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Contact tracing has emerged as one tool to communicate infection risks with the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses source credibility and the risk perception attitude framework to interpret how Americans responded to contact tracing messages from a technology company, employer, physician, or state government. Survey participants (n = 245) were generally positive towards a contact tracing message regardless of source. Participants with high risk perceptions and low efficacy beliefs responded more strongly to appeals from their company and their physician while the low risk-low efficacy group found the state government appeal more compelling. The results suggest that several sources delivering the same health message could engage people with different risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Applied Communication Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many brands to stop using cosmetic testers to avoid the risk of spreading the infection, jeopardising the future of cosmetic testing. Consequently, consumers must find alternative methods to conduct their information searches and, more importantly, the prospects of shopping online without going to the store to test the product. With the enormous prospects of social media cosmetic electronic word of mouth (eWOM), it is imperative to examine the influence of cosmetic eWOM on social media and for cosmetic marketers to understand the antecedents that result in cosmetic consumers making a purchase. The adapted information adoption model was validated through structural equation modelling based on 341 eligible surveys. The results confirmed that information quality, source credibility, information usefulness, and information adoption are the key antecedents in eWOM on Instagram when investigating purchase intentions in the colour cosmetic industry. This study is one of the pioneers in empirically testing the relationship between information quality and source credibility on information usefulness and, subsequently, the relationship between information usefulness, information adoption, and purchase intentions in a western market based on the cosmetic industry. These new insights provide practical implications for a cosmetic marketer, suggesting the key variables leading to purchase intentions in cosmetic eWOM, which can be utilised in marketing techniques.
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PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine how "homefluencers" sponsored posts on millennial consumers' purchase intention in the international marketing sphere can be impacted in the new normal by drawing on source credibility, parasocial interaction (PSI) and persuasion knowledge model (PKM) theory.Design/methodology/approachThis research applies structural equation modeling (SEM) and mediation analysis as the data analysis method using non-probability purposive sampling of a total of 217 local millennial Instagram and Facebook users, who have followed homefluencers sponsored posts in fashion-beauty, yoga-fitness and food sectors.FindingsBased on hypothesis testing, advertising recognition strongly mediates purchase intention with the indirect effects of expertise and trustworthiness than attractiveness.Research limitations/implicationsThis research extends the international marketing literature on source credibility, PSI, PKM and purchase intention theory in the new normal by proposing "Homefluencer's Endorsement Model for Purchase Intention" (HEMPI). Specifically, the mediating role of ad recognition of homefluencers sponsorship disclosure (#paidad, #sponsored), positively affects "change-of-persuasion meaning" on Instagram and Facebook, where research is rare.Practical implicationsThis research provides valuable suggestions for global brand owners, consumers and authorities of Instagram and Facebook to consider post-COVID consumer behavior highlighting homefluencers sponsored collaboration.Originality/valueThe authors have contributed to the use of the source credibility model and PSI to identify the antecedents in determining how the homefluencer's effective sponsorship disclosure can positively activate ad recognition on millennial consumers' purchase intention in a crisis period from an international standpoint with the practical implications in post-COVID.
