Countering public opposition to immigration: The impact of information campaigns

Social distancing policies have been regarded as effective in containing the rapid spread of COVID-19. However, there is a limited understanding of policy effectiveness from a spatiotemporal perspective. This study integrates geographical, demographical, and other key factors into a regression-based event study framework, to assess the effectiveness of seven major policies on human mobility and COVID-19 case growth rates, with a spatiotemporal emphasis. Our results demonstrate that stay-at-home orders, workplace closures, and public information campaigns were effective in decreasing the confirmed case growth rate. For stay-at-home orders and workplace closures, these changes were associated with significant decreases (p < 0.05) in mobility. Public information campaigns did not see these same mobility trends, but the growth rate still decreased significantly in all analysis periods (p < 0.01). Stay-at-home orders and international/national travel controls had limited mitigation effects on the death case growth rate (p < 0.1). The relationships between policies, mobility, and epidemiological metrics allowed us to evaluate the effectiveness of each policy and gave us insight into the spatiotemporal patterns and mechanisms by which these measures work. Our analysis will provide policymakers with better knowledge regarding the effectiveness of measures in space–time disaggregation.

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Public Preferences for New Information on Opioids

Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law ◽

10.1215/03616878-8004898 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 45 (2) ◽

pp. 311-339

Author(s):

Paul F. Testa ◽

Susan L. Moffitt ◽

Marie Schenk

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Opioid Epidemic ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

New Information ◽

Health Strategy ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Receive Treatment ◽

Information Treatment ◽

The Impact ◽

To Receive

Abstract Context: Educating the public through information campaigns is a commonly used policy approach to public health problems. Yet, experimental methods that assess the impact of information campaigns may misestimate their effects by failing to account for respondents' willingness to receive new information. Methods: This article uses a doubly randomized survey experiment conducted on a nationally representative sample, where some subjects are randomly assigned to an informational treatment about opioids while other subjects are given the choice of whether to receive treatment or not, to examine how public willingness to seek new information shapes the way they update their preferences about policies related to the opioid epidemic. Findings: Among those likely to receive information, treatment has a large positive effect on increasing support for policies that address the opioid epidemic by about one half of a standard deviation. Among those who would avoid this information, preferences appear to be unmoved by treatment. These effects would be missed by standard experimental designs. Conclusion: While redressing information asymmetries is only one part of a public health strategy for addressing the opioid epidemic, our findings highlight the importance of access to and receptiveness toward new information.

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Increased awareness and knowledge of Lyme Borreliosis and tick bite prevention among the general population in France: 2016 and 2019 health barometer survey

BMC Public Health ◽

10.1186/s12889-021-11850-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Alexandra Septfons ◽

Julie Figoni ◽

Arnaud Gautier ◽

Noémie Soullier ◽

Henriette de Valk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

General Population ◽

Lyme Borreliosis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Tick Bite ◽

Tick Bites ◽

Protective Measures ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Phone Survey ◽

Risk Areas ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Lyme borreliosis (LB) is the most frequent tick-borne disease in France. In the absence of a vaccine, LB prevention mainly relies on reducing tick bites. In 2016, the French Ministry of Health launched a national plan against tick-borne infections, including a prevention component. To evaluate the impact of this prevention strategy, we assessed knowledge and practices of tick bite prevention using the 2016 and 2019 national surveys on health attitudes and beliefs known as the French Health Barometer. Methods The Health Barometer is a repeated nationwide phone survey conducted annually on a random sample aged 18 to 75 years living in mainland France. In 2016 and 2019, participants were asked, among others, about their exposure to ticks, their behavior and practices regarding tick bites, and their knowledge about LB and its prevention. Results In 2019, 30% of the population reported a lifetime tick bite and 6% in the last year, an increase from 25% and 4%, respectively, in 2016 (p < 0.001). In 2019, 25% of the population felt exposed to tick bites compared to 23% in 2016 (p < 0.001). The proportion of participants who had heard about LB and who considered themselves well informed respectively increased from 66% and 29% in 2016 to 79% and 41% in 2019, (p < 0.001). In 2019 compared to 2016, a greater part of the French population applied protective measures against tick bites, particularly wearing protective clothing (74% vs 66%, p < 0.001) and regular tick checks and prompt tick removal after exposure (54% vs 47%, p < 0.001). Conclusions A substantial proportion of French residents are exposed to tick bites and apply protective measures. Our findings indicate a trend toward an increased knowledge and awareness of tick bites and LB between 2016 and 2019 in France. Our results can be used to target future information campaigns to specific age groups or at-risk areas in addition to the general population. However, we need to further study the barriers to the use of preventive measures.

