School for Mass Communication Research

News

• 2012-02 - Kathleen Custers and Jan Van den Bulck published in Communication Research
• 2012-01-15 - 100% Acceptance Rate for the School for Mass Communication Research for the Annual conference of the International Communication Association
• 2012-01 - Laura Vandenbosch and Steven Eggermont published in Sex Roles
• 2012-01 - Kathleen Beullens, Keith Roe and Jan Van den Bulck published in Substance Use & Misuse
• 2012-01 - Astrid Dirikx published in European Journal of Criminology

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About

Welcome to the website of the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research. People are surrounded by the media from the cradle to the grave. The media affect our leisure time, our social contacts, our time at school and our school results, our jobs, our health. When we go to sleep, the media remain with us. They follow us to our beds and even into our dreams. Research into the uses and effects of the media is more important than ever.

We are a small, but committed group of researchers interested in the empirical study of the uses and effects of the media. We study mass media such as television, newspapers or the internet, but also the mobile phone, video games or music. We look at children and adolescents, but also at adults or senior citizens. We study intentional effects (e.g. advertising, health promotion) but also unintended effects (e.g. cultivation, social learning). Our main emphasis is on quantitative research but when the research question calls for a qualitative approach we are also happy to organize focus groups or in-depth interviews. We study the uses and gratifications of the media, but also the digital divide and non-adoption. We study how the media affect emotions such as fear, but also how people use the media to adjust their emotions (mood management).

On this website you will find the profiles and the contact data of a dedicated group of professors, doctors and PhD-students who study all of this and more.

Recent publications

• Publications