{"id":2,"date":"2025-04-28T19:56:29","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsuwp.labs.wsu.edu\/tech-wds3\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2026-07-05T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T21:53:16","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Health Communication Lab"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Digital Health Communication Lab examines how communication shapes health in everyday digital environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Directed by Dr. Jessica Willoughby at Washington State University, the lab brings together research on social media, mobile communication, and health behavior. Our work focuses especially on adolescents and young adults, exploring how the content people see, and the ways people respond to it, can influence well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We examine both how digital media may contribute to risk and how it can be used more effectively to support healthier outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Five<\/figure>\n\n\n
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What we study<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Our research looks at health communication as it happens in real life, on phones, on social media, and in moments that may be missed by traditional methods. <\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Across projects, we ask questions such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • How does everyday exposure to health-related content shape how people feel about themselves and their health? <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What kinds of messages are most effective, for whom, and under what circumstances to improve health outcomes? <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • How can we better capture real-time experiences to understand communication experiences as they occur? <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    What we do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The Lab’s work falls under three connected areas:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Digital Media & Health Effects: <\/strong>We study how social and mobile media influence health, including how fitness, body appreciation, and other health-related content are experienced in daily life. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Digital Health Intervention & Message Design: <\/strong>We design and test communication strategies, from text messaging interventions to tailored campaigns, aimed at improving health and reducing risk. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Health Communication Science & Methods:<\/strong> We develop and apply innovative research methods, including real-time data collection approaches, to better understand how communication works in natural settings and advance health communication science. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n\n <\/div><\/section>\n\n
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      Why it matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      Digital media are deeply embedded in how people learn about and think about health. These environments can reinforce unhealthy comparisons and norms, but they can also create opportunities for timely, meaningful intervention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Our goal is to generate research that not only explains these processes, but also leads to practical strategies for improving health communication in the contexts where it matters most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Work with us<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

      The lab provides opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students to get involved in research on health communication, digital media, and intervention design. Students work on active projects and gain experience with data collection, analysis, and applied research. <\/p>\n\n <\/div><\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The Digital Health Communication Lab examines how communication shapes health in everyday digital environments. Directed by Dr. Jessica Willoughby at Washington State University, the lab brings together research on social media, mobile communication, and health behavior. Our work focuses especially on adolescents and young adults, exploring how the content people see, and the ways people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":444,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null},"categories":[],"tags":[],"wsuwp_university_location":[],"wsuwp_university_org":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=2"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.wsu.edu\/digitalhealthcomm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}