The Effects of the Culturally Tailored Narratives on COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Among Hispanics: A Randomized Online Experiment.

Guided by the health belief model (HBM), cultural sensitivity approach, and the theory of situated cognition, this study compares the effects of culturally tailored narratives and generic narratives on the COVID-19 vaccine confidence among Hispanics. It also examines an array of cognitive responses (perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, and perceived side effects) associated with the COVID-19 vaccine confidence, and the interaction of these cognitive responses with the two narrative types of messaging. The findings suggest that Hispanics exposed to culturally tailored narratives are more confident in the COVID-19 vaccine compared to Hispanics exposed to generic narratives. The study provides support for the HBM, as the perceived benefit was positively related to vaccine confidence, and the perceived barrier was negatively associated with vaccine confidence. Finally, vaccine confidence was the strongest among Hispanics who had high perceived susceptibility and were exposed to culturally tailored narratives.

Red Media vs. Blue Media: Social Distancing and Partisan News Media Use during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Political polarization surrounding the COVID-19 health crisis has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. We combine prior research on motivated reasoning, selective exposure, and news framing to understand the association between partisan media use and social distancing behavior related to COVID-19. To do so, we collected media content data and national survey data during the onset of the pandemic. We employed structural topic modeling (STM), dependency parsing, word co-occurrence, and manual coding to examine the media coverage. Next, we analyzed survey data collected with a Qualtrics panel from a sample of U.S. residents for factors explaining social distancing behaviors. Results reveal coverage from the right leaning outlets downplayed the virus and highlighted the consequences of lockdowns on the economy. Our survey findings show that even after accounting for a range of demographic, political orientation, and COVID-19 awareness variables, conservative media use was linked, although modestly, with a lower likelihood of social distancing behavior. Our findings echo past research on media framing of pandemics and their association with public attitudes and behavior.

Understanding CDC's Vaccine Communication during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Effectiveness in Promoting Positive Attitudes toward the COVID-19 Vaccine.

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed many communication challenges for public health authorities, especially communicating the safety, effectiveness, and importance of the COVID-19 vaccine. This study takes an integrative approach that includes a content analysis of COVID-19 vaccine-related messages from the CDC Facebook page and an experimental test of the effectiveness of the same types of vaccine-related messages on participants' attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. Our findings from the content analysis show that gain-frame was used significantly more than loss-frame, and statistical evidence was more prevalent than narrative evidence in the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine-related messaging. Results from the experiment indicated that loss-framed, and messages with statistical evidence, may be more successful in promoting positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ideology and COVID-19 Vaccination Intention: Perceptual Mediators and Communication Moderators.

Widespread COVID-19 vaccination is critical to slow the spread of the illness. This study investigates how political ideology is associated with COVID-19 vaccine intention via perceived effectiveness of the vaccine, perceived side effects, and perceived severity of the illness, three key aspects of the Health Belief Model (HBM). This study also examines how partisan information flow moderates the effects of ideology on these three HBM components. Using survey data collected from two battleground states in the 2020 election (N = 1849), regression, mediation and moderation analyses revealed that conservatives were less likely to intend to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and this association was significantly mediated by perceived effectiveness and perceived side effects of vaccination, as well as perceived severity of COVID-19. In addition, partisanship of news sources and discussion partners were significant moderators of ideology's association with perceived vaccine effectiveness, with conservatives viewing COVID-19 vaccination as less effective if they were frequently exposed to liberal news, and if they had frequent conversations with fellow conservatives. This suggests boomerang effects for cross-cutting mass media exposure, and reinforcement effect for interpersonal communication. Implications for efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccine uptake are discussed, including tailored and targeted campaign strategies.

Vaccine discourse during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: Topical structure and source patterns informing efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy.

