Fear-arousing persuasive communication and behaviour change: COVID-19 in Kenya

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omukule Emojong’
Keyword(s):  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Risk Behaviour ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
Change Models ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Government

With the absence of immunological, pharmacological or any other known medical interventions, the change in norms, behaviour and attitude of the public remains the only possible way that may be considered for prevention and suppression of COVID-19. This disease, which has morphed into a global pandemic, has mobilized outrageous outpouring action worldwide. Despite international and local media attention coupled with overwhelming new facts replete with misinformation and disinformation on COVID-19 from many channels; including interpersonal and social media, efforts to scale up control measures have yielded mixed results. The government and Kenyan media have reported several cases in which the public and leaders flouted these measures thus putting themselves at risk of contracting or spreading the virus. The overarching question is: does fear-arousing communication really matter in behaviour change particularly during a global pandemic of the magnitude of COVID-19? This qualitative study therefore examined the effects of COVID-19 messages on health behaviour change among residents living in the Municipality of Busia, one of the towns that have recorded the highest incidences of confirmed COVID-19 cases as informed by the Extended Parallel Process and Health Belief behavioural change models. Focus group discussions and in-depth interviews were carried out to establish threat and coping appraisal as a result of COVID-19 messages received from different sources. The study employed a risk behaviour diagnosis assessment that focused on two components of health risk messages, that is, threat and recommended response that addresses efficacy issues. This study found out that despite universal knowledge of COVID-19 and prevention methods, perceived threat especially perceived vulnerability to the virus was low due to misinformation, disinformation and disjointed communication.

Coronavirus: Towards controlling of the pandemic - Indian scenario

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 462-468
Author(s):  
Latika kothari ◽  
Sanskruti Wadatkar ◽  
Roshni Taori ◽  
Pavan Bajaj ◽  
Diksha Agrawal
Keyword(s):  
Control Measures ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Medical Treatments ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Infection Control Measures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Asking Questions ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a communicable infection caused by the novel coronavirus resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV). It was recognized to be a health crisis for the general population of international concern on 30th January 2020 and conceded as a pandemic on 11th March 2020. India is taking various measures to fight this invisible enemy by adopting different strategies and policies. To stop the COVID-19 from spreading, the Home Affairs Ministry and the health ministry, of India, has issued the nCoV 19 guidelines on travel. Screening for COVID-19 by asking questions about any symptoms, recent travel history, and exposure. India has been trying to get testing kits available. The government of India has enforced various laws like the social distancing, Janata curfew, strict lockdowns, screening door to door to control the spread of novel coronavirus. In this pandemic, innovative medical treatments are being explored, and a proper vaccine is being hunted to deal with the situation. Infection control measures are necessary to prevent the virus from further spreading and to help control the current situation. Thus, this review illustrates and explains the criteria provided by the government of India to the awareness of the public to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

DILEMA PENANGANAN COVID-19: ANTARA LEGITIMASI PEMERINTAH DAN KEPATUHAN MASYARAKAT

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 90
Author(s):  
Laode Ode Harjudin
Keyword(s):  
Public Confidence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Crisis Situation ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Foundation

AbstrakPersoalan utama dalam upaya penanganan wabah Covid-19 adalah pemerintah kesulitan memperoleh kepatuhan masyarakat untuk mentaati kebijakannya sesuai protokol kesehatan. Berbagai kebijakan ataupun himbauan pemerintah tentang protokol kesehatan terkesan diabaikan atau tidak dipatuhi masyarakat. Studi ini menggunakan konsep legitimasi untuk memahami  ketidakpatuhan masyarakat dalam upaya penanganan wabah Covid-19. Metode yang digunakan dalam studi ini adalah penelurusan kepustakaan dan dokumentasi. Hasil studi menunjukkan bawha dalam penanganan Covid-19 pemerintah mengalami krisis legitimasi, sehingga pememerintah mendapatkan tentangan (resistensi), dan kepercayaan masyarakat terhadap hukum, peraturan dan keputusannya akan meluap. Hal terjadi karena pencintraan politik berlebihan yang hanya melahirkan demokrasi semu tanpa fondasi politik yang kuat. Pemerintah seperti ini sulit mengharapkan kepatuhan masyarakat dalam situasi krisis. Kata Kunci: pandemi global, krisis legitimasi, politik pencitraan Abstract The main problem in the efforts to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak was that the government had difficulty obtaining community compliance to comply with its policies according to health protocols. Various policies or government appeals on health protocols appear to be ignored or not obeyed by the public. This study uses the concept of legitimacy to understand community non-compliance in efforts to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak. The method used in this study is searching literature and documentation. The results of the study showed that in handling Covid-19 the government experienced a crisis of legitimacy, so that the government received opposition (resistance), and public confidence in the laws, regulations and decisions would overflow. This happened because of excessive political intelligence which only gave birth to pseudo democracy without a strong political foundation. Such a government is difficult to expect community compliance in a crisis situation. Keywords: global pandemic, crisis of legitimacy, imaging politics