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BACKGROUND: Infodemic exacerbates public health concerns by disseminating unreliable and false scientific facts to a population. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic solution emerged as a challenge to public health communication. Internet and social media spread information about hydroxychloroquine, whereas cable television was a vital source. To exemplify, experts discussed in cable television broadcasts about hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. However, how the experts' comments influenced airtime allocation on cable television to help in public health communication, either during COVID-10 or at other times, is not understood. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine how 3 factors, that is, the credibility of experts as doctors (DOCTOREXPERT), the credibility of government representatives (GOVTEXPERT), and the sentiments (SENTIMENT) expressed in discussions and comments, influence the allocation of airtime (AIRTIME) in cable television broadcasts. SENTIMENT pertains to the information credibility conveyed through the tone and language of experts' comments during cable television broadcasts, in contrast to the individual credibility of the doctor or government representatives because of the degree or affiliations. METHODS: We collected transcriptions of relevant hydroxychloroquine-related broadcasts on cable television between March 2020 and October 2020. We coded the experts as DOCTOREXPERT or GOVTEXPERT using publicly available data. To determine the sentiments expressed in the broadcasts, we used a machine learning algorithm to code them as POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, NEUTRAL, or MIXED sentiments. RESULTS: The analysis revealed a counterintuitive association between the expertise of doctors (DOCTOREXPERT) and the allocation of airtime, with doctor experts receiving less airtime (P<.001) than the nonexperts in a base model. A more nuanced interaction model suggested that government experts with a doctorate degree received even less airtime (P=.03) compared with nonexperts. Sentiments expressed during the broadcasts played a significant role in airtime allocation, particularly for their direct effects on airtime allocation, more so for NEGATIVE (P<.001), NEUTRAL (P<.001), and MIXED (P=.03) sentiments. Only government experts expressing POSITIVE sentiments during the broadcast received a more extended airtime (P<.001) than nonexperts. Furthermore, NEGATIVE sentiments in the broadcasts were associated with less airtime both for DOCTOREXPERT (P<.001) and GOVTEXPERT (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: Source credibility plays a crucial role in infodemics by ensuring the accuracy and trustworthiness of the information communicated to audiences. However, cable television media may prioritize likeability over credibility, potentially hindering this goal. Surprisingly, the findings of our study suggest that doctors did not get good airtime on hydroxychloroquine-related discussions on cable television. In contrast, government experts as sources received more airtime on hydroxychloroquine-related discussions. Doctors presenting facts with negative sentiments may not help them gain airtime. Conversely, government experts expressing positive sentiments during broadcasts may have better airtime than nonexperts. These findings have implications on the role of source credibility in public health communications.
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In this study, we examined the effects of perceived source credibility of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and college student health literacy in predicting the likelihood of enacting preventative behaviors related to mitigating COVID-19. Using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as an explanatory tool, we analyzed how perceived source credibility and health literacy levels predict college students' likelihood to enact preventative behaviors during a public health crisis. Sample population entirely consisted of undergraduate students enrolled in a basic communication course at a large, southern university. The participants completed survey questionnaires about their perceived health literacy, health beliefs, trust in the CDC, perceptions of COVID-19, and demographic measures during the fall 2020 semester. A multiple regression analysis revealed that (a) HBM predictors, health literacy and CDC source credibility accounted for 44% of the variance in likelihood of enacting preventative health behaviors, and (b) health literacy, CDC source credibility, and perceived severity were all positive predictors of enacting preventative health behaviors, while (c) perceived barriers negatively predicted enactment of preventative health behaviors. Perceived susceptibility and perceived benefits were not significant predictors of college student risk mitigation. Our data suggests the importance of health literacy and source credibility in predicting college students' likelihood to enact preventative behaviors during public health crises. © 2023 SAGE Publications.
