Research

As our primary theoretical and methodological foundation we build on the tradition of social network analysis. This enables us to analyze the interdependence of different social entities such as the micro-level of individuals, the meso-level of social groups and organizations, and the macro-level of society and global communication phenomena. In combination with a longitudinal perspective this research approach on networked communication enables us to understand

1. what effects new communication technologies and media content have on individual behavior and the social structure (e.g., social groups, organization, society), and
2. what effects the social structure has on the diffusion of new communication technologies and media content.

An additional focus of our work is health communication and health communication campaigns (e.g., organ donation, tobacco use, obesity, road safety). Hereby we collaborate with various key players for public health in Switzerland to improve the scientific understanding of health behavior, persuasion processes, and evaluation methods. To foster the perspective on the social context in health communication, we organize the European Conference on Health Communication (ECHC 2019) with the conference theme on the “social aspects of health communication”. ECHC 2019