Communication Design Quarterly Mar 2023 Open Access

The Coping with COVID Project: Participatory Public Health Communication

Kathryn Yankura Swacha University of Maine

Abstract

This paper reports on The Coping with COVID Project, a qualitative study and public-facing platform that invited participants to share their experiences, via stories and images, with navigating COVID-related public health guidelines. The study revealed daily activities during the pandemic summarized in three themes: lived 'compliance;' emplaced, storied negotiations; and affective, embodied efforts. In light of such findings, this article outlines recommendations for a participatory, actionable story and visual-driven approach to public health communication that recognizes the various contexts---e.g., physical, material, affective, structural---which impact how such communication is interpreted and acted upon by people in their daily lives. A heuristic is included for communicators, researchers, and community members to use in enacting this approach.

Journal
Communication Design Quarterly
Published
2023-03-01
DOI
10.1145/3563890.3563891
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Topics
qualitative research
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