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Under the shadow of the covid-19 pandemic, millions of young people have the resulting consequences (e.g., increased uncertainty regarding their careers and economic prospects: McGrindle, 2020;Yuesti et al., 2020) started to think more seriously about how to manage their financial resources. As a result, personal finance has become trendy to speak about. Rather than proactive actions coming through the formal financial services industry to address the increasing demand for accessible financial information that does not require an advisor or costs a fortune, we are witnessing the uprising of personal finance influencers. These financial influencers (a.k.a. Finfluencers) talk about how to manage various aspects of financial life and do so by promoting their advice on a broad scope of money related topics (ranging from dealing with student loans, buying a house, how to ask for a pay raise, budgeting tips, and tricks, filing for tax returns, stock investment opportunities, and portfolio management) in short, light-hearted video formats that are posted on Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube and other social media platforms. Although currently, these Finfluencers can be regarded as a niche influencer marketing group, it is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years – especially now that designated sections on social media platforms are taking off (e.g., #FinTok, #FinTwit, #Finmeme, #StockTok, #Findependence). In line with this trend, this research explores how consumers consume social media influencers when they offer utilitarian (rather than hedonic) oriented products, services, and advice. Using text-mining techniques, we examine the content of personal finance influencers on Instagram to investigate how consumers respond to the recommendation of more utilitarian-oriented products. In addition, gender and race are an integral part of the consumer's perception of financial expertise. This research looks at the moderating role of gender and race on influencers' financial expertise on consumer response. We found that influencers with financial accreditations generate a more positive affective response compared with financial influencers who mainly share information stemming from personal experience. In addition, we found that influencers' gender and race moderate the relationship between financial expertise and consumers' affective responses significantly. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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PurposeThis study aims to investigate perceptions about interactive travel websites. The researchers hypothesize that engaging content, the quality of information and source credibility have a significant effect on the consumers' utilitarian motivations to continue using them in the future.Design/methodology/approachA structured survey questionnaire was used to gather data from 1,287 online users, who were members of two popular social media groups. The methodology relied on a partial least squares approach to analyze the causal relationships within an extended information adoption model (IAM).FindingsThe findings reveal that the research participants perceive the utility of interactive travel websites and are willing to continue using them, particularly the responsive ones. The research participants suggest that these sites are easy to use, capture their attention and offer them useful information on various tourism services. The results also indicate that they appreciate their source credibility (in terms of their trustworthiness and expertise of their curators) as well as their quality content.Research limitations/implicationsThis study integrates key measures from the IAM with a perceived interactivity construct, to better understand the individuals' acceptance and use of interactive websites.Practical implicationsThis research implies that service businesses ought to have engaging websites that respond to consumer queries in a timely manner. Hence, they should offer a seamless experience to their visitors to encourage loyal behaviors and revisit intentions to their online domains.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no other studies that incorporated an interactive engagement construct with key constructs from IAM and from the technology acceptance model (TAM). This contribution underlines the importance of measuring the individuals' perceptions about the engagement capabilities of interactive media when investigating information and/or technology adoption.
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ABSTRACT As COVID-19 raged through the United States, Americans were inundated with messages from multiple and competing sources, some based on political ideologies, fueled by misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation via cable and social media. This study uses the IDEA model for effective instructional risk and crisis communication to examine the role of state governors in encouraging compliance with public health recommendations. It examines the relationships between messages sent in high- and low-compliance states, between state compliance levels and tendencies in public attitudes, and between messages sent and resident decisions about COVID-19 compliance. We analyzed press release messages from governors of five states with high immigrant populations and surveyed the public in these states to examine compliance rates regarding COVID-19 protective actions. Findings illustrate that perceived source credibility is critical to behavioral compliance regardless of message content adherence and that political ideology may become a competing narrative and may influence resident decisions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, rampant misinformation about the virus has created largescale panic and uneasiness among the Malaysian public. In response to this threat, the Malaysian government launched public service announcements (PSAs) on COVID-19 in various media to increase public awareness and knowledge, specifically on recommended solutions. The messages in the PSAs were tailored to underscore the various phases of the pandemic to persuade public belief as well as nurture positive attitude and behavioural changes. The objectives of this study are: (1) to investigate the public's information-seeking behaviours, (2) to investigate user perceptions and indicators of PSAs, and (3) to determine the effectiveness of PSAs as a communication platform to convey important information about the pandemic throughout the different Movement Control Order (MCO) phases. Through focus group discussions with eight urban Klang Valley informants, findings highlight the crucial elements in identifying motivation and factors of media preferences which affect how various media platforms benefit the Malaysian public. The findings also illustrate the need for the government to ensure that the content and context of the PSAs meet the audiences' demographics in ensuring effective dissemination of information and awareness during a pandemic.
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In the last few years, and especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of everyday activities were shifted online. Therefore, marketing strategies had to adapt to this shift. This led to the development of new forms of marketing, including influencer marketing. Although credibility is often theorised as the reason why the audience prefers to follow influencers over celebrities, empirical evidence is mixed and unrelated to the gaming industry. Therefore, our aim in this study was to test if source credibility (and its three elements: attractiveness, trustworthiness, and expertise) predicts video games purchase intentions, as well as to check if the model misspecifications caused by ignored links of causality led to inconsistent conclusions in earlier studies. The results based on an international sample of PewDiePie's followers (N = 238) have confirmed both ideas: source credibility predicts purchase intentions and model misspecifications of source credibility could have led to inaccurate estimates in earlier studies. © 2022, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar. All rights reserved.
