ABSTRACT
The postmodern medical paradigm has empowered online users in the (de)legitimating process of health-related topics. By employing a co-occurrence analysis, this study identifies the thematic patterns used by Romanian online users in their multimodal comments to the #storiesfromvaccination Facebook campaign run by the Romanian government. The findings show that the commenters assessed source credibility through two thematic patterns: 'source exemplarity' and 'source distrust'. Health experts were more legitimized than laypersons and role models as sources in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. Two thematic patterns emerged in the assessment of vaccination, namely: 'immunization - past and present challenges' and 'vaccination supporter versus opponent cleavage'. In the discussion on immunization, a polarization between a nostalgic longing for the past and a present corrupted medical and political system prevailed, whereas the important feature of discursive antagonism could be observed in the latter thematic pattern. The co-occurrences of (de)legitimation strategies are explained with reference to the political and medical context, along with the challenges of social media usage in online vaccination communication campaigns.
ABSTRACT
With 675 confirmed cases of measles in Romania in September 2016, the Ministry of Health launched the online campaign called 'Vaccines Save Lives'. This study seeks to apply the Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs to the online communication among the Romanian Ministry of Health and online users throughout this vaccination campaign. Using a mixed-method approach, we demonstrate how cluster analysis can help in visualizing the overall relationship among codes (HBM constructs) in the thematic interpretation related to vaccination. Results of the cluster analysis show that the Romanian Ministry of Health used three main themes (shaping credibility, reality versus conspiracy, and unbiased information). Focusing on the diseases that vaccinations could prevent, the Romanian authority also addressed the issues related to conspiracy theory, the possible side effects, and collateral victims if parents refuse to vaccinate their children. The online users' comments were structured on two themes: multi-faceted reluctance and vaccination gain. Despite the anti-vaccination comments and anti-work-related content directed toward the campaign and the Ministry of Health, there were pro-vaccination comments in which online users encouraged parents to report cases of side effects and accused them of using their personal stories to provoke vaccination hesitancy. These findings may provide important information to (inter)national communication practitioners who design and implement health campaigns to increase vaccination rates.