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Bots are less central than verified accounts during contentious political events

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.2013443118 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 118 (11) ◽

pp. e2013443118

Author(s):

Sandra González-Bailón ◽

Manlio De Domenico

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Language Processing ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Online Networks ◽

The Public ◽

News Sources ◽

Diffusion Structure ◽

Political Events ◽

Information Manipulation ◽

The Impact

Information manipulation is widespread in today’s media environment. Online networks have disrupted the gatekeeping role of traditional media by allowing various actors to influence the public agenda; they have also allowed automated accounts (or bots) to blend with human activity in the flow of information. Here, we assess the impact that bots had on the dissemination of content during two contentious political events that evolved in real time on social media. We focus on events of heightened political tension because they are particularly susceptible to information campaigns designed to mislead or exacerbate conflict. We compare the visibility of bots with human accounts, verified accounts, and mainstream news outlets. Our analyses combine millions of posts from a popular microblogging platform with web-tracking data collected from two different countries and timeframes. We employ tools from network science, natural language processing, and machine learning to analyze the diffusion structure, the content of the messages diffused, and the actors behind those messages as the political events unfolded. We show that verified accounts are significantly more visible than unverified bots in the coverage of the events but also that bots attract more attention than human accounts. Our findings highlight that social media and the web are very different news ecosystems in terms of prevalent news sources and that both humans and bots contribute to generate discrepancy in news visibility with their activity.

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Communication for health and AIDS: An educative-entertaining approach

Comunicar ◽

10.3916/c26-2006-06 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 13 (26) ◽

pp. 35-42

Author(s):

Juan-José Igartua-Perosanz

Keyword(s):

Aids Prevention ◽

Parasocial Interaction ◽

Key Factors ◽

Entertainment Education ◽

Educational Content ◽

Emotional Involvement ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Current State ◽

The Impact

This paper reviews the current state of the impact of entertainment-education contributions for AIDS prevention. Traditional information campaigns are being replaced by interventions based on narrative formats which merge entertainment with an educational content. The success of such interventions depends on the ability of the narrative formats to stimulate parasocial interaction and emotional involvement. It is also stated that one of the key factors to success is to promote discussion. El presente trabajo revisa la evidencia actual sobre el impacto de las intervenciones de educación-entretenimiento para la prevención del SIDA. Las clásicas campañas en clave publicitaria están dejando paso a intervenciones basadas en formatos narrativos que fusionan la educación con el entretenimiento. El éxito de tales intervenciones se debe a la capacidad de los formatos narrativos para estimular la interacción parasocial y la implicación emocional. También se constata que una de las claves del éxito es la estimulación de la discusión.

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The impact of electricity crises on the consumption behaviour of small and medium enterprises

Journal of Energy in Southern Africa ◽

10.17159/2413-3051/2008/v19i1a3321 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 13-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Von Ketelholdt ◽

A. Wöcke

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Energy Savings ◽

Small And Medium Enterprises ◽

Electricity Consumption ◽

Cape Town ◽

Social Strategies ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Consumption Behaviour ◽

Medium Enterprises ◽

The Impact

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will play a key role in future economic and social strategies in South Africa. However, we find that SMEs are par-ticularly vulnerable to shocks in their external envi-ronment due to a general lack of skills and resources. This is critical as the future demand for electricity in South Africa is likely to outstrip supply and electricity will become increasingly unreliable and expensive. We surveyed 250 SMEs in Cape Town and found that the prevailing policy methods of changing electricity consumption behaviour: information campaigns, increasing prices, and pro-viding rebates for energy savings, have had limited results and are unsustainable when applied to SMEs.

