Research
The Department of Communication offers a broad program in communication theory and research, with specific foci in three main areas: science, media, and technology.
This page provides links to departmental research programs, with connections to the activities of research groups, faculty research programs, and departmental extension and outreach activities.
Science
How do people with considerably different levels of expertise communicate with each other? This question is a central concern of this concentration, which investigates communication among scientists, politicians, and citizens. Scientists often accept a degree of uncertainty or risk in almost everything they encounter, while the public often demands complete assurances about the environment, medical treatments, or other risky ventures.
The department is a leading center for the study of communication about science and the environment. Our research programs focus on issues such as public understanding of science, public opinion about issues such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, and risk communication.
Faculty work with a variety of colleagues in the natural sciences across the university, including researchers in Cornell's active research programs in Genomics, Nanotechnology, Communication about Nanotechnology, and the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network. We also collaborate with colleagues engaged in assessing outreach activities on science, environment, and health, such as the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Factors program, Risk Communication and Public Participation During the Investigation of Cancer Clusters, the Human Dimensions Research Unit for wildlife management in the Department of Natural Resources, the Garden Mosaics, and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology citizen science projects.
In addition, the department is home to the Risk Communication Research Group.
Media
How traditional and converging new information channels affect people’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors is the focus of the media concentration. Adopting sociological and psychological principles, and a variety of research methods, this area is distinguished from other disciplines in its focus on media messages and content in addition to channel effects.
How do our personal experiences shape our interpretation of television? And how do social contexts, such as discussion networks or groups, influence how informed we are or how we think about political, social, or agricultural issues?
Departmental research on media includes work on media effects, public opinion and psychological and cognitive approaches to media use effects. The department is also home to the Media and Society Research Group.
Technology
Department faculty investigate the new communication technologies associated with the digital revolution from the standpoint of communication theory as well as information science. The department and maintains important links to the new Information Science program. Faculty research programs focus primarily on affective and social computing.
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) research at Cornell examines how language use is affected by technology; how people form and manage interpersonal impressions without visual and oral cues, how relationships and social networks change as a result of computer networks; how students, work teams, community groups, and other collaborators adapt to and overcome the alterations in cues, timing, and social connections that are part of working and living with the Internet. Research investigates both how people adapt to electronic communication systems, their effects, and how to manage or overcome these effects.
Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research includes the discovery of principles and processes that allow us to design communication systems that meet human needs. HCI research examines the features that make digital libraries usable, mobile computing design for museum patrons, location-aware information systems, and classroom computing effects. How individuals attend to websites, evaluate expert and peer information sources, and search and use information on the net is also part of HCI research at Cornell. The department is home to the HCI Laboratory.
