Mahesha Withanalage

Mahesha Withanalage is a doctoral student in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Michigan State University and a recipient of the Brandt Fellowship. She earned both her bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Media Management and her Master of Business Management in Marketing from the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Mahesha’s research interests center on the intersection of Digital Public Relations, Ethics, and Artificial Intelligence. Her bachelor’s thesis examined “The Effectiveness of Newsjacking Public Relations Characteristics and Their Impact on Social Media Engagement: A Comparative Study of Sri Lankan Brand Campaigns.” Her master’s thesis focused on “The Influence of Blackhat SEO Manipulation on Brand Sabotage: Examining the Role of Algorithmic Ranking Distortions and the Effects of Counterfeit Listing Prevalence in Sri Lanka’s Luxury Fashion Counterfeit E-commerce Ecosystem.”

Before joining MSU, she served as a Lecturer in Public Relations in the Department of Mass Communication at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka. She also brings two years of professional experience as a Senior Public Relations Executive, where she planned and executed PR campaign strategies for leading brands.