Welcome

Welcome to Tampere!

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the European Conference on Health Communication in Tampere in September 2027.

Health communication is a field whose importance is increasingly evident in our everyday lives. Questions of health and wellbeing are inseparable from questions of communication: how knowledge is produced and shared, whom we trust, how different communities are heard, and how rapidly changing media environments shape our understanding of health. Addressing these questions calls for dialogue across disciplines, professions, institutions and national borders.

This makes an international conference such as ECHC particularly valuable. It offers us an opportunity not only to present new research, but also to challenge our assumptions, develop new ideas, and build networks for future collaboration.

For us at Tampere University, it is a particular pleasure to host this European community of scholars and professionals. Communication research at our unit brings together a broad range of perspectives and approaches, and international collaboration is an essential part of our academic work. Our unit also places strong emphasis on researchers’ participation in public debate and on strengthening the societal impact of research.

I hope the conference will provide you with inspiring discussions, unexpected encounters and new perspectives. I also hope that you will have time to enjoy Tampere and its distinctive atmosphere in the early Finnish autumn.

On behalf of the Communication Sciences Unit, I warmly welcome you to Tampere and wish you a stimulating and memorable conference!