The Communication department engages in a rich variety of research at the cutting edge of the field of Communication and related disciplines. Current faculty conduct research in the following areas:

Children, Adolescents, and the Media

Faculty in this area examine the processes by which young people interact with media, including mass media (e.g., TV) and networked technologies (e.g., instant messaging). We investigate the implications of how youth use media as part of their social development, the process by which they and their families negotiate this relationship, and how mediated campaigns are used to reach children and adolescents. Our research contributes to a deeper understanding of how kids are implicated in, adapt to, and can shape an emerging digital society. Our recent research includes examinations of targeted health campaigns, copyright and the Internet, the implications of mobile media, identity development in online social networks, and strategies to prevent negative effects of media exposures and interactions.

Participating Faculty: Sahara Byrne, Tarleton Gillespie, Jeff Hancock, Lee Humphreys, Jeff Niederdeppe

Cultural and Intercultural Communication

The cultural and intercultural communication group studies how culture and social norms affect people's communication in domains such as scientific communication, organizational processes, computer-mediated communication, and technology adoption. We consider issues of culture from a variety of perspectives, ranging from broad comparisons of national culture to the study of the meanings, activities and practices of everyday life among members of a single nation. Our methods include both qualitative and quantitative studies, in the field and in the lab. Recent projects include work on how culture shapes relationships with science information and priorities for science communication; how cultural and social norms influence the ways people incorporate communication technology into their everyday lives and how the adoption of new technology shapes cultural norms and practices; research on international computer-mediated communication; and studies the impact of culture on the development of network ties and on conflict resolution.

Participating Faculty: Sue Fussell, Lee Humphreys, Bruce Lewenstein, Connie Yuan

Communication and Public Policy

The entire Communication department shares a commitment to research that is relevant to policymakers and the publics they serve. In addition, a number of our faculty are interested in policy as an object of inquiry. This occurs for us along two dimensions. First, the process of designing and implementing policy is a unique communication challenge. How do we best involve people in the process of generating policies relevant to them and their communities? How do strategic media campaigns influence public support for particular policies? How are scientific and technological issues framed within the policymaking process, and in the surrounding media coverage? How is policy best communicated back to stakeholders? Second, studying communication and information policy is a vital part of understanding the contours of public discourse. How is public communication governed? On what assumptions about democracy, culture, and the social good are these policies based? How does the public respond to these policies, and how do new policies shape the broader information landscape?

Participating Faculty: Sahara Byrne, Tarleton Gillespie, Bruce Lewenstein, Katherine McComas, Alan Mathios

Communication of Science and Technology

Communication is the essence of science; it is the social processes and institutions through which experts establish their claims to reliable knowledge about the natural world. We have a particular focus on communication with the public (including popular science writing, media coverage of science, and the effects of public communication of science and technology on other social institutions), but also examine issues involving communication among scholars (such as open-access publishing, digital libraries, and other "expert information" topics) and public debates about emerging technologies. Many topics in this area link easily with subjects covered in the risk communication and health communication areas. Recent faculty research in the field has looked at media coverage of nanotechnology, public meetings about cancer, use of hand-held devices to enhance experiences in science museums, the rights and obligations of online media platforms, and learning science in informal environments.

Participating Faculty: Tarleton Gillespie, Bruce Lewenstein, Katherine McComas

Groups, Organizations and Communities

Communication is the main process by which people form groups, organizations and communities. The topics we study include the exchange of information and decision-making in organizations, groups, and communities, the formation, maintenance and functioning of social networks, the expression of social identity, organizations' communication with the public, the process and effects of public participation, and perceptions and communication between groups. The scope of our research ranges from dyadic interactions to deliberation that occurs between members of communities, and uses a variety of methods extending from laboratory experimentation to field-based observations. Examples of recent research projects include linguistic markers of intergroup bias, how interpersonal attention is conveyed in geographically distributed groups, the roles of transactive memory and social networks in group collaboration, how group discourse can reveal the cohesion of the group, and factors associated with people's participation public community meetings.

Participating Faculty:  Jeremy Birnholtz, Sue Fussell, Geri Gay, Jeff Hancock, Katherine McComas, Poppy McLeod, Connie Yuan, Alex Susskind

Health Communication

Faculty and students interested in health communication at Cornell are concerned with the role of communication research, theory, design and practice in health promotion, health policy and health care. Topics of inquiry include media campaigns to promote healthy behavior, provider-patient interaction, social support networks, public communication about science related to health, public meetings about community health risks, technology and health, health policy, public policy and producer provided health communications, and message design for health promotion. Specific projects have focused on communication related to cancer, smoking, diet and nutrition, food safety, social determinants of health, increasing enrollment for clinical trials, and priority populations like children, adolescents and low income adults.

