When I came to Ohio State this summer, I began the program with the expectation that I would continue studying health disparities, in order to address examine health inequalities from standpoints of race, gender, sexual identity, and location. While I am still interested in those topics, throughout the semester my research interests have shifted, largely due to the work that I’ve been able to do with Dr. Cho as my temporary advisor this fall. At the beginning of the year, she had me read various theories surrounding illness narratives, including Frank’s The Wounded Storyteller (1998) and Hydén’s Illness and Narrative (1997), as well as some of her own work on narrative risk communication and perceived realism. (While I find Dr. Cho’s work
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As I went through Contemporary Communication Theories (DeAndrea) and Research Methods (Coronel), I was able to learn about political communication research that has informed my understanding of the communication climate we exist in today. As individuals self-select into social networks, and as information (or misinformation, as the case may be) is disseminated throughout, how is health and illness (topics that emotionally laden for many people) affected by this fragmented communication climate? For example, if on Facebook a post is shared describing a child’s health woes (attributed to vaccination), how is that factually inaccurate information supposed to be challenged? There is no easy way to refute another person’s lived experiences, and perhaps that is why inaccurate health information seems to be flourishing in a media environment when verified information is constantly at our …show more content…
As I progress through my research, I’d like to continue looking at how group identification, political beliefs, and other attitudes influence perceptions of health issues. For my thesis, I would like to focus on how attitudes toward government and corporations influence perceptions of vaccines, and (hopefully) how those attitudes influence how people seek and communicate health information. If I’m being real here, I’d also really like to pursue a PhD and continue researching health misinformation, as well as conspiracy theories. Following this election cycle it seems that in many social networks what some might consider to be conspiracy theories (and is perhaps even less verifiable than some existing theories) has been accepted as factual news. To my knowledge, very little research has been done on how people form perceptions of and evaluate those arguments, so I would like to continue exploring those
As I went through Contemporary Communication Theories (DeAndrea) and Research Methods (Coronel), I was able to learn about political communication research that has informed my understanding of the communication climate we exist in today. As individuals self-select into social networks, and as information (or misinformation, as the case may be) is disseminated throughout, how is health and illness (topics that emotionally laden for many people) affected by this fragmented communication climate? For example, if on Facebook a post is shared describing a child’s health woes (attributed to vaccination), how is that factually inaccurate information supposed to be challenged? There is no easy way to refute another person’s lived experiences, and perhaps that is why inaccurate health information seems to be flourishing in a media environment when verified information is constantly at our …show more content…
As I progress through my research, I’d like to continue looking at how group identification, political beliefs, and other attitudes influence perceptions of health issues. For my thesis, I would like to focus on how attitudes toward government and corporations influence perceptions of vaccines, and (hopefully) how those attitudes influence how people seek and communicate health information. If I’m being real here, I’d also really like to pursue a PhD and continue researching health misinformation, as well as conspiracy theories. Following this election cycle it seems that in many social networks what some might consider to be conspiracy theories (and is perhaps even less verifiable than some existing theories) has been accepted as factual news. To my knowledge, very little research has been done on how people form perceptions of and evaluate those arguments, so I would like to continue exploring those