Tracing the Caring Relationships Found Within Three Virus Outbreaks: A Public Health Communications Perspective

Accepted for presentation at the virtual Annual ICA Conference, May 27-31, 2021.

Abstract: The world is subject to many an affliction and pandemic, as seen most recently with COVID-19. This study, in an attempt to better understand the trends and workings of the past, conducted deep-dive narrative and trend analyses of three prominent virus afflictions: the 1918 Flu, Polio, and HIV/AIDs. Through the lens of public health communicators and public relations practitioners, the communications about each virus are explored and later analyzed through a lens of Nel Noddings’ ethic of care–examining the supposed cultivation of caring relationships developed between those communicating (or not communicating) and those who desperately need the message (the cared-for).

Taylor Voges (Grady PhD Student), LaShonda Eaddy (Grady PhD Alum), Shelley Spector, and Yan Jin.

Yan Jin 

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