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Dr Olaf Werder

Dr Olaf Werder

BBA (International Management) Universität Dortmund, Germany
MS (Advertising) University of Illinois, United States
PhD (Mass Communication) University of Florida, United States


Phone +61 2 9114 1219

FAX +61 2 9351 5444

Location Room 212, Footbridge Theatre Terrace, Holme Building
Access adjacent to Footbridge Theatre and Footbridge over Parramatta Road
A09a - Footbridge Theatre

Consultation Times
Tuesdays 9-1am, Wednesdays 1-3pm or by appointment

Olaf Werder was educated in Germany and the United States. He joined the Media and Communications department in 2011 after ten years teaching in the United States. He has held positions teaching advertising in the College of Journalism & Communications at the University of Florida and as Associate Professor in Mass Communication at the University of New Mexico. He has published articles and essays in numerous journals in the United States and internationally. It is Olaf’s belief that since his primary research and teaching areas are highly professional, relating material to industry needs and letting students create their own solutions does not only create a dynamic and realistic classroom environment but allows him to foster students’ research and career advancement early on. He is contributing author of Strategic Media Decisions (2008), a successful media planning textbook that is in its 2nd edition. His research primarily focuses on the social influence of strategic communication on what people do, say and believe. In other words, it is the search for (cultural) patterns as they relate to attitudes and behaviour in communication, particularly strategic communication. He has a special interest in those patterns connected to social and health communication and intercultural and digital strategic messaging.

Research Interests

  • PR/Advertising Strategies
  • Health Communication/Campaign Creation
  • Communication Principles
  • Mass Communication Theories
  • Media Effects Analysis
  • New Media Studies
  • Organisational Communication
  • Persuasion
  • Quantitative Methods
  • Social Marketing.

Grants

2008-10 (U.S.$ 175,000)
Project Title: Adolescents Committed To Improvement of Nutrition and physical activity (ACTION) Sponsor: U.S. National Institutes of Health, Grant#: 1 R21 HL092533-0

This was a cooperative project between various departments within the University of New Mexico. The major goal of this project was to create, implement and evaluate a culturally relevant and age-appropriate obesity intervention for School-Based Health Centres to help decrease the risk of adolescent metabolic syndrome development.
2009 (U.S.$ 6,200)

Project Title: Culture's influence on health policy: A systemic analysis of health literacy levels in Denmark and the United States. Sponsor: UNM Campus Grant. The purpose of the project was to examine whether health literacy problems are culture-bound, ,i.e. whether certain cultures are better equipped to deal with the literacy problem.
2008 (U.S.$ 7,500)

Project Title: Evaluating the NM Mental Health Stigma Reduction Campaign. Sponsor: New Mexico Human Service Department. This was a cooperative project between the communication department and the medical campus. The primary goal of the proposed study was to design the evaluation and analyse the data of a planned mental health stigma campaign the Behavioural Health Services Division of the NM Human Service Department is preparing for Winter 07/08.

Publications

Books

  • Werder, O (2011). Understanding Responses to Social Issues Communication: A values-centered approach to attitudinal model explanations of individual behavior, LAP - LAMBERT Academic Publishing
Book Chapters
  • Werder, O. (2009). Advertising Theories, Attitude Theories, Media Effects Theories. In Karen Foss, Stephen Littlejohn (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, (pp. 18-22, 55-60, 632-635). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
  • Werder, O. (2009). The Influence of Family, Peer and Media Communication on the Prosocial Behavior of Young Adults in Two Cultures. In: Yorgo Passadeos (Ed.), Variety in Mass Communication Research, (pp. 273-286). Athens, Greece: Atiner Publishing.
  • Werder, O. (2008). Standardization vs. differentiation – Cultural influences on English-language and Spanish-language TV advertising in the US. In: Pedro Rodrigues, Peter Neijens (Eds.), New Trends in Advertising Research, (pp. 85-100). Lisbon, Portugal: Silabo Publishing.
  • Werder, O. (2008). “Niche” and New Planning Approaches (Chapter 8). In M. Azarro (Ed.), Strategic Media Decisions, Second Edition, (pp. 251-272). Chicago, IL: The Copy Workshop.
  • Werder, O. (2006). Brewing romance: The romantic fantasy theme of the Taster’s Choice advertising campaign. In: Mary-Lou Galician & Debra Merskin (Eds.), Critical thinking about sex, love and romance in the mass media: Media literacy applications, (pp. 313-325). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Werder, O. (2006). The global fight against obesity: A comparative analysis of media-related causes and prevention efforts. In: Yorgo Passadeos & Dimitra Dimitrakopoulou (Eds.), Mass Media Research: International Approaches, (pp. 111-122). Athens, Greece: Atiner Publishing.
Articles in Refereed Journals
  • Clark, A., & Werder, O. (2007). Analyzing International Radio Stations: A Systems Approach. International Communication Gazette, 69(5), 527-535.
  • Werder, O. (2007). Battle of the bulge: A comparison of obesity prevention campaigns in the United States and Germany. Obesity Reviews, 8(5), 451-457.
  • Werder, O. (2006). Influences on the recycling behavior of young adults: Avenues for social marketing campaigns. Environmental Communication Yearbook 3, 77-96.
  • Werder, O. & Pérez, F. (2005). The Hispanic consumer market: A consumer behavior model approach. IMC Review – Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, 4(1), 20-26.
  • Werder, O. (2005). Culture and corporate communication: The influence of values on media perceptions and reporting style of Coca-Cola’s reaction to the 1999 poison crisis in Europe In: M. Hinner (Ed.), Introduction to Business Communication, (Vol. 1, pp. 323-338). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang.
  • Werder, O. (2004). ‘Truth’ and consequences: A review of three successful state tobacco control programs. In C. Gardner, J. Biberman, & A. Alkhafaji (Eds.), Business Research Yearbook: Global Business Perspectives, (Vol. 11, pp. 459-463). Saline, MI: McNaughton & Gunn.
  • Werder, O. (2002). Debating the Euro - Media Agenda Setting in a Cross-National Environment. International Communication Gazette, 64(3), 219-233.
  • Werder, O., & Golan, G. (2002). Sharon wins: News Coverage and Framing of the 2001 Israeli Prime Minister Election in Ten Western Print Media. Global Media Journal, 1(1), 12-19.
  • Invited Articles
  • Werder, O., Cotter, M., & Chadwick, C. (2007, April). The relative influence of fear appeals on consumer responses in commercial product campaigns. Proceedings of the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Advertising, pp. 89-92.
  • Werder, O. (2006). Battle of the bulge: A comparative review of obesity prevention approaches in the U.S. and Germany. Proceedings of the 2006 CDC Diabetes Translation and Obesity Conference, pp. 155-156.
  • Werder, O., & Roberts, M. (2005). Generation Y’s consumer ethnocentrism: Implications for advertisers in a post September 11th world, Proceedings of the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Advertising, pp. 87-88.
Technical Reports
  • Oetzel, J., McDermott, V., Werder, O., An, Z (2008). Report on attitudes toward behavioral health: Development of a baseline survey. Prepared for New Mexico Behavioral Health Collaborative, NM Human Services Department.

Current Supervising Postgraduates

Kate Alexander Investigation of the Roles of Internal Communications in the Implementation of Successful Change Management Programs