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The spread of misinformation has become a major concern to our society, and social media is one of its main culprits. Evidently, health misinformation related to vaccinations has slowed down global efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have shown that fake news spreads substantially faster than real news on social media networks. One way to limit this fast dissemination is by assessing information sources in a semi-automatic way. To this end, we aim to identify users who are prone to spread fake news in Arabic Twitter. Such users play an important role in spreading misinformation and identifying them has the potential to control the spread. We construct an Arabic dataset on Twitter users, which consists of 1,546 users, of which 541 are prone to spread fake news (based on our definition). We use features extracted from users' recent tweets, e.g., linguistic, statistical, and profile features, to predict whether they are prone to spread fake news or not. To tackle the classification task, multiple learning models are employed and evaluated. Empirical results reveal promising detection performance, where an F1 score of 0.73 was achieved by the logistic regression model. Moreover, when tested on a benchmark English dataset, our approach has outperformed the current state-of-the-art for this task. © European Language Resources Association (ELRA).
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Contact tracing has emerged as one tool to communicate infection risks with the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses source credibility and the risk perception attitude framework to interpret how Americans responded to contact tracing messages from a technology company, employer, physician, or state government. Survey participants (n = 245) were generally positive towards a contact tracing message regardless of source. Participants with high risk perceptions and low efficacy beliefs responded more strongly to appeals from their company and their physician while the low risk-low efficacy group found the state government appeal more compelling. The results suggest that several sources delivering the same health message could engage people with different risk perceptions and efficacy beliefs. [ FROM AUTHOR]
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Purpose The purpose is to understand the fundamental mechanism of the consumer decision-making process and how perceived financial risk of search and experience goods influences electronic word-of-mouth adoption (e-WOMA) on social networking sites (SNSs), which will lead to purchase intention. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on information processing theory, the study conceptualizes a moderated mediation model to investigate the underlying influence of perceived financial risk and online social ties on e-WOMA and the subsequent effect on online purchase intention. Survey data from 275 individuals were analyzed through statistical tools using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Findings The results revealed that e-WOMA mediates the effect of perceived financial risk of search and experience goods on online purchase intention. Strength of online social ties on SNSs positively moderates the electric word of mouth adoption for both the experience and search goods. Research limitations The limitation of this study was about the researcher's restrictions related to the length of the survey. Moreover, causal explanations can't be deduced as this is a cross-sectional study. Practical implications This research offers insight into the consumers that allow marketers to dive into the target market. Marketers should focus on social ties importance while selling products/services of markets online. Originality/value The study is novel in the context of an emerging economy to educate marketers on the product categorization of search goods and experience goods based on financial risk.
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This study tries to determine if social media argument quality, social media source credibility and perceived usefulness can predict information adoption by the user shared through social media platforms. Data was collected from 376 social media users through online surveys that helped gauge user behavior. The results of the study revealed that perceived usefulness is not a predictor of information adoption. The results of the study revealed that perceived usefulness is not a predictor of information adoption but there is a significant relationship between information adoption and participatory behavior especially when the information is shared through social media networks. The study would help its stakeholders understand the predictors of information adoption. It reveals the importance of credibility of the source Moreover, the central point at issue is still argument quality. Acceptance of the information would lead to the participatory behavior by the user. In this study information exchange and user-generated content have both benefited from social networking. © 2022. Journal of Content, Community and Communication. All Rights Reserved.
