Magdalayna Curry is a doctoral student at USC Annenberg, where her research examines the psychological effects of media use, particularly how interactive media facilitate social comparison processes. Her recent work explores how media-driven social comparisons shape self-perceptions across various contexts, including social media, video games, and reality television, and their broader implications for individual well-being.

Prior to attending USC, she received her MA in media studies from the Pennsylvania State University and BA in journalism from Baylor University. Her research has been published in Body Image and Psychology of Popular Media and presented at the annual conferences of the International Communication Association (ICA), National Communication Association (NCA), ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), and the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY). Her work on video games, using survey, experimental, interview, and network analysis methods, has been recognized with four Top Student Paper Awards from the ICA Game Studies Division.