scholarly journals Peran komunikasi publik dalam menanggapi gelombang disinformasi Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-175
Author(s):  
Dody Setyawan ◽  
Dekki Umamur Ra'is ◽  
Abd. Rohman
Keyword(s):  
Public Information ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Communication Campaign ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
The Government ◽  
Object Of Study

Disinformation has reduced public confidence in the government and scientists in handling Covid-19. These conditions hamper the overall handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the context of responding to a global pandemic, disinformation greatly affects the country's response to a global pandemic by undermining trust, creating fear, and sometimes leading to harmful behavior. It is important for policy makers to understand disinformation and how to respond to it. This study uses a literature review approach with data sources coming from several documents that have been verified and have a relationship with the object of study. The stages of the study start from choosing a review topic, finding and selecting appropriate articles, analyzing and synthesizing the literature, and finally presenting a review of the study. the results show that the government should have official information channels with verified, transparent, sustainable and fast sources of information. The government must also provide clear and definite information through official channels and trusted media. The government must also ensure the consistency of information. In addition, the government must maintain a transparent pattern of communication about the situation, actions and risks it takes. The aim is to restore public trust in public institutions, in information that has been conveyed by the government to the public as well as guidelines that have been provided by the government to the public, such as health protocol guidelines and the last is "Pre-bunk", or be aware of the potential for disinformation before occurred, as part of a public information and communication campaign. 

scholarly journals How evolutionary behavioural sciences can help us understand behaviour in a pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (1) ◽  
pp. 264-278
Author(s):  
Megan Arnot ◽  
Eva Brandl ◽  
O L K Campbell ◽  
Yuan Chen ◽  
Juan Du ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Evolutionary Dynamics ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Behavioural Sciences

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has brought science into the public eye and to the attention of governments more than ever before. Much of this attention is on work in epidemiology, virology and public health, with most behavioural advice in public health focusing squarely on ‘proximate’ determinants of behaviour. While epidemiological models are powerful tools to predict the spread of disease when human behaviour is stable, most do not incorporate behavioural change. The evolutionary basis of our preferences and the cultural evolutionary dynamics of our beliefs drive behavioural change, so understanding these evolutionary processes can help inform individual and government decision-making in the face of a pandemic. Lay summary: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought behavioural sciences into the public eye: Without vaccinations, stopping the spread of the virus must rely on behaviour change by limiting contact between people. On the face of it, “stop seeing people” sounds simple. In practice, this is hard. Here we outline how an evolutionary perspective on behaviour change can provide additional insights. Evolutionary theory postulates that our psychology and behaviour did not evolve to maximize our health or that of others. Instead, individuals are expected to act to maximise their inclusive fitness (i.e, spreading our genes) – which can lead to a conflict between behaviours that are in the best interests for the individual, and behaviours that stop the spread of the virus. By examining the ultimate explanations of behaviour related to pandemic-management (such as behavioural compliance and social distancing), we conclude that “good of the group” arguments and “one size fits all” policies are unlikely to encourage behaviour change over the long-term. Sustained behaviour change to keep pandemics at bay is much more likely to emerge from environmental change, so governments and policy makers may need to facilitate significant social change – such as improving life experiences for disadvantaged groups.

scholarly journals Chinese Public Attention to COVID-19 Epidemic: Based on Social Media

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuxin Zhao ◽  
Huilan Xu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Mining System ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Government ◽  
And Control