BACKGROUND: Understanding public discourse about a COVID-19 vaccine in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic may provide key insights concerning vaccine hesitancy. However, few studies have investigated the communicative patterns in which Twitter users participate discursively in vaccine discussions. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to investigate 1) the major topics that emerged from public conversation on Twitter concerning vaccines for COVID-19, 2) the topics that were emphasized in tweets with either positive or negative sentiment toward a COVID-19 vaccine, and 3) the type of online accounts in which tweets with either positive or negative sentiment were more likely to circulate. METHODS: We randomly extracted a total of 349,979 COVID-19 vaccine-related tweets from the initial period of the pandemic. Out of 64,216 unique tweets, a total of 23,133 (36.03%) tweets were classified as positive and 14,051 (21.88%) as negative toward a COVID-19 vaccine. We conducted Structural Topic Modeling and Network Analysis to reveal the distinct topical structure and connection patterns that characterize positive and negative discourse toward a COVID-19 vaccine. RESULTS: Our STM analysis revealed the most prominent topic emerged on Twitter of a COVID-19 vaccine was "other infectious diseases", followed by "vaccine safety concerns", and "conspiracy theory." While the positive discourse demonstrated a broad range of topics such as "vaccine development", "vaccine effectiveness", and "safety test", negative discourse was more narrowly focused on topics such as "conspiracy theory" and "safety concerns." Beyond topical differences, positive discourse was more likely to interact with verified sources such as scientists/medical sources and the media/journalists, whereas negative discourse tended to interact with politicians and online influencers. CONCLUSIONS: Positive and negative discourse was not only structured around distinct topics but also circulated within different networks. Public health communicators need to address specific topics of public concern in varying information hubs based on audience segmentation, potentially increasing COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

The Relationship among COVID-19 Information Seeking, News Media Use, and Emotional Distress at the Onset of the Pandemic.

Although several theories posit that information seeking is related to better psychological health, this logic may not apply to a pandemic like COVID-19. Given uncertainty inherent to the novel virus, we expect that information seeking about COVID-19 will be positively associated with emotional distress. Additionally, we consider the type of news media from which individuals receive information-television, newspapers, and social media-when examining relationships with emotional distress. Using a U.S. national survey, we examine: (1) the link between information seeking about COVID-19 and emotional distress, (2) the relationship between reliance on television, newspapers, and social media as sources for news and emotional distress, and (3) the interaction between information seeking and use of these news media sources on emotional distress. Our findings show that seeking information about COVID-19 was significantly related to emotional distress. Moreover, even after accounting for COVID-19 information seeking, consuming news via television and social media was tied to increased distress, whereas consuming newspapers was not significantly related to greater distress. Emotional distress was most pronounced among individuals high in information seeking and television news use, whereas the association between information seeking and emotional distress was not moderated by newspapers or social media news use.

COVID-19 Vaccination Attitudes and Intention: Message Framing and the Moderating Role of Perceived Vaccine Benefits.

The United States is one of the hardest-hit countries by the COVID-19 pandemic and yet there is widespread hesitancy to take the vaccine. In order to address vaccine hesitancy and foster public understanding of the COVID-19 vaccine, it is necessary to strategize public health messages based on evidence. To this end, we use experimental data to examine the effects of four message frames on participants' attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine and their vaccine intention. The primary purposes of this paper are to examine the 1) impact of loss vs. gain frames and individual vs. collective frames and 2) role of perceived benefits on participants' attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine and their vaccine intention. Our findings show that participants with higher perceived benefits and exposed to the loss frame showed higher positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine and greater intention to vaccinate. Similar patterns were revealed in case of the individual frame message. Implications are discussed.

Trust in Doctors, Positive Attitudes, and Vaccination Behavior: The Role of Doctor-Patient Communication in H1N1 Vaccination.

Although there is a wide variety of scientific evidence that demonstrates the benefits of vaccination on a multitude of diseases, vaccination rates remain low while misperceptions about vaccines are on the rise. The primary objective of the present study is to examine the role of doctor-patient communication and vaccination. We test the impact of doctor-patient communication on trust in doctors' vaccine recommendations as a mediator, to understand the mechanisms leading to positive vaccination attitudes, and ultimately leading to actual H1N1 vaccination behavior. We use data from a nationally representative U.S. sample from one of the Multimedia Audience Research Systems (MARS) data sets collected by Kantar Media. Our results demonstrate the crucial role of doctor-patient communication in building patients' trust in doctors, which in turn positively impact vaccination attitudes and H1N1 vaccination behavior. Unlike other preventive health measures, getting vaccines after a pandemic is a critical decision because these vaccines are previously unknown. Our finding implies that verified communication from the physician's office may be one of the effective strategies during or after a pandemic. Our findings have implications for public health organizations to incorporate effective vaccination communication and could have critical implications for the COVID-19 vaccination.

Effects of Web-Based Social Connectedness on Older Adults' Depressive Symptoms: A Two-Wave Cross-Lagged Panel Study.

BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms are the most prevalent mental health concern among older adults (possibly heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic), which raises questions about how such symptoms can be lowered in this population. Existing research shows that offline social connectedness is a protective factor against depression in older adults; however, it is unknown whether web-based social connectedness can have similar effects. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates whether social connectedness on a support website protects older adults against depressive symptoms over the course of a year, above and beyond the protective effect of offline social connectedness. The secondary aim is to determine whether older adults with increased depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in social connectedness on this website. Thus, we examine depressive symptoms as both an outcome and predictor of web-based social connectedness to fully understand the chain of causality among these variables. Finally, we compare web-based social connectedness with offline social connectedness in their ability to lower depressive symptoms among older adults. METHODS: A total of 197 adults aged 65 years or older were given access to a social support website, where they were able to communicate with each other via a discussion forum for a year. Participants' social connectedness on the web-based platform, conceptualized as message production and consumption, was measured using behavioral log data as the number of messages participants wrote and read, respectively, during the first 6 months (t1) and the following 6 months (t2) of the study. Participants self-reported their offline social connectedness as the number of people in their support networks, and they reported their depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 both at baseline (t1) and at 12-month follow-up (t2). To ascertain the flow of causality between these variables, we employed a cross-lagged panel design, in which all variables were measured at t1 and t2. RESULTS: After controlling for the effect of offline support networks at t1, web-based message consumption at t1 decreased older adults' depressive symptoms at t2 (ß=-.11; P=.02), but web-based message production at t1 did not impact t2 depressive symptoms (ß=.12; P=.34). Web-based message consumption had a larger effect (ß=-.11; P=.02) than offline support networks (ß=-.08; P=.03) in reducing older adults' depressive symptoms over time. Higher baseline depressive symptoms did not predict increased web-based message consumption (ß=.12; P=.36) or production (ß=.02; P=.43) over time. CONCLUSIONS: The more messages older adults read on the web-based forum for the first 6 months of the study, the less depressed they felt at the 1-year follow-up, above and beyond the availability of offline support networks at baseline. This pinpoints the substantial potential of web-based communication to combat depressive symptoms in this vulnerable population. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.1186/s13063-015-0713-2.

News Attention and Social-Distancing Behavior Amid COVID-19: How Media Trust and Social Norms Moderate a Mediated Relationship.

Despite the fact that social distancing is an effective mean to slow the spread of COVID-19, individuals often fail to practice this behavior. Major US news media provided information to the public about social distancing after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, potentially spurring this preventative health practice. Using data from a representative sample of US residents, this study aims to understand the relationship between news media attention and social-distancing behavior via three potential mediators: perceived effectiveness of social distancing, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 infection, and perceived negative consequences of infection. Media trust and social norms concerning social distancing were included as potential moderators of these relationships, along with political ideology. With multiple regression and mediation analyses, we found that news media attention was positively associated with social-distancing behavior during this period. Perceived effectiveness of social distancing mediated this relationship, while perceived susceptibility and negative consequences of COVID-19 did not. Notably, media trust negatively moderated news attention's impact on the perceived effectiveness of social distancing, with the relationship being more pronounced among those who have lower trust in media. Political ideology did not moderate the relationship between news attention and perceived effectiveness. Further, social norms negatively moderated the relationship between perceived effectiveness and social-distancing behavior, with this relationship growing stronger among those uncertain about the adoption of social-distancing norms in their circle. Overall, the study found news media to have an important role in promoting social-distancing behavior when they emphasized safety measures across the ideological spectrum.

Health Information Sources and the Influenza Vaccination: The Mediating Roles of Perceived Vaccine Efficacy and Safety.

Although the influenza vaccine is widely recognized as an effective preventive measure, influenza vaccination rates among U.S. adults remain low. Moreover, influenza-related respiratory illnesses may increase the risk of adverse outcomes of COVID-19. Thus, this study examines the mechanisms involved in influenza vaccination uptake. Specifically, this study investigates how health information sources are associated with perceived vaccine efficacy and safety, which, in turn, associated with influenza vaccine uptake. Analyzing cross-sectional survey data from a national U.S. adult sample (N = 19,420), mediation analyses were conducted. Results revealed that considering vaccine efficacy, health information seekers who assigned more value to medical professionals, medical journals, and newspaper articles were more likely to perceive a vaccine as effective, thus being more likely to receive the influenza vaccine. By contrast, individuals who placed more value in social media were less likely to perceive vaccine efficacy, and, in turn, were less likely to get the influenza vaccine. Turning to vaccine safety, the value ascribed to medical professionals was positively associated with vaccine safety, which, in turn, related to influenza vaccine uptake. By contrast, social media, family or friends, and promotions were negatively associated with vaccine safety, and then influenza vaccine uptake.