Viruses Going Viral: Impact of Fear-Arousing Sensationalist Social Media Messages on User Engagement

Ali, Khudejah; Zain-ul-abdin, Khawaja; Liu, Cong; Johns, Lisa; Ali, Ayesha; Carcioppolo, Nicholas

doi:10.1177/1075547019846124

Cited by 51 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…The mass media contributed greatly to risk perceptions, especially for those risk situations in which individuals do not have first-hand experience or adequate and sufficient knowledge, so that they seek, in the mass media, information necessary to resolve uncertainty and confusion. In cases as such one, the mass media serves as a ‘social amplification’ since they allow people both to learn about the risk message and interpret it (Social Amplification of Risk Framework; Kasperson et al, 1988 ), hence the mass media amplify or weaken the public’s perception of risk ( Chong and Choy, 2018 ; Ali et al, 2019 ). Our finding might be understood by considering that the real risk and threat perceived by people was the limited sense of predictability and controllability assigned to the whole situation, rather than the virus per se ( Flesia et al, 2020 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Perceptions and Psychological Effects During the Italian COVID-19 Emergency

et al. 2020

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The current study provides data about the immediate risk perceptions and psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic among Italian participants. A sample of 980 volunteers answered a web-based survey which aimed to investigate the many facets of risk perceptions connected to COVID-19 (health, work, institutionaleconomy, interpersonal and psychological), and risk-related variables such as perceived knowledge, news seeking, perceived control, perceived efficacy of containment measures, and affective states. Socio-demographic characteristics were also collected. Results showed that although levels of general concern are relatively high among Italians, risk perceptions are highest with regards to the institutional-economy and work, and lowest concerning health. COVID-19 has been also estimated to be the least likely cause of death. Cognitive and affective risk-related variables contributed to explain the several risk perception domains differently. COVID-19 perceived knowledge did not affect any risk perception while the perceived control decreased health risk likelihood. The other risk-related variables amplified risk perceptions: News seeking increased work and institutional-economy risk; perceived efficacy of containment measures increased almost all perceived risks; negative affective states of fear, anger and sadness increased health risk; anxiety increased health, interpersonal and psychological risks, and uncertainty increased work, institutional-economy, interpersonal and psychological risk perceptions. Finally, positive affective states increased health risk perception. Socio-psychological implications are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk Perceptions and Psychological Effects During the Italian COVID-19 Emergency

et al. 2020

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“…Therefore, the relationship between fear and behavior is inverted U-shaped [63]. The significant effect of fear on preventive behavior has been demonstrated in many studies [64,65]. The very recent research has proved that when there is no alternative (such as an unexpected outbreak of an infectious disease), a high level of fear will encourage preventive behavior [21].…”

Section: Hypothesis 4 (H4a) Negative Emotions Have a Positive Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring How Media Influence Preventive Behavior and Excessive Preventive Intention during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Liu

Xie

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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In the context of global fighting against the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, how to promote the public implementation of preventive behavior is the top priority of pandemic prevention and control. This study aimed at probing how the media would affect the public’s preventive behavior and excessive preventive intention accordingly. Data were collected from 653 respondents in the Chinese mainland through online questionnaires and further analyzed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Taking risk perception, negative emotions, and subjective norms as mediators, this study explored the impact of mass media exposure and social networking services involvement on preventive behavior and excessive preventive intention. Based on differences in the severity of the pandemic, the samples were divided into the Wuhan group and other regions group for multi-group comparison. The results showed that mass media exposure had a significant positive impact on subjective norms; moreover, mass media exposure could significantly enhance preventive behavior through subjective norms, and social networking services involvement had a significant positive impact on negative emotions; meanwhile, social networking services involvement promoted excessive preventive intention through negative emotions.

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“…By monitoring, one can come to understand the platforms that are used to look for information (Fung et al, 2016), and to what extent platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, Weibo, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Flickr are used and by which audience. Also, monitoring gives an insight into the accompanying level of emotions such as fear and anger (Oh, Lee, & Han, 2020), and sensationalism (Ali et al, 2019). Sense making based on real-time monitoring gives crisis communication professionals a head-start to understand what people believe and set up rumor-rebuttal response strategies and (Avery, 2017;Cheng & Lee, 2019) and how they value the role of science and technology as an authoritative source (Garcia, 2014).…”

Section: Domain I: Sense Making In Times Of Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating Crisis Communication. A 30-item Checklist for Assessing Performance during COVID-19 and Other Pandemics

Jong

2020

Journal of Health Communication

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The primary objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual checklist to assess crisis communication efforts during pandemics and in their aftermath. No consolidated checklist exists for assessing the effectiveness of crisis communication at all levels during pandemics. A literature review was conducted, encompassing articles on crisis communication during SARS, swine flu, H1N1, ZIKA, Ebola, and/or COVID-19. Based on the review, a comprehensive checklist was developed to enable researchers and evaluators to assess and review all important aspects of crisis communication during pandemics. The final Assessment tool for Crisis Communication during Pandemics (ACCP) consists of 30 criteria. Further research is suggested to validate the checklist. The global COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis of unprecedented proportions. The crisis arrived in full view, yet it caught everyone off guard: politicians, hospital administrators, pundits, business owners, and the general population (Boin, Ekengren, & Rhinard, 2020). What distinguishes a pandemic from other crises are its characteristics as a "long wave event" (McInnes & Hornmoen, 2018). Where crises such as a major fire or airplane crash are over within a few hours or days, COVID-19 is, at the time of writing, an ongoing crisis that has generated widespread socioeconomic impact. Insight into how governments, citizens, businesses, and media have communicated during the pandemic may help to improve our learning from this crisis and support preparation for future pandemics. Countries on all continents have placed their citizens under various forms of lockdown during COVID-19, implementing measures from the obligation to wear face masks and maintain distance from others, to quarantines and school closures. Similar to earlier pandemics (Abraham, 2011), the initial need is for clear communication on what the public needs to do to reduce transmission as well as treatment advice. Everywhere, crisis communication is used as a public health intervention to inform and advise the public on necessary measures to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as COVID-19 progresses around the world, communication efforts are also needed in terms of citizens' resilience, (national) public leadership, and in communicating with stakeholders whose businesses are closed or suffering from lockdown situations. At the same time, we have observed public leaders around the world who did not agree with the measures proposed by experts. US President Trump and Brazilian president Bolsonaro are examples of public leaders who consistently underplayed the messaging of experts with regard to social distancing and the wearing of face masks,

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Viruses Going Viral: Impact of Fear-Arousing Sensationalist Social Media Messages on User Engagement

Cited by 51 publications

References 79 publications

Risk Perceptions and Psychological Effects During the Italian COVID-19 Emergency

Risk Perceptions and Psychological Effects During the Italian COVID-19 Emergency

Exploring How Media Influence Preventive Behavior and Excessive Preventive Intention during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

Evaluating Crisis Communication. A 30-item Checklist for Assessing Performance during COVID-19 and Other Pandemics

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