Promplaats_Erasmus Universiteit – PhD position Privacy and Persuasion in Online Social Network Campaigns

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a PhD student, you will get the opportunity to be part of this innovative research project led by Prof. Moniek Buijzen and Dr. Thabo van Woudenberg. The project is funded by a Vici Grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Online Social Networks (OSN) such as Instagram and Snapchat offer unprecedented technological opportunities to promote a healthy lifestyle among adolescents’ social networks, for example, via ‘peer influencers’. The SocialMovez project will reveal how online social networks can be utilized and how campaigns can be optimized by using innovative data-analytic technologies, while safeguarding youth’s privacy. A team of five researchers will address this aim in a multimethodological approach, including automated analysis of OSN communications, qualitative co-creation focus groups with users, controlled experiments, and a large-scale controlled field intervention validating an OSN-based obesity-prevention campaign in a real online social network.

Your role in the project will be to integrate digital privacy in OSN health campaigning theory and practice. More specifically, you will use theories of behaviour change and informational law to investigate the most effective mechanisms to engage young people in an OSN health campaign, while taking into account their informational and psychological privacy. Your research will involve, for instance, OSN content analysis, focus groups, and experimental designs in online social networks. Therefore, we expect you to have affinity with advanced quantitative methods and a drive to understand behaviour and behaviour change.

The team members will work closely together in reaching the overall objective: developing a  framework for effective and responsible OSN health campaigns. Moreover, we will closely collaborate with health practitioners and youth communication professionals. Are you interested to be involved in our team? Then please write a short research proposal that addresses the research aim of the PhD project you are applying for (i.e., How will you integrate digital privacy in  OSN health campaigning theory and practice?). We are very curious to find out about you, and your thoughts about which study design and analyses you would use for your project. The proposal will not only demonstrate your current research competencies, but also your own ideas for the project.

REQUIREMENTS

What we expect from you:

• • A Master’s degree in social sciences or law (or expected to be obtained in the near future); for example, a Research Master’s degree in Behavioural Science, Communication Science, Psychology, Informational Law, or comparable.
  • Proven affinity with digital communication technology.
  • Excellent research, methodological and statistical skills.
  • Excellent oral and written command of English.
  • A basic command of Dutch is preferred.
  • Experience with research involving minors is preferred.
  • Team science and open science practices are appreciated.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Internationally-oriented and varied work within an enthusiastic team, with attractive fringe benefits in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU). Your initial employment term will be for 1,5 years but will be extended with 2,5 years if your performance proves satisfactory. Your remuneration starts with €2325,- gross per month (salary scale P.0, CAO NU). Erasmus University Rotterdam offers attractive terms of employment, including a holiday allowance of 8%, a year-end payment of 8.3% and 41 annual leave days in case of a full work week. In addition, EUR takes part in the ABP pension scheme, and we also offer partially paid parental leave. For international spouses we have set up a dual career programme. Moreover, EUR staff members are allowed to make use of the EUR facilities, including the Erasmus sports centre and the University Library. We value diversity and believe that a diversity of talents contributes to our vision and strategy to excel as a university on research and education. This means that we are looking for a person who can complement our team well.

Solliciteren