Esi Thompson

Biography

Esi Thompson, PhD. (University of Oregon), is an Assistant Professor and teaches Public Relations courses at the Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research focuses on health risk/crisis communication, development communication and strategic communication. She has studied how communication surrounding the Ebola outbreak was undertaken and received by the affected communities and how this could inform public communication/policy around infectious disease outbreaks in developing contexts. Her research on Covid-19 has focused on using an informational intervention as a misinformation prophylaxis as well as understanding how risk information on Covid-19 is communicated and received.

She was previously a communication consultant in Ghana and served various clients both local and international.

Some publications

Thompson, E.E. (2021) Botched Ebola vaccine trials in Ghana: An analysis of discourses in the media. Vaccines 9, 177. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines9020177

Agley, J., Xiao, Y., Thompson, E. E., Chen, X., & Golzarri-Arroyo, L. (2021). Intervening on Trust in Science to Reduce Belief in COVID-19 Misinformation and Increase COVID-19 Preventive Behavioral Intentions: Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of medical Internet research, 23(10), e32425.

Agley, J., Xiao, Y., Thompson, E. E., & Golzarri-Arroyo, L. (2021). Factors associated with reported likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in a nationally representative US survey. Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.05.009

Agley, J., Xiao, Y., Thompson, E.E., Golzarri-Arroyo, L (2021). Using infographics to improve trust in science: a randomized pilot test. BMC Research Notes 14, 210 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-021-05626-4 Factors associated with reported likelihood to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in a nationally representative US survey.

 Thompson, E. E. (2020). Knowledge and risk perception about an Ebola virus outbreak: A comparative study of Ghana and Liberia. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 13(4), 271-283.  Doi:10.1080/17538068.2020.1803644

Thompson, E. E. (2020). Risk communication in a double public health crisis: The case of Ebola and Cholera in Ghana. Risk Research. 23(7-8), 962-977. Doi: 10.1080/13669877.2020.1819386

 Thompson, E. E. & Ofori-Parku, S. S. (2020). Advocacy and mobilizing for health policy: Ghanaian News media’s framing of a prescription opioid crisis. Health Communication. Doi: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1808403

  Thompson, E. E. (2019). Communicating a Health Risk/Crisis: Exploring the experiences of journalists covering a proximate epidemic. Science Communication, 41(6), 707-731. DOI: 10.1177/1075547019878875