AbstractBackgroundSince the new coronavirus epidemic in China in December 2019, information and discussions about COVID-19 have spread rapidly on the Internet and have quickly become the focus of worldwide attention, especially on social media.ObjectiveThis study aims to investigate and analyze the public’s attention to COVID-19-related events in China at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in China (December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020) through the Sina Microblog hot search list.MethodsWe collected topics related to the COVID-19 epidemic on the Sina Microblog hot search list from December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020 and described the trend of public attention on COVID-19 epidemic-related topics. ROST CM6.0 (ROST Content Mining System Version 6.0) was used to analyze the collected text for word segmentation, word frequency, and sentiment analysis. We further described the hot topic keywords and sentiment trends of public attention. We used VOSviewer to implement a visual cluster analysis of hot keywords and build a social network of public opinion content.ResultsThe study has four main findings. First, we analyzed the changing trend of the public’s attention to the COVID-19 epidemic, which can be divided into three stages. Second, the hot topic keywords of public attention at each stage are slightly different. In addition, the emotional tendency of the public toward the COVID-19 epidemic-related hot topics has changed from negative to neutral, with negative emotions weakening and positive emotions increasing as a whole. Finally, we divided the COVID-19 topics with the most public concern into five categories: new COVID-19 epidemics and their impact; (2) frontline reporting of the epidemic and prevention and control measures; (3) expert interpretation and discussion on the source of infection; (4) medical services on the frontline of the epidemic; and (5) focus on the global epidemic and the search for suspected cases.ConclusionsThis is the first study of public attention on the COVID-19 epidemic using a Chinese social media platform (i.e., Sina Microblog). Our study found that social media (e.g., Sina Microblog) can be used to measure public attention to public health emergencies. During the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, a large amount of information about the COVID-19 epidemic was disseminated on Sina Microblog and received widespread public attention. We have learned about the hotspots of public concern regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. These findings can help the government and health departments better communicate with the public on health and translate public health needs into practice to create targeted measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

scholarly journals An Investigation on the Public's Acceptance of Prevention and Control Measures for COVID-19 in China

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ao Zhang ◽  
Xiang Wu ◽  
Jingqi Gao ◽  
Yongbao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Prevention And Control ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public Acceptance ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
The Public ◽  
Epidemic Period ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
Prevention And Control Measures ◽  
And Control

Abstract Background: China has basically succeeded in controlling the COVID-19 epidemic, which is due to the cooperation and acceptance of epidemic prevention measures by the public. However, few studies have examined the measures China has taken to combat COVID-19 in order to reflect on its success in curbing the the spread of epidemic.Methods: In this study, the public acceptance questionnaire was designed based on the epidemic prevention measures adopted in China, to investigate the difference of public acceptance of epidemic prevention measures. The survey data was collected from 2,062 samples with different demographic characteristics from March 8, 2020 to April 9, 2020. And SPSS was used to analyze the data collected in the questionnaire, such as one-way variance, so as to draw conclusions.Results: The results show that age and educational level have a significant influence on public acceptance. In contrast gender and occupation field has no significant impact on it. The acceptance of the emergency prevention and control measures taken by the government during the epidemic period is generally high. With the development of the epidemic, the acceptability is increasing. And the public acceptance of traffic measures was highest. Conclusions: Rapid deployment of epidemic prevention measures and appropriate methods in transportation, economy and education are the key to China's effective containment of the epidemic. Measures such as shutting down cities and encouraging the wearing of masks deserve to be copied by other countries. This study summed up China's scientific experience in the fight against COVID-19 and differences in public acceptance. It can provide a positive reference for the development of epidemic prevention measures in other countries.

Green Audit for the Environmental Sustainability

2019 ◽  
pp. 45-58
Author(s):  
Ganga G.
Keyword(s):  
Health Risks ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
Human Health Risks ◽  
Private Organizations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Or Organization

Green Audit works as an environmental consultancy and reviews organizations with the aim of monitoring the performance of companies and organizations whose activities might threaten the environment and the health of citizens. Green Audit is to give citizens the information they need to be able to question when an institute or organization is destroying the environment which we all depend on. Most of the public and private organizations do not have suitable strategies to inspect or suggest the control measures be taken to avoid or reduce such environmental risk, which provided the impetus for the establishment of Green Audit. Green Audit undertakes and supports independent studies in the general areas of environmental public health, pollution, energy efficiency, and social and policy research in relevant areas. It has become increasingly clear that the scientific measurement and appraisal of human health risks, including pollution, are in the hands of the government and establishment-controlled organizations.

scholarly journals What makes a mobile app successful in supporting health behaviour change?

