Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Teichmann ◽  
Aengus Bridgman ◽  
Sean Nossek ◽  
Peter John Loewen ◽  
Taylor Owen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Health Information ◽  
National Accounts ◽  
City Governments ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Cross Platform

BACKGROUND Social media provides governments the opportunity to directly communicate with their constituents. During a pandemic, reaching as many citizens as possible with health messaging is critical to reducing the spread of the disease. This study evaluates efforts to spread healthcare information by Canadian local, provincial, and federal governments during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE This study explores engagement patterns with government COVID-19 information shared on social media. It quantitatively evaluates platform-specific dynamics, including meta-data of posts such as account type, number of followers, type of content included, and time of post. It then performs exploratory, theory-building content analysis on outlier communications to identify previously under-examined features that contribute to engagement. METHODS We collect all health-related communications coming from government accounts on Facebook and Twitter and analyze the data using a nested mixed method approach. We first identify quantifiable features linked with citizen engagement. Then, we perform content analysis on those posts with the highest and highest negative residuals to identify content-specific engagement patterns. RESULTS We find considerable within and cross-platform heterogeneity in the relationship between embedded media type and engagement with public health information on social media. On Twitter, public health tweets containing videos receive 121 percent more engagements than those which are text-only, at P<.001. Images receive 35 percent more at P<.001. On Facebook text statuses dominate, with links receiving 39 percent fewer engagements, at P<.001, and videos a 26 percent decrease, also at P<.001. Even more, we find that who posts is more important than what is posted. Controlling for different audience sizes, tweets from the Prime Minister generate 727 percent more engagements than city governments', at P<.001. On Facebook this increases to 5640 percent, still at P<.001. The discrepancy between local and national accounts is larger on Facebook, where mayors, city governments, and local health authorities receive the least engagement. On both platforms premiers and provincial health authorities receive the second and third highest levels of engagement, highlighting the importance of sub-national officials in public health communication. All of these estimates are statistically significant at P<.001. In our qualitative analysis, we find a consistent relationship between content and over- or under performance, relative to our predicted levels of engagement. Concise messages with direct appeals are overrepresented among posts with large positive residuals, as are those which include high quality media, or which leverage pop-culture references or influencers. On the other hand, low quality video and infographics, lengthy policy descriptions, and negative news routinely generate fewer engagements than predicted. CONCLUSIONS We make two critical contributions to existing knowledge about government communication, particularly during public health crises. We identify and theorize cross-platform variations in strategy effectiveness and draw attention to specific, evidence-based practices that can increase engagement with government health information.

scholarly journals Infodemia and COVID-19: a text mining analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
W De Caro
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Text Mining ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Health Agencies ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Twitter Activity

Abstract Introduction Covid-19 epidemic lead a huge use of social media to comment and spread information from the widest sources. Infodemia looks at excessive amount of information circulating, which makes it difficult to orientate communities on a given topic due to the difficulty of identifying reliable sources. Using text mining analysis it is possible to identify what drives public conversation and impact of Covid-19. Methods Public perceptions in emergencies is traditionally measured with surveys. However, to have a global sight of the pandemia, Twitter represents a powerful tool which gives real-time monitoring of public perception. The study aimed to: 1) monitor the use of the terms “Covid-19” or “Coronarivus” over time; and 2) to conduct a specific text and sentiment analysis. Results Between January 10 and May 8, 2020, over 600 million tweets were retrieved. Of those 600.000 tweets were randomly selected, coded, and analyzed. About 10% of cases were identified as misinformation. Public figures, experts in public health, and virologists represent the most popular sources in comparison to the official government and health agencies. There is a positive correlation between Twitter activity peaks and COVID-19 infection peaks. Text mining analysis was carried out, as well as a content analysis, also in order to identify changing emotions and sentiments during time. This analysis, particularly during the lockdown, clearly shows that participation on social media can potentially have an effect on building social capital and social support. Conclusions This study confirms that using social media to conduct infodemic studies is an important area of development in public health arena. COVID-19 tweets were primarily used to disseminate information from credible sources, but were also a source of opinions, emotion and experiences. Tweets can be used for real-time content analysis and knowledge translation research, allowing health authorities to respond to public concerns. Key messages Social media is crucial for health information. Infodemia as new way for study health.

scholarly journals A topic analysis of traditional and social media news coverage of the early COVID-19 pandemic and implications for public health communication

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wallace Chipidza ◽  
Elmira Akbaripourdibazar ◽  
Tendai Gwanzura ◽  
Nicole M. Gatto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
News Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Cable News ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Health Officials

