Qualitative analysis of visual risk communication on twitter during the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background The Covid-19 pandemic is characterized by uncertainty and constant change, forcing governments and health authorities to ramp up risk communication efforts. Consequently, visuality and social media platforms like Twitter have come to play a vital role in disseminating prevention messages widely. Yet to date, only little is known about what characterizes visual risk communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. To address this gap in the literature, this study’s objective was to determine how visual risk communication was used on Twitter to promote the World Health Organisations (WHO) recommended preventative behaviours and how this communication changed over time. Methods We sourced Twitter’s 500 most retweeted Covid-19 messages for each month from January–October 2020 using Crowdbreaks. For inclusion, tweets had to have visuals, be in English, come from verified accounts, and contain one of the keywords ‘covid19’, ‘coronavirus’, ‘corona’, or ‘covid’. Following a retrospective approach, we then performed a qualitative content analysis of the 616 tweets meeting inclusion criteria. Results Our results show communication dynamics changed over the course of the pandemic. At the start, most retweeted preventative messages came from the media and health and government institutions, but overall, personal accounts with many followers (51.3%) predominated, and their tweets had the highest spread (10.0%, i.e., retweet count divided by followers). Messages used mostly photographs and images were found to be rich with information. 78.1% of Tweets contained 1–2 preventative messages, whereby ‘stay home’ and ‘wear a mask’ frequented most. Although more tweets used health loss framing, health gain messages spread more. Conclusion Our findings can inform the didactics of future crisis communication. The results underscore the value of engaging individuals, particularly influencers, as advocates to spread health risk messages and promote solidarity. Further, our findings on the visual characteristic of the most retweeted tweets highlight factors that health and government organisations should consider when creating visual health messages for Twitter. However, that more tweets used the emotive medium of photographs often combined with health loss framing raises concerns about persuasive tactics. More research is needed to understand the implications of framing and its impact on public perceptions and behaviours.

Investigating #covidnurse Messages on TikTok: Descriptive Study (Preprint)

“…This finding seems inconsistent with others who have reported the importance of websites and social media as a health information resource during the pandemic [23]. Even more compelling is the notion that visual or illustrated health messages posted on platforms such as TikTok can reach and impact audiences with diverse health and digital health literacy skills; visual messaging can help to engage hard to reach people, contributing to information equity [24]. In our study, there were limited mentions of COVID-19 vaccines and no mention of misinformation.…”

Investigating #covidnurse Messages on TikTok: Descriptive Study

“…This finding seems inconsistent with others who have reported the importance of websites and social media as a health information resource during the pandemic [ 23 ]. Even more compelling is the notion that visual or illustrated health messages posted on platforms such as TikTok can reach and impact audiences with diverse health and digital health literacy skills; visual messaging can help to engage hard to reach people, contributing to information equity [ 24 ]. In our study, there were limited mentions of COVID-19 vaccines and no mention of misinformation.…”

Prevalence of complementary and alternative medicine despite limited perceived efficacy in patients with rheumatic diseases in Mexico: Cross-sectional study

“…If we accept this, we deny (at least partially) the role of scientific work and the need for scientific evidence in establishing therapeutics. In the era of the coronavirus disease pandemic, we have witnessed a widespread resistance to both scientific knowledge and lack of respect and recognition of the indications of formal authorities [ 56 – 60 ], including the WHO. In particular, with the widespread use of social media, the voices of unprepared, unaccountable influencers successfully challenge the official statements from highly trained health professionals [ 58 – 60 ].…”