Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Sep:212:50-59.
doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.007. Epub 2018 Jul 5.

Legacy and social media respectively influence risk perceptions and protective behaviors during emerging health threats: A multi-wave analysis of communications on Zika virus cases

Man-Pui Sally Chan  1 , Kenneth Winneg  2 , Lauren Hawkins  2 , Mohsen Farhadloo  3 , Kathleen Hall Jamieson  2 , Dolores Albarracín  4
Affiliations

Legacy and social media respectively influence risk perceptions and protective behaviors during emerging health threats: A multi-wave analysis of communications on Zika virus cases

Man-Pui Sally Chan et al. Soc Sci Med. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Objective: Both legacy media, such as television and newspapers, and online social media are potentially important but incompletely understood sources of information in the face of emerging public health risks. This research aimed to understand media effects on risk perceptions and behaviors concerning the Zika virus in the United States.

Methods: We analyzed a multi-wave nationally representative survey (N = 29,062) and the volume of communications in social and legacy media (i.e., legacy media data from news sources and databases, N = 2,660 and social media data from Twitter, N = 1,605,752) in the United States between April and October 2016, dates coinciding with the early cases of local transmission of Zika in the United States (i.e., 25 weeks). The present study conducted econometric analyses (i.e., Granger causality tests) to assess the associations of legacy and social media coverage with risk perceptions and protective behaviors in the total sample and specific groups separated by pregnancy status/intent, geographic region, income, education level, age, and ethnicity.

Results: The results from the overall sample suggested that changes in the volume of information in legacy and social media (i.e., Twitter) were followed by different changes in community risk perceptions and protective behaviors. Specifically, social media coverage correlated with the level of risk perceptions, whereas the legacy media coverage correlated with the level of protective behaviors. Analyses across different subpopulations, including those of different pregnancy status/intent, geographic Zika risk, income, education level, age, and ethnicity, replicated the social media associations with risk perceptions in most cases. However, legacy media and protective behaviors were linked only in some vulnerable subpopulations (e.g., the less-educated populations).

Conclusion: Understanding how media coverage relates to Zika risk perceptions and protective behaviors will help to facilitate effective risk communications by healthcare professionals and providers, particularly when a health risk emerges.

Keywords: Communication; Legacy media; Protective behaviors; Risk perceptions; Social media; USA; Zika.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Overall risk perceptions and protective behaviors with social media (upper panel) and legacy media (bottom panel) for 25 waves. Risk perceptions and protective behaviors are plotted on the left y-axis and the media is plotted on the right y-axis.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Decision trees for social media (left panel) and legacy media (right panel) in different populations. A cross denotes the p-values of the unstandardized coefficients were ≤.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Albarracín D., Chan M.S., Jiang D. Handbook of Personality and Social Psychology. 2017. Attitudes and attitude change: social and personality considerations.
    1. Albarracín D., Kumkale G.T., Vento P.P.-D. How people can become persuaded by weak messages presented by credible communicators: not all sleeper effects are created equal. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 2017;68:171–180. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2016.06.009. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bass S.B., Ruzek S.B., Gordon T.F., Fleisher L., McKeown-Conn N., Moore D. Relationship of internet health information use with patient behavior and self-efficacy: experiences of newly diagnosed cancer patients who contact the national cancer institute's cancer information service. J. Health Commun. 2006;11:219–236. doi: 10.1080/10810730500526794. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Becker M.H. The health belief model and sick role behavior. Health Educ. Monogr. 1974;2:409–419. doi: 10.1177/109019817400200407. - DOI
    1. Brown V.J. Risk perception: it's personal. Environ. Health Perspect. 2014;122:A276–A279. doi: 10.1289/ehp.122-A276. - DOI - PMC - PubMed