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Impact of Private Labels and Information Campaigns on Organic and Fair Trade Food Demand

Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization ◽

10.1515/jafio-2019-0018 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Douadia Bougherara ◽

Carole Ropars-Collet ◽

Jude Saint-Gilles

Keyword(s):

Fair Trade ◽

Private Label ◽

Demand System ◽

Demand Systems ◽

Scanner Data ◽

National Brand ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Fair Trade Coffee ◽

Systems Models ◽

The Impact

AbstractWe use two Almost Ideal Demand Systems models on scanner data to analyze the demand for two food products (milk and coffee). Each demand system is composed of four products varying in the presence of an ecolabel (with or without) and the brand (national brand vs. private label). First, we aim to compare the demand for PL and NB ecolabeled products. While PLs are brands owned and controlled by retailers and specific to each retailer, NBs are owned and controlled by manufacturers and can be offered by several retailers. Second, we aim to assess the impact of information campaigns designed to raise awareness and knowledge of ecolabels. We find that demand is more elastic for ecolabeled goods as in the literature but we find this result only for NB goods (milk and coffee) and not for PL goods. We also find substitutability between ecolabeled and conventional goods as in the literature but only within the NB goods (milk only) and within the PL goods (milk and coffee). We also find complementarity between NB conventional and PL ecolabeled goods (milk and coffee). Finally, we find that information campaigns increase the predicted expenditure shares of PL organic milk by 33% and of NB fair trade coffee by 50%. But these effects are non-lasting.

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Principle 33, in The United Nations Principles to Combat Impunity: a commentary, Frank Haldemann and Thomas Unger, eds., Oxford University Press (2018)

10.31228/osf.io/9pbfy ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Lisa J. Laplante

Keyword(s):

Human Rights ◽

United Nations ◽

Practical Application ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

Oxford University ◽

The United Nations ◽

Right To Information ◽

The Right ◽

The Impact ◽

Oxford University Press

This commentary focuses on Principle 33 (Publicizing Reparation Procedures) of the UN Principles for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights Through Action to Combat Impunity by examining the genesis, normative background, interpretation and practical application of each this principle. The analysis also includes a discussion of the impact of this principle in contemporary transitional contexts and recognizes challenges in its implementation. The author highlights that governments have an obligation to conduct outreach and information campaigns in order to protect the right to information enjoyed by people who have suffered violations of their human rights and have a right to access a reparations through an administrative reparation program.

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Home violence as a social problem in modern Ukraine

SOCIOПРОСТІР ◽

10.26565/2218-2470-2021-11-03 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Social Services ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Sociological Research ◽

Positive Trend ◽

Legal Aid ◽

Law Enforcement Agencies ◽

Information Campaigns ◽

National Police ◽

Forms Of Violence ◽

The Impact

The article is devoted to the analysis of the problem of home violence in modern Ukraine and the peculiarities of the state social policy for its solution, because today home violence is a common problem among all segments of the population around the world. According to the National Police of Ukraine, on average during 2020, one person suffered from home violence every three hours. The article analyzes the results of sociological research conducted in Ukraine during 20192020 on the prevalence of various forms of violence and the impact of COVID-19 on the number of cases of home violence and more. Based on the secondary analysis of the results of empirical sociological research, it is determined that the most common types of home violence in Ukraine are physical and psychological. The increase in home violence is due to the introduction of quarantine, forcing victims to stay with the perpetrator. This has made it difficult to access legal aid and social services, as providing legal aid remotely (online, by telephone, etc.) is not effective enough when it comes to home violence cases. Also, based on the secondary analysis of the results of empirical sociological research, it was determined that there is a positive trend in the number of complaints of victims of home violence to the police. This is due to the fact that in recent years there have been changes in Ukrainian legislation, information campaigns against home violence have become active, and the work of law enforcement agencies with social services and NGOs has been established.

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