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Research indicates that fact-checking has inconsistent effects on our beliefs and behavioral intentions about disinformation. But would it help if we source news from highly credible source and/or fact-check them using highly credible fact-checkers? This study explores this question by postulating the direct and interaction effects of news source credibility and fact-checker credibility on online users’ believability perceptions, reading intention, and sharing intention. These hypotheses are tested using an online experiment in a public health (COVID-19) context. Multi-level analysis of within-subject data suggest a nuanced pattern of effects, in which news source credibility has a positive main effect on believability but negative effects on reading and sharing intention. Fact-checking credibility has a positive main effect on believability, but no effects on reading or sharing intentions, but interestingly, negatively moderates the effects of source credibility on all three dependent variables. The implications of these findings for fact-checking research and practice are discussed. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a concurrent outbreak of false information online. Debunking false information about a health crisis is critical as misinformation can trigger protests or panic, which necessitates a better understanding of it. This exploratory study examined the effects of debunking messages on a COVID-19-related public chat on WhatsApp in Singapore. Design/methodology/approach: To understand the effects of debunking messages about COVID-19 on WhatsApp conversations, the following was studied. The relationship between source credibility (i.e. characteristics of a communicator that affect the receiver's acceptance of the message) of different debunking message types and their effects on the length of the conversation, sentiments towards various aspects of a crisis, and the information distortions in a message thread were studied. Deep learning techniques, knowledge graphs (KG), and content analyses were used to perform aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) of the messages and measure information distortion. Findings: Debunking messages with higher source credibility (e.g. providing evidence from authoritative sources like health authorities) help close a discussion thread earlier. Shifts in sentiments towards some aspects of the crisis highlight the value of ABSA in monitoring the effectiveness of debunking messages. Finally, debunking messages with lower source credibility (e.g. stating that the information is false without any substantiation) are likely to increase information distortion in conversation threads. Originality/value: The study supports the importance of source credibility in debunking and an ABSA approach in analysing the effect of debunking messages during a health crisis, which have practical value for public agencies during a health crisis. Studying differences in the source credibility of debunking messages on WhatsApp is a novel shift from the existing approaches. Additionally, a novel approach to measuring information distortion using KGs was used to shed insights on how debunking can reduce information distortions. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Purpose The meddling of foreign players into the Indian hotel industry has triggered fervent competitiveness, and therefore, consumers' attitude, intention and behavior have been the epicenter of all activities. This study endeavors to explicate enablers of online hotel booking intention (OHBI) in the Indian hospitality industry. Design/methodology/approach The study examined OHBI of 560 travelers during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India using structural equation modeling and an extended technology acceptance model. Direct and indirect associations were explored using mediation and moderation. Findings The results manifest that hotel website credibility, perceived website interactivity and perceived ease of use (PEU) aggrandize perceived usefulness (PU), which, in turn, considerably magnifies travelers' OHBI. PEU and PU partially mediate the relationship in the model. Into the bargain, service affordability reinforces the relationship, while perceived pandemic risk enfeebles the relationship between PU and OHBI. Research limitations/implications The study unfurls pressing determinants of PEU, PU and OHBI that may facilitate hoteliers to lure travelers and enhance profitability. Originality/value There is a paucity of literature on "hotel website credibility" and "perceived pandemic risk" in the hospitality industry. Hence, the study enriches literature by assimilating underlying constructs through an epigrammatic conceptual model. The study is distinctive because it unearths the possibilities of mediation and moderation amongst the aforementioned constructs and posits the calamitous effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism and hospitality sector.
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Based on affective event theory (AET), the present study examines how information source credibility and platform media richness are impacting consumers' impulsive buying during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The experience sampling method was adopted, and 550 matched cases nested in 110 Chinese samples were collected over five consecutive days. A multilevel structural equation model (MSEM) was employed to analyze the research model. Our main findings indicate that (1) daily information source credibility related to COVID-19 pandemic decreases information anxiety, whereas platform media richness increases information anxiety;(2) information anxiety mediates the impacts of information source credibility and media richness on impulsive buying;(3) chronic COVID-19 induced strain moderates the indirect relationship between daily platform media richness and impulsive buying through information anxiety. This study enriches the impulsive buying literature by incorporating informational and technical characteristics of mobile social platforms in the COVID-19 period. This study provides us with practical implications about how to manage impulsive buying. © 2021 ACM. Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM.