Donna Z. Davis

Donna Davis earned a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Florida studying the strength of relationships formed in virtual worlds. Her current research extends to the development of community and interpersonal relationships in virtual environments and other emerging social media with a focus on health and disability communities. Her interests also focus on new media technologies that shape the human condition and change behavior via gamification. Prior to life in academia, she had a successful career of more than 25 years in public relations and development, while teaching at the College of Journalism and Communication at UF.

Publications

Emerging Research and Trends in Gamification
Emerging Research and Trends in Gamification
Harsha Gangadharbatla, Donna Z. Davis. © 2016. 455 pages.
Game design has shifted from the development of games for entertainment to the creation of games with a more meaningful purpose. Game principles and theories can be applied to...
A Study of Relationships in Online Virtual Environments: Making a Case for Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews with Avatars and What We Can Learn about Their Human Operators
A Study of Relationships in Online Virtual Environments: Making a Case for Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews with Avatars and What We Can Learn about Their Human Operators
Donna Z. Davis. © 2013. 19 pages.
In an age when estimates of nearly a billion people around the globe are spending time in online games, researchers, organizations, governments, educational institutions, and...