2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Fitzgerald ◽  
Tracy McClelland
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Health Behaviours ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Design Stage ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Screening And Identification

Introduction: Health promotion apps designed to support and reinforce health behaviours or to reduce risk behaviours are the most commonly downloaded apps. Such technologies have the potential to reach and deliver health care to new populations. But the extent to which they are successful in enabling the adoption of new and desired behaviours can vary. Some apps are more effective than others, some are free to download while others require a nominal or substantial charge. Cost alone is not indicative of quality or effectiveness. This is important because the use of health apps by the public will likely increase, as is the expectation that health care professionals understand this technology and its heuristic role in personalised health. Practitioners therefore need to be better informed regarding what makes a health app appealing to service users and successful as an intervention to facilitate behaviour change. Objective: This paper describes and discusses how the structure and content of health care apps can facilitate or inhibit behavioural change. The aim is to support practitioners in the screening and identification of suitable apps for clinical use. Method: Theory and literature review. Conclusion: App content that involved clinician input at the design stage and included internal drivers such as motivation, self-efficacy and illness understanding and external drivers such as illness information, social networking and user compatibility tend to do better in facilitating behaviour change than those that do not. Of these factors, motivation is considered to be the most important.

To use or not to use a COVID-19 contact tracing app: a mixed-methods study in Wales (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerina Jones ◽  
Rachel Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Security And Privacy ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Digital Inclusion ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Open Question

BACKGROUND Background Many countries remain in the grip of the COVID-19 global pandemic with a considerable journey still ahead to emerge into a semblance of normality and freedom. Contact tracing smartphone apps are among a raft of measures introduced to reduce spread of the virus. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to ascertain the views of citizens in Wales on their intended use of a contact tracing app, with self-proposed reasons for or against, and what could lead to a change of decision. METHODS We distributed an anonymous survey among 4,000 HealthWise Wales participants in May 2020. We took a mixed methods approach: responses to closed questions were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics; open question responses were analysed and grouped into categories. RESULTS A total of 976 (24.4%) people completed the survey. Smartphone usage was 91.5% overall, but this varied between age groups. 97.1% were aware of contact tracing apps, but only 67.2% felt sufficiently informed. 55.7% intended to use an app, 23.3% said no, and 21.0% were unsure. The top reasons for app use were: controlling spread of the virus, mitigating risks for others and self, and increasing freedoms. The top reasons against were: mistrusting the government, concerns about data security and privacy, and doubts about efficacy. The top response for changing their mind about app use from willing to unwilling was that nothing would. This was also the case for unwilling to willing. Among the unsure, it was the need for more information. CONCLUSIONS Respondents demonstrated a keenness to help themselves, others, society and government to avoid the virus and to control its spread. However, digital inclusion varied among age groups, precluding participation for some people. Considering the nature of the concerns raised, and the perceived lack of information, policy and decision-makers need to do more to act openly, increase communications and demonstrate trustworthiness if members of the public are to be confident in using an app.

scholarly journals Dynamical Behaviors of Rumor Spreading Model with Control Measures

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia-Xia Zhao ◽  
Jian-Zhong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Reproduction Number ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Dynamical Models ◽  
Control Effect ◽  
Rumor Spreading ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spreading Model ◽  
Dynamical Behaviors ◽  
The Government

Rumor has no basis in fact and flies around. And in general, it is propagated for a certain motivation, either for business, economy, or pleasure. It is found that the web does expose us to more rumor and increase the speed of the rumors spread. Corresponding to these new ways of spreading, the government should carry out some measures, such as issuing message by media, punishing the principal spreader, and enhancing management of the internet. In order to assess these measures, dynamical models without and with control measures are established. Firstly, for two models, equilibria and the basic reproduction number of models are discussed. More importantly, numerical simulation is implemented to assess control measures of rumor spread between individuals-to-individuals and medium-to-individuals. Finally, it is found that the amount of message released by government has the greatest influence on the rumor spread. The reliability of government and the cognizance ability of the public are more important. Besides that, monitoring the internet to prevent the spread of rumor is more important than deleting messages in media which already existed. Moreover, when the minority of people are punished, the control effect is obvious.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document