Dhavan Shah

Director of the Mass Communication Research Center

Dhavan V. Shah is the Louis A. & Mary E. Maier-Bascom Professor at the University of Wisconsin, where he is Director of the Mass Communication Research Center (MCRC) and Scientific Director in the Center for Health Enhancement System Studies (CHESS).

Shah’s research focuses on communication influence on social judgments, civic engagement, and health support. He has developed three major lines of inquiry: (1) the influence of message framing and processing on decision-making and opinion formation; (2) the capacity of mass and interpersonal communication, especially online communication, to encourage civic and political participation; and (3) the effects of computer-mediated interactions, particularly the expression of social support, on the management of cancer, aging, and addiction.

This work has been supported by grants and awards totaling over $34.9 million from sources such as the Ford Foundation, PBS, CPB, Rockefeller Brothers, Carnegie Corporation, Russell Sage, Spencer, Social Science Korea, National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI), Agency for Health Research and Quality (NIH-AHRQ), National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute (NIH-NHLBI), and the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NOH- NIDA).

Across these domains, he has increasingly applied computational techniques to social science questions, employing computer-assisted text analysis, machine learning, network mapping, and predictive analytics to politics and health.