Health and health-related behaviours are embedded in social contexts in various ways which comprise both risks and opportunities for health communication. We propose a research agenda on social aspects of health communication and introduce the articles of the present special issue. Owing to the complexity of individuals’ social contexts, the research agenda addresses questions lying at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. The issue’s articles cover different and highly relevant questions of this research agenda, ranging from stigmatisation to impression management to collective action and from experimental designs to qualitative interviews and netnography. In sum, the articles demonstrate not only the diversity but also the relevance of academic research on social aspects of health communication. We expect that this topic will continue gaining importance, given the ongoing digitalisation of the media environment and the increasing interconnectedness of producers and users, doctors and patients, and experts and laypersons.
{"title":"Social Aspects of Health Communication – Towards a Research Agenda","authors":"Sarah Geber, Tobias Frey, Thomas N. Friemel","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.200","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.200","url":null,"abstract":"Health and health-related behaviours are embedded in social contexts in various ways which comprise both risks and opportunities for health communication. We propose a research agenda on social aspects of health communication and introduce the articles of the present special issue. Owing to the complexity of individuals’ social contexts, the research agenda addresses questions lying at the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels. The issue’s articles cover different and