The course provides an overview to health communication research. Its primary goal is to discuss how communication can change health risk behaviors. It has a theoretical and a practical focus. Theoretically, it employs a psychological perspective by focusing on the psychological processes underlying the formation and change of health related attitudes and behaviors. Practically, it employs an empirical approach to evaluation of health communication: students will design an empirical study, collect and analyze data, and write up a paper on a health communication issue. 

Το μάθημα πραγματεύεται το θέμα της δημοσιογραφίας δεδομένων. Η μεγάλη διαθεσιμότητα δεδομένων σε ψηφιακή μορφή καθιστά αναγκαία την ύπαρξη της δημοσιογραφίας δεδομένων. Ο δημοσιογράφος πρέπει να είναι σε θέση να βρίσκει, να προσαρμόζει, να οπτικοποιεί και να ερμηνεύει τα δεδομένα. Για να το επιτύχει αυτό πρέπει να έχει τις θεωρητικές βάσεις χρήσης δεδομένων αλλά και τις απαραίτητες τεχνικές δεξιότητες για τη δημιουργία οπτικοποιήσεων δεδομένων που θα ενσωματώνονται στα άρθρα του.

This unit covers in detail the practice of research methods in the field of communication. Students will become familiar with developing the research question(s), formulating the hypotheses of their study, selecting participants and instruments. Moreover, they will explore the various designs that are used in quantitative (e.g. experimental and quasi experimental design, correlational design, surveys) and qualitative (e.g. interviews, focus groups, participant observations) research. During these sessions students will learn how to select the appropriate research design depending on the area they wish to study and the analysis that is required for each set of data (quantitative or qualitative). A great emphasis is also given to the ethical issues in research methods.