| Summary |
Threats from Zika and other emergent arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses) often receive little scholarly attention across most disciplines thanks in no small part to the traditional view that most emergent disease discourse is only immediately relevant to those in medical and economic fields. The reality is that any time endemic threats pose risks to public welfare or become threats to national health and security, scholars from all fields should reevaluate how their current and developing skills and knowledge could be employed to help prevent and/or minimize negative outcomes when outbreaks seem likely. Scholars in the fields of rhetoric and technical communication have developed skills and knowledge that would render us particularly well suited to work with those in medical, economic, and public communication fields to develop or remediate tools and resources to alter potential outbreak outcomes in positive ways if we were offered or willing to claim a seat at their table. This study utilizes surveying of residents in Harlingen, Texas, regarding Zika as a springboard into research on public health communication failures as represented by technical documents designed to communicate health and safety information about Zika and validated by revision of those documents to increase their effectiveness in encouraging proactive prevention behaviors and retention of health knowledge. |
| General note | Presented to the Faculty of the Department of English |
| General note | Advisor: Erin Frost |
| General note | Title from PDF t.p. (viewed March 26, 2024). |
| Dissertation note | Ph. D. East Carolina University 2022 |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references. |
| Technical details | System requirements: Adobe Reader. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web. |
| Genre/form | dissertations. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Academic theses. |
| Genre/form | Thèses et écrits académiques. |