AbstractKnowledge gaps may initially exist among scientists, medical and public health professionals during pandemics, which are fertile grounds for misinformation in news media. We characterized and compared COVID-19 coverage in newspapers, television, and social media, and discussed implications for public health communication strategies that are relevant to an initial pandemic response. We conducted a Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an unsupervised topic modelling technique, analysis of 3,271 newspaper articles, 40 cable news shows transcripts, 96,000 Twitter posts, and 1,000 Reddit posts during March 4 - 12, 2020, a period chronologically early in the timeframe of the COVID-19 pandemic. Coverage of COVID-19 clustered on topics such as epidemic, politics, and the economy, and these varied across media sources. Topics dominating news were not predominantly health-related, suggesting a limited presence of public health in news coverage in traditional and social media. Examples of misinformation were identified particularly in social media. Public health entities should utilize communication specialists to create engaging informational content to be shared on social media sites. Public health officials should be attuned to their target audience to anticipate and prevent spread of common myths likely to exist within a population. This will help control misinformation in early stages of pandemics.

scholarly journals Spreading (Dis)Trust: Covid-19 Misinformation and Government Intervention in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 458-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Lovari
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Public Institutions ◽  
General State ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Impact

The commentary focuses on the spread of Covid-19 misinformation in Italy, highlighting the dynamics that have impacted on its pandemic communication. Italy has recently been affected by a progressive erosion of trust in public institutions and a general state of information crisis regarding matters of health and science. In this context, the politicization of health issues and a growing use of social media to confront the Coronavirus “infodemic” have led the Italian Ministry of Health to play a strategic role in using its official Facebook page to mitigate the spread of misinformation and to offer updates to online publics. Despite this prompt intervention, which increased the visibility and reliability of public health communication, coordinated efforts involving different institutions, media and digital platform companies still seem necessary to reduce the impact of misinformation, as using a multichannel strategy helps avoid increasing social and technological disparities at a time of crisis.

scholarly journals Development of a Codebook of Online Anti-Vaccination Rhetoric to Manage COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Hughes ◽  
C. Miller-Idriss ◽  
R. Piltch-Loeb ◽  
K. White ◽  
M. Creizis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Pandemic Vaccine ◽  
Qualitative Coding ◽  
Health Messaging

AbstractVaccine hesitancy (delay in obtaining a vaccine, despite availability) represents a significant hurdle to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy is in part related to the prevalence of anti-vaccine misinformation and disinformation, which are spread through social media and user-generated content platforms. This study uses qualitative coding methodology to identify salient narratives and rhetorical styles common to anti-vaccine and COVID-denialist media. It organizes these narratives and rhetorics according to theme, imagined antagonist, and frequency. Most frequent were narratives centered on “corrupt elites” and rhetorics appealing to the vulnerability of children. The identification of these narratives and rhetorics may assist in developing effective public health messaging campaigns, since narrative and emotion have demonstrated persuasive effectiveness in other public health communication settings.

scholarly journals A topic analysis of traditional and social media news coverage of the early COVID-19 pandemic and implications for public health communication

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Wallace Chipidza ◽  
Elmira Akbaripourdibazar ◽  
Tendai Gwanzura ◽  
Nicole M. Gatto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Cable News ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Pandemic Response

ABSTRACT Objective: To characterize and compare early coverage of COVID-19 in newspapers, television, and social media, and discuss implications for public health communication strategies that are relevant to an initial pandemic response. Methods: Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an unsupervised topic modelling technique, analysis of 3,271 newspaper articles, 40 cable news shows transcripts, 96,000 Twitter posts, and 1,000 Reddit posts during March 4 - 12, 2020, a period chronologically early in the timeframe of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Coverage of COVID-19 clustered on topics such as epidemic, politics, and the economy, and these varied across media sources. Topics dominating news were not predominantly health-related, suggesting a limited presence of public health in news coverage in traditional and social media. Examples of misinformation were identified particularly in social media. Conclusions: Public health entities should utilize communication specialists to create engaging informational content to be shared on social media sites. Public health officials should be attuned to their target audience to anticipate and prevent spread of common myths likely to exist within a population. This may help control misinformation in early stages of pandemics.

scholarly journals Health Pandemic and Social Media: A Content Analysis of COVID-Related Posts on a Telegram Channel With More Than One Million Subscribers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simin Mehdipour ◽  
Nazanin Jannati ◽  
Mozhgan Negarestani ◽  
Saber Amirzadeh ◽  
Sareh Keshvardoost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Health Organizations ◽  
Public Health Emergencies

