo, J. & Trevizo, V. (R&R). “What my Mexican family hears when I tell them I have seen a therapist”: How Latinx mental health content creators use social media as an intersectional counterspace.

Reynolds, C., Maddox, J., Stein, K., & Bendefaa, N. (R&R). In defense of descriptive methods: Gatekeeping and high theory in mass communication research.

Reynolds, C. (Under Review). "Manifest your dream life on ChatGPT:” Algorithmic interpellation and the ideological subject in AI-generated wellness discourse.

Reynolds, C. (Under Review). “We tried to warn you, but the coal mine’s on fire now:” Adult industry news as advocacy journalism in the wake of FOSTA/SESTA.

In Preparation:

Ausness, A., Reynolds., C., Gomberg, B., & Smith, D. (In Draft). Shaping the 21st century woman: Fourth-wave feminism in shapewear social media marketing.

Hays, C., Reynolds, C. & Lemaster, L. (In Draft). “I just see a lot of skinny, muscular, white people in those ads”: A critical analysis of walking focus groups about LGBTQIA+ representation in outdoor promotional media.