dr. Jolanda Veldhuis

Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Communication Science

Associate Professor, Network Institute

Associate Professor, Research Programmes - Social Sciences, Communication Choices, Content and Consequences (CCCC)

Personal information

Jolanda Veldhuis is an Assistant Professor in the field of Health and Risk Communication as well as Media Psychology at the Department of Communication Science of the Faculty of Social Sciences (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam). She graduated in Biomedical Sciences (Master of Science, with a specialization in Communication and Education) and obtained a master degree in Teaching Biology (Lerarenopleiding Biologie, also visiting scholar of the University of Namibia). In more recent years, she was a visiting scholar at the Ohio State University and the University of Cape Town. Her research interests include communication strategies to negotiate the effects of media exposure, individual processing of media, and health communication applications (using social media).

Research

Negotiating mefia effects: communication strategies to negotiate the effects of media exposure; Specifically: The impact of contextualizing idealized media imagery on well-being and body perceptions of youngsters and adolescents.
Media-by-peer interactions and social norms impacting youngsters' well-being and body image (Specifically: The impact of online self-presentation in combination with peer feedback on well-being and health)
Individual and diversity aspects in processing of media
Research-based body image interventions to restore adolescents’ perceptions of ideal and ‘normal’ bodies (based on serious gaming and tailoring health information)
Health communication applications (using social media)
The impact of emotional appeals (i.e., variations in visual and verbal content) in the domain of health communication, specifically in HIV/Aids stigmatization
Social marketing of behavior in the domain of nature preservation, sustainability, awareness

Teaching