Group Communication Support in Supporting the Resilience of Families and Survivors of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic originating from Wuhan has caused a lot of problems in people’s life aside from the economic costs. The Covid-19 has also taken its toll in almost every country in the world. Millions have died. Families need communication supports to face Covid-19. Group communication support has a very important role in sustaining the Covid-19 survivors and their families. To understand how it can sustain the Covid-19 survivors and their families, the researcher used the case-study approach and collected data through in-depth interviews with three respondents and analyzed them. This study aims to find out how the role of group communication support for survivors in supporting their resilience against Covid-19. The result shows that group communication supports link with five skills in designing supportive messages, i.e.: clarifying supportive intentions, buffering face threats, using other-centered messages, framing messages, and giving advice. These five skills provide a positive influence to the survivors and their families. The support messages have helped them go through difficult times caused by Covid-19. The research also found other sustaining aspects: the ability of the three respondents to see the calamities positively according to their religions and their strong personalities. Their personalities have enabled them to show positive attitudes to their children. In turn, their children also have the same resolute, strong, and resilient attitude in facing their calamities. Pandemi Covid-19 yang berasal dari Wuhan, telah menimbulkan banyak masalah bagi kehidupan manusia, tidak hanya kerugian secara ekonomi saja. Covid-19 juga telah merenggut banyak nyawa manusia hampir di semua belahan dunia. Jutaan nyawa melayang dan jutaan keluarga membutuhkan adanya dukungan komunikasi sebagai akibat serangan Covid-19 ini. Dukungan komunikasi kelompok memiliki peranan yang sangat penting guna menunjang ketahanan dari keluarga dan juga penyintas Covid-19 ini. Untuk mengetahui bagaimana dukungan komunikasi kelompok bisa menunjang ketahanan keluarga dan penyintas Covid-19, maka dilakukan penelitian dengan pendekatan studi kasus, yakni mengumpulkan data melalui wawancara mendalam kepada tiga informan dan selanjutnya menganalisisnya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan bagaimana peranan dukungan komunikasi kelompok terhadap penyintas dalam menunjang ketahanan mereka menghadapi Covid-19. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa, dukungan komunikasi dari kelompok terkait dengan lima kemampuan mengemas pesan yang mendukung (support message), antara lain; clarify supportive intentions, buffering face threats, other centered message, framing, giving advice. Kelima keterampilan ini memberi pengaruh yang positif, kepada keluarga dan korban Covid-19. Adanya support message ini, membuat keluarga dan penyintas Covid-19 mampu melewati masa sulit sebagai akibat dari Covid-19 ini. Penelitian ini juga menemukan, bahwa terdapat aspek lainnya yakni, kemampuan yang dimiliki ketiga informan untuk melihat musibah yang mereka alami secara positif sesuai dengan ajaran agama yang mereka yakini, dan juga kekuatan kepribadian mereka yang tangguh. Kepribadian yang kuat, yang mereka miliki membuat mereka berhasil menunjukkan sikap positif kepada anak-anak mereka. Sebagai akibatnya, anak-anak merekapun memiliki sikap yang sama yakni tegar, kuat, tabah menjalani musibah yang mereka alami.

Epistemologies of evidence-based medicine: a plea for corpus-based conceptual research in the medical humanities

Evidence-based medicine has been the subject of much controversy within and outside the field of medicine, with its detractors characterizing it as reductionist and authoritarian, and its proponents rejecting such characterization as a caricature of the actual practice. At the heart of this controversy is a complex linguistic and social process that cannot be illuminated by appealing to the semantics of the modifier evidence-based. The complexity lies in the nature of evidence as a basic concept that circulates in both expert and non-expert spheres of communication, supports different interpretations in different contexts, and is inherently open to contestation. We outline a new methodology that combines a social epistemological perspective with advanced methods of corpus linguistics and elements of conceptual history to investigate this and other basic concepts that underpin the practice and ethos of modern medicine. The potential of this methodology to offer new insights into controversies such as those surrounding EBM is demonstrated through a case study of the various meanings supported by evidence and based, as attested in a large electronic corpus of online material written by non-experts as well as a variety of experts in different fields, including medicine.

Effectiveness and Utility of Visual Scene Displays as Communication Supports for Adults and Children With Complex Communication Needs: Perspectives of Clinicians and Researchers

Purpose The aims of this research study were to describe the perspectives of clinicians and researchers regarding the effectiveness of visual scene displays (VSDs) as communication supports in order to inform the translation of research to clinical practice. Method An online survey was completed by 298 clinicians and nine VSD researchers. Participants rated the effectiveness of VSDs in supporting a variety of communication functions and their strength of agreement regarding statements of VSD utility. Results Regardless of population served, clinicians and researchers rated VSDs as effective at supporting a range of communication functions. Participants also tended to agree with statements of VSD utility. Conclusions The current study highlights the perceptions of clinicians and researchers regarding the uses and benefits of VSDs for adults and children with complex communication needs and provides an initial measure of the current translation of research to clinical practice. Results indicate that VSDs can be used to support a variety of communication functions and utilities; however, further work is necessary to explore additional communication functions and delineate similarities and differences of VSD uses for differing populations. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14551344

Performing Science in Public: Science Communication and Scientific Identity

This chapter examines the identity work that takes place within public communication of science. Using a conceptualisation of identity as performance – and thus as something that may be done differently within different contexts – it uses the case of a large science festival, Science in the City, which took place in Copenhagen in 2014, to examine how scientific identities can be enacted in science communication. The key argument is that such communication supports multiple and flexible identity performances. Scientific identities are intertwined with other ways of performing the self, and both audiences and communicators are heterogeneous communities, which do not neatly sit in categories of ‘scientists’ or ‘the public’. Ultimately, it appears that science communication is used by scientists (and others) for many different identity-building purposes, in many different ways.