Professor Metzger’s research interests lie at the intersection of media, information technology, and trust, centering on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) alter our understandings of credibility, privacy, and the processes of media effects. Her work examines questions about how ICTs challenge traditional notions of trust, with a focus on the credibility of information online and on how users of digital media negotiate privacy and disclosure decisions in light of these challenges to trust. She has also published work examining the impact of media messages on public opinion, and on the social, theoretical, and regulatory changes brought about by digital information and communication technologies.

Dr. Metzger has published widely in the field of Communication. Her work appears in such journals as Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication & Society, Communication Yearbook, New Media & Society, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Media Psychology, Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, Computers & Education, Computers in Human Behavior, Critical Studies in Media Communication, Communication Research Reports, Journal of Health Communication, and Information, Communication & Society. In addition, Dr. Metzger has published several book chapters and co-edited two volumes, including Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility (MIT Press) and Kids & Credibility: An Empirical Examination (MIT Press). She is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Dr. Metzger serves as the Ph.D. Emphasis Director of the Center for Information, Technology and Society (CITS-UCSB), where she is also is a faculty affiliate. She was the Associate Director and the Director of Education at the Center for Nanotechnology and Society (CNS-UCSB), the only NSF-designated National Center to focus on social science research. Dr. Metzger is a faculty affiliate of the Carsey-Wolf Center at UCSB as well.