Participating Faculty: Sahara Byrne, Geri Gay, Bruce Lewenstein, Katherine McComas, Jeff Niederdeppe, Mike Shapiro, Alan Mathios

Interactive Media Design

Communication, with a concentration in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) provides both a theoretical and practical foundation in the study or interaction between people and computers and the phenomena surrounding them. The HCI concentration draws from computer science, cognitive psychology, social psychology, evaluation, design and several other fields of study. Current projects include NSF funded research on awareness technologies, mobile navigation in public spaces supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the NSF, and an NSF funded project on environmental applications.

Participating Faculty: Jeremy Birnholtz, Sue Fussell, Geri Gay, Jeff Hancock, Dan Cosley

Media Psychology

Faculty and students in Media Psychology study the mental processes involved in how people perceive, interpret, use and respond to a broad spectrum of media from books to social networking. The mental processes investigated range from deliberate and thoughtful decision making to reflexive responses and a variety of processes in between. An understanding of mental processing is important to every aspect of communication and communication professions from advertising to entertainment and computer games to computer collaboration systems. Specific projects focused on media psychology in our department include children's responses to health messages, emotional contagion in instant messaging, entertainment narratives in health communication, and decision-making in computer-mediated work teams.

Participating Faculty: Sahara Byrne, Jeff Hancock, Mike Shapiro

Media, Technology and Society

We study the societal practices, meanings, and impacts of media in the public realm. Whether it's understanding the manner in which environmental crises are reported in traditional news coverage or revealing the political inflections of Twitter, our research examines the complex ways in which traditional and emerging media shape and are shaped by the social fabric. To the extent that the forms of media we encounter have exploded as they become ever more digital, networked, and mobile, this research area increasingly includes a critical understanding of communication technologies. Media and technology use are situated within particular contexts in society, which can be examined through their varying contents, forms, structures, effects, and processes.

Participating Faculty: Jeremy Birnholtz, Tarleton Gillespie, Lee Humphreys, Bruce Lewenstein, Katherine McComas, Jeff Niederdeppe

Risk and Environmental Communication

Communication profoundly influences the way we perceive health and environmental risks and how we relate to the built and natural environment. These perceptions shape, among many other things, whether we adopt or reject of risk messages, support or disregard environmental policies, and trust or express skepticism about risk and environmental managers. The topics we study include the communication of scientific uncertainty, public engagement in risk and environmental decision-making, media coverage of risk and the environment, and narratives about the environment. Our methods range from content analysis to community surveys, from in-depth interviews to participation observation, from lab experiments to quasi-experimental studies in the field. Recent projects include research on community attitudes toward Cornell University's efforts toward greater sustainability, work on the history of science communication, and research into risk information seeking during an emerging hazard.

Participating Faculty: Bruce Lewenstein, Katherine McComas, Cliff Scherer

Social Influence and Persuasion

Social influence and persuasion are among the most basic and important functions of communication. Faculty and students interested in social influence and persuasion at Cornell are concerned with how, when and why individuals, groups or organizations use various types of communication to influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of other individuals, groups or organizations. We recognize that social influence and persuasion can occur at many levels, from influence between individuals to influence at the national or international level. Specific projects have focused on social influence and persuasion in the context of health behavior and policy, anonymous virtual groups, assessments of deception and credibility online, overcoming resistance to persuasion, and the design of media campaigns to promote behavior change.

Participating Faculty: Sahara Byrne, Jeff Hancock, Katherine McComas, Poppy McLeod, Jeff Niederdeppe, Mike Shapiro

Social Networks

Social relationships can significantly influence people's emotion, cognition and behavior within and between groups, organizations, communities and societies. Using a variety of social network theories, and data collection and analysis methods, we are interested in studying how properties of social ties influence technology use, group decision making, collaboration, knowledge management, risk communication, health communication and so on. Current projects include a study of social networks on mobile phones to provide peer support, research into mobile and online social networking services, a study of social ties in Wikipedia, USDA funded research on social networks and risk communication, work on leveraging social network sites to reduce energy use, stduies in the influence of communication networks on organizational elements such as team performance and team leadership, and NSF funded research on the impact of social ties on knowledge management in cross-culture teams.

Participating Faculty: Geri Gay, Poppy McLeod, Connie Yuan, Dan Cosley, Alex Susskind

Technology and Social Behavior

A flood of new communications technologies have emerged over the past few decades, including e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and micro-blogging, text messaging, video conferencing, social networking sites, virtual reality, and many more. Our group brings together researchers who are interested in the design, usage and implications of these technologies. We use a variety of theoretical lenses to look at how these technologies shape communication processes, social interaction, individual behavior, and broader society. Some examples of our current and recent studies include: content analysis of public postings on Twitter; understanding how technology can shape deception in online dating profiles and instant messaging; using mobile devices to motivate healthier eating habits in children; studying reward distribution in computer-mediated work teams; using social network tools to motivate people to conserve energy; designing tools to support intercultural communication; studying the role of information technology in management of organizational knowledge.

Participating Faculty: Jeremy Birnholtz, Sahara Byrne, Sue Fussell, Geri Gay, Jeff Hancock, Lee Humphreys, Poppy McLeod, Connie Yuan, Dan Cosley