Thompson presents Ebola communication research at IAMCR conference
Assistant professor Esi Thompson gave two presentations on public health communication as it relates to the 2013-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa at the International Association of Media and Communication Research conference.
Thompson’s June 22 presentation, “Mis’d’communication in a double public health crisis: Risk communication about Ebola and Cholera in Ghana,” summarized her paper of the same title, which argues that the Ebola outbreak in some West African countries was a missed opportunity for health communication about both the Ebola outbreak and the 2014 cholera outbreak in Ghana.
She presented another paper, “Participatory Communication in a Health Crisis: Insights and Lessons from the 2013-2016 Ebola Outbreak in Liberia,” June 23 as a panelist of “Africa and Communication for Development: Navigating Emerging Scholarship and Practice,” which explored communication for development in Africa. Her paper argued for the use of sustainable participatory communication approaches as the preferred health communication approach during infectious disease outbreaks, using the 2013-16 Ebola outbreak as a case study.
The conference took place June 20-24 in Eugene, Oregon.
Thompson’s research focuses on health risk/crisis communication, development communication and strategic communication. She was previously a communication consultant in Ghana.
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