Carolyn Glasshoff (she/her/hers)
Lecturer
University of Central Florida
Description of Work:
My research focuses on how scientific and medical information makes its way to public discussions and how members of the lay public engage with and use this information to come to understandings and make decisions. Communicating science-based information with the general public is often a high-stakes endeavor, as it may impact public policy, affect public health outcomes, and influence personal healthcare decisions. Over the past five years, I have focused on vaccine discussions in online public spaces, as they are part of a concerted effort to influence decisions patients and parents make about their healthcare. While this has always been an important aspect of maintaining healthy individuals and communities, during the covid-19 pandemic, this has become a more widespread issue with far-ranging consequences. Developing understandings of how to communicate science-based information with lay audiences in ways that are effective and impactful is vital both to overcoming the covid-19 pandemic and to maintaining healthy and productive communities in the long term.
This work in progress focuses on the question of who to trust when seeking medical advice. This can seem daunting in an age of instant access to a nearly limitless number of online sources and the constantly evolving presence of social media. Vaccines are a salient topic to analyze for ethos building, as there is an ongoing and passionate debate from various rhetors vying to influence patients and parents to vaccinate according to different beliefs surrounding public health, safety, and individual liberty. Analyzing which methods are utilized when creating an ethos about a topic with which the rhetors are involved in public conversations while also having a personal, vested in the outcomes might show us new ways to engage with publics who are vaccine hesitant. Through the rhetorical concept of ethos, broken into phronesis (practical wisdom), arête (virtue), and eunoia (good will), we can analyze methods used by different rhetors to determine how they build authority and earn their audience’s trust, thereby influencing the audience’s beliefs and actions.
Through studies such as this, we can learn to create better communications about vaccines and healthcare that earn trust and that influence members of the community towards safeguarding public health. As we continue to work on eradicating the current pandemic and plan on how to stop future spread of other diseases, making sure that communication efforts aimed at public audiences reach not only those who are already willing to participate but also those who may be hesitant or wary of medical interventions and treatments will be a vital task. In science communication, and especially in public health communication, we must remember that the end goal is not simply to relay data from one point to another, but to make real connections with the people for whom these topics matter.
Contact: caglasshoff@ucf.edu