Background: Mobile-based social media play an important role in the dissemination of information during public health emergencies. Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the contents and trends of public messages posted on Telegram during Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: A content analysis of the 1781 messages, posted in a public Telegram channel with more than one million subscribers performed over 9-weeks. The messages were categorized into seven categories. Results: In total, 39% (n=703) of all messages were related to COVID-19. With the official confirmation of the case of COVID-19 in Iran, the number of COVID-related massages started to rise. Overall, the most frequent messages were of joke and humor (n=292, 41.5%), followed by educational messages (n=140, 19.9%). Conclusion: Our study showed that the most popular messages during first weeks of COVID pandemic were satirical, indicating that people may not had taken the risks of this pandemic seriously. It is crucial for health organizations to develop strategies for dissemination of reliable health information through social media.

scholarly journals Public Health Communication and Engagement on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Teichmann ◽  
Sean Nossek ◽  
Aengus Bridgman ◽  
Peter John Loewen ◽  
Taylor Owen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Government Communication ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Cross Platform ◽  
Method Approach

Social media provides governments the opportunity to directly communicate with their constituents. During a pandemic, reaching as many citizens as possible with health messaging is critical to reducing the spread of the disease. This study evaluates efforts to spread healthcare information by Canadian local, provincial, and federal governments during the first five months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collect all health-related communications coming from government accounts on Facebook and Twitter and analyze the data using a nested mixed method approach. We first identify quantifiable features linked with citizen engagement, before subsequently performing content analysis on outlier posts. We make two critical contributions to existing knowledge about government communication, particularly during public health crises. We identify cross-platform variations in strategy effectiveness and draw attention to specific, evidence-based practices that can increase engagement with government health information.

The role of social influencers for effective public health communication

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiromani Gupta ◽  
Satya Bhusan Dash ◽  
Rachna Mahajan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Persuasive Communication ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Health Related

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to explore the suitability of social media influencers (SMIs) for communicating public health messages via social media platforms. The study identifies key persuasive communication components that influence individuals' attitudes and, subsequently, intentions to follow health-related information shared by SMIs.Design/methodology/approachQualitative interviews with healthcare workers and interactions with 332 active social media users via structured online questionnaires were used for data collection. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse responses.FindingsResults indicate that SMIs' credibility, SMI–individual homophily and quality of information shared by the SMI are the significant factors determining individuals' attitudes towards the information received. Furthermore, the individual's attitude significantly impacts their intention to follow information shared by the SMI. The study thus verifies the mediating role of attitude in persuasive communication.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study can serve as a foundation for future work to examine the suitability of SMIs for tasks other than marketing.Practical implicationsThe study provides insights for planning and implementing SMI-sourced communication in the public health context. The study enhances the understanding of the tested relationships and thereby increases scholars' and practitioners' ability to leverage SMIs for health-related communication.Originality/valueWhilst SMIs are attracting increasing attention in consumer markets, the study suggests that they can be used in public health communication. Considering the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation, the empirical study provides insights into SMIs' role in persuasive public health communication amid a health crisis.Peer reviewThe peer review history for the article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2021-0012

scholarly journals SOCIAL MEDIA LOGIC AND HEALTH COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDEPENDENCE AND CONSTRAINTS: EVIDENCE FROM ITALY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabetta Locatelli ◽  
Alessandro Lovari
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Engagement Strategies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Media Habits ◽  
Local Health Authorities

This paper presents the results of a study that investigated how local health authorities (LHAs) located in the most impacted areas by Covid-19 of Lombardy (North of Italy) answered to the challenges imposed by the pandemic through their official Facebook pages during the early weeks of the emergency (January-March 2020). The goal is to understand how the logics of social media affected LHAs’ communication, representing an opportunity for health institutions to enter a new phase of information diffusion and relations with stakeholders and layperson, but also a mean of constraints due to their algorithmic logics and limits of access. The originality of the approach is that, in order to understand the relationship between social media and local health authorities, the theoretical framework hybridizes health communication theories and social media studies. Empirical results showed that LHAs’ communication on Facebook was affected by the logics of programmability and popularity, and also that the institutional language was shaped by social media habits, with an intense use of visuals, hashtags and other engagement strategies. Findings highlighted also that Covid-19 related messaged triggered users’ interactions. The study pointed out the relevance of social media for healthcare communication, opening up new reflections and insights about platforms’ role on ordinary and emergency situations like the pandemic. Interdependence and tensions between public health communication and algorithmic and platform logics are critically discussed.

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