DCAT Serial Speech Lecture: An Emerging Research Area in Communication Science and Media Psychology
Topic:
Media Neuroscience – An Emerging Research Area in Communication Science and Media Psychology
Speaker:
Professor René Weber
Time:
Jul. 6 (Wed.) 12:00 p.m.-13:30 p.m.
Venue:
HK206, College of NCTU
Abstract:
Numerous histories of communication science argue that our discipline evolved from earlier investigations in psychology and sociology in the early to mid 20th century and was always characterized by transdisciplinary perspectives. Today, scholars in related fields such as psychology have begun to study human behavior with state-of-the-art neuroscientific approaches. In the field of communication science, however, it seems that this opportunity remained unexplored with few exceptions. Today, a critical mass of scholars is now employing brain science and brain imaging to advance theory and application within communication and media psychology. This talk debates opportunities, but also risks of incorporating neuroscientific approaches – mainly functional brain imaging – into communication and media psychology research. René Weber will discuss reasons for resistance to this new perspective, explain general research questions that can be addressed with neuroscientific approaches, and present a selection of his recent media neuroscience studies. The colloquium will demonstrate the relevance of cognitive neuroscience for communication science, but also shows that the communication discipline has a lot to offer for cognitive neuroscientists.