methodology
Focus Group
During our focus group we used a semi-structured interview style. We asked a small group of University of Connecticut students about their perspectives on the outbreak and what they remembered thinking. These questions focused on mainly asking what people remembered about the outbreak because it was five years ago and everyone was in high school. We first gathered their initial impressions of the outbreak with questions such as, “Do you remember how you reacted when you learned about the outbreak, or how others around you reacted?” and “What do you remember about the media’s coverage of the outbreak?” The responses to these questions were then followed by asking how participants felt about We expanded on those questions further with follow up questions like, “How did you feel about that” or “Why do you think that.” These questions helped us look further into thoughts of students surrounding the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic. Our goals for the focus group was to understand student’s perspectives and opinions in the outbreak and how it affected them.
Expert Interviews
We used a semi-structured interview style when interviewing experts on the Ebola outbreak. Our questions focused on the intersection of the experts' work with our research. When interviewing Dr. Noll specifically, we inquired into his work on making Ebola knowledge accessible to a wider audience, and on his background in science to refute some common misconceptions of the virus. Many of our questions for Dr. Nwangwu were focused on his work in the field during the time of the outbreak and the things he heard people say. These two very different points of view gave us a more holistic understanding of the facts and the common misunderstandings of Ebola.
our experts
Dr. john nwangwu
​A Public Health Doctor and Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health at Southern Connecticut State University. Dr. Nwangwu is also a Clinical Professor of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at Yale University. Serving as a Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Nwangwu was contacted by the WHO at the start of the outbreak to immediately help assess the situation and strategize. Dr. Nwangwu assembled a team of leading experts in fields including Microbiology, Epidemiology, Virology, and Sociology. Due to his experience working in the field during the outbreak, Dr. Nwangwu was a very valuable resource for our research.
Dr. kENNETH NOLL
Dr. Kenneth Noll is a Molecular and Cell Biology professor at UConn who has particular interest in communicating science to the public. He wrote an article for UConn Today in 2014 to convey information about the virus and to clear up some common misconceptions. Because of this, he is an excellent resource in describing the miscommunications that occurred during the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak and we were fortunate to have him share his insights with us.