Emotional reflexivity during a global health crisis: Emotion ‘work’ in online health communication research

This chapter explores emotion work and emotional reflexivity in online health communication research. The authors draw on their own experiences of conducting qualitative interviews during the COVID-19 health crisis to consider how emotions are modified and expressed in the absence of face-to-face contact with research participants. This experience highlighted the importance of emotional reflexivity in health communication research as well as the vital role of nonverbal and paralinguistic features in interviewing. The authors identify three strategies which can support emotional reflexivity in online interviewing and enhance the robustness of research whilst facilitating emotional connection with interviewees.