About the Laboratory

The Message Laboratory is a collaboration between the Department of Communication and the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University. In addition to housing a variety of communication science research projects, primarily in the domains of health communication and science communication, the lab provides communication research support and comprehensive message development support for research collaborators.  This support is provided through the lab’s three primary components: the Interview and Focus Group Unit, the Text and Content Analysis Unit, and the Exposure and Experiment Unit.

Techniques & Approaches

Interviews & Focus Groups

Preparation for individual interviews and focus groups
Conducting interviews and focus groups
Data analysis

Text & Content Analysis

Manual content analysis of text and images
Automated text analysis

Exposure & Experiment Unit

Online survey-based message testing and experimentation
In-person survey-based message testing and experimentation