Category: Health Communication (New Media & Contested Illnesses/'Invisible Illnesses')

• What are the processes and implications/effects of the mediation of patient-centered health advocacy in the field of contested illnesses? 

  • How do digital patient-centered health advocacy initiatives contest and inform traditional medical institutions/medical research? 

  • What are the political gains for patients (visibility; patient rights; funding/research dollars)? What are the political-economic limitations? 

    • Areas of Examination: ME/CFS and related syndromes; Social Media Communities; Mediated Non-Profits focused on Health Advocacy & Fundraising; National Institutes of Health; Center for Disease Control; Public Health; Political Economy        

Category: Political Communication (New Media, Political Advocacy, Partisanship, Foreign Policy)

• What are the parties, movements and NGOs involved? What are their political aims?

• What are the social, cultural, political and economic processes/variables involved? 

• How does the mediatization of grassroots political movements as well as parliamentary parties in Israel influence public opinion among the Israeli public; inform political strategy? 

  • Effects on sociopolitical divide vs. bipartisanship

    • Implications for Israeli foreign policy development in part, foreign affairs/diplomacy at large, amidst growing anti-Israel sentiment abroad (i.e. BDS movement)

    • Implications for attitudes and strategy re: Two-State Solution among Israeli public; within governmental and oppositional parties in Israeli parliament 

      • Areas of Examination: Israel's "peace camp", related mediated initiatives, social movements & NGOs; Israel's rising religious-nationalist parties, related movements and NGOs; Relationship between party alignment and social variables including demographics, socioeconomic conditions, influence of international vs. local funding (vested interests)