Communication and Community Resilience in WV During COVID-19

Emma Schwartzmiller*, Julia Fraustino, Geah Pressgrove, Taylor Miller, and Hannah Belt

Reed College of Media, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation Category: Oral-Behavioral & Social Sciences (Oral Presentation #43)

Student’s Major: History

The purpose of the study is to co-create communication solutions and build community resilience in two West Virginia communities grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic. A database was created to identify key informants to interview. To ensure that diverse contacts and perspectives were reached, snowball sampling was additionally used to further identify individuals. Given the community focus on this study, the authors focused on community leaders within county and city government, community organizations, businesses, religious organizations, nonprofits, healthcare and education. These individuals were selected based on their roles within their communities as well as their knowledge of the communities and how they have been impacted by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease COVID-19. To tap into rich knowledge of those with high community involvement, the researchers purposely chose to interview individuals who oversaw or were highly involved with community activities. Thus, most of our interviews have been conducted with government officials, community leaders, or healthcare leaders, and business owners. Interviews have been conducted throughout the winter of 2020-2021, by phone or Zoom to accommodate a geographically diverse sample and safe interview facilitation during COVID-19. All interviews are recorded and fully transcribed for analysis, which is iterative and ongoing. Using inductive and deductive themes to generate codes, initial data analysis provides insights and understanding of the role of communication in community resilience surrounding a major public health crisis.

Funding: WVU Research Scholarship and Advancement (RSA) Grant

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course