Purpose: The purpose of the final paper is to provide students an opportunity to explore the impact of health communication during the present Coronavirus pandemic. In other words, to apply what we learned during this week’s unit to what is going on in the world around us.
Prompt: This is a reflection paper highlighting how communication surrounding the coronavirus impacted the decisions you made these last 2.5 years regarding your perceptions and behaviors. In other words, how has the messaging surrounding the coronavirus impacted your decision making? Topics can include, but are not limited to, mask wearing, social distancing, stay at home orders, holiday travel, vaccines, and the reality of the pandemic (which is real, but not all messaging acknowledged that). Your reflection should take on at least two topics. For each topic, describe the messaging and briefly explore how it impacted your decision making. Messaging could include board or specific virtual conversations, a specific piece of communication (e.g., tweet, journal article, news story), communication from a particular source, interpersonal communication, etc. Each topic should have its own communication messaging example.
Because communication is all around us all the time, make sure it is very clear in your paper–to the reader who is your grader–what specific and tangible moments of communication on which you are reflecting. If the reader (i.e., grader) has to guess what specific communication moment(s) you are reflecting on, that will be reflected in your grade.
Citing: If you choose to reference a specific communication moment (e.g., tweet, journal article, news story) then you need to cite that moment and include a reference list. If you refer to communication generally on a macro-level, a reference list is not necessary. For example, the following statements would not need a citation:
“On Instagram, my newsfeed showed as many pro-vaccine posts as it did anti-vaccines posts.”
“At our Thanksgiving dinner table, my family members were arguing both the pros and cons of the mask wearing mandate.”
On the other hand, the following statements would need to be cited:
“When CNN reported that deaths related to the Coronavirus had surpassed a quarter million, I really started to get vocal about my support for mask wearing.”
“When I saw Donald Trump’s tweet comparing the virus to the flu, I felt like this virus was not that serious.”
Format: Papers should be 2 to 3 pages in length and follow standard essay format (Links to an external site.), including structured introduction and conclusion paragraphs. An APA 7th edition (Links to an external site.) (student paper) formatted title page and reference list (if needed) are required and are NOT part of the page requirement. As this is a reflection paper and not a research paper, abstracts should not be included. Per APA format, papers should be double spaced, include page numbers, use 1” page margins, and in 12pt font of a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, Ariel).
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