ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper was to explore online media coverage of COVID-19 vaccination and user reactions to the different types of coverage. The authors aimed to investigate possible boomerang effects that arise when COVID-19 media coverage is assertive and confident, and to determine the effects of balanced reporting. A two-stage random sample comprised a total of 300 articles published in three Croatian online news sites during a period from 1 February 2020, through 15 January 2022. The data were categorized using human coding content analysis, while reliability of coding was checked by using two coders and calculating reliability coefficients. The data were analyzed by means of negative binomial regression analysis. The results revealed that COVID-19 reporting was mainly consensual, i.e., it provided largely affirmative information about vaccines. However, user comments were highly polarized and mostly negative, with the majority of anti-vaccination tropes linked to the "corrupt elites". Based on the user comments, the negative influence of balanced reporting on COVID-19 vaccines and the existence of boomerang effect in cases of the overtly persuasive affirmative reporting was also established. The boomerang effect did not depend on the context, i.e., on the type of reporting. This study extends previous research on balanced reporting and boomerang effects by analyzing online comments as a potentially good parallelism of the offline discursive strategies of the pro-vaccination and anti-vaccination communication. The results of the study can be used for the adjustment of strategic communication targeting the vaccine hesitant audience. Based on the study results, it is recommended that relativization and politicization of science should be prevented by not equating scientific consensus with absolute epistemological certainty and by addressing legitimate concerns of vaccine hesitant persons without putting explicit blame on them.
ABSTRACT
Understanding vaccine hesitancy is becoming increasingly important, especially after the global outbreak of COVID-19. The main goal of this study was to explore the differences in vaccination conspiracy beliefs between people with a university degree coming from different scientific fields-Social Sciences & Humanities (SH) and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The study was conducted on an online convenience sample of respondents with college and university degrees in Croatia (N = 577). The results revealed that respondents educated in SH proved to be more prone to vaccination conspiracy beliefs. The indirect effect through science literacy was confirmed, while this was not the case for the indirect effects through health beliefs (natural immunity beliefs) and trust in the healthcare system. However, all three variables were important direct predictors of vaccination conspiracy beliefs. Female gender and religiosity were positively correlated with vaccination conspiracy beliefs, while age was not a statistically significant predictor. The authors concluded by emphasizing the necessity of the more theoretically elaborated approaches to the study of the educational and other socio-demographic differences in vaccine hesitancy.