Public Relations Research: An Overview to Covid-19

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During the Spring of Covid-19, I entered a course to better understand the communications functions of Covid-19 and how to best research target groups four our client, the CDC. 

Our group focused on African American hesitancy surrounding vaccination. When looking into disproportionate vaccination rates, locational disadvantage and racial opportunity barriers, we were able to compile multiple projects and conduct a focus group to better understand and represent the voices crucial to understanding this wariness. 

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Once we had defined our problem, we used Social Studio to gain insights regarding the realities of vaccine hesitancy surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine. We looked directly to understand how African American college students reacted, because at the time, we identified them as one of the main groups fearful of vaccines. 

When we were writing our reports, the first rounds of vaccines were being released to the publics. Moderna, Pfizer and later, the Johnson&Johnson vaccines were just beginning to be tested and distributed to publics. Many African American groups cited hesitancy as a result of the early stages of administration and fear that the first doses would make them sicker, or be used as guinea pigs for later revisions to the drug formula. 

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Our team was extremely fortunate to begin understanding research through survey information. We used a survey platform to generate insights as to what the publics within our university (administrators, students, and teachers) felt regarding the Covid-19 vaccination by age and demographics. 

We used a Qualtrics survey to poll members of the Syracuse University and local community to better understand what reasons members might be fearful to receive the vaccine, and the structural demographic features that could prevent them from receiving it. 

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​From there, we took the insights that we gathered to create focus groups that were primarily black and minority students to better listen to the voices primarily affected by vaccine hesitancy. 

Our focus group yielded strong personal appeals for and against vaccination. The real stories of individuals having lost family members or having been sick themselves brought to light more concerns than we could have gleaned simply from reviewing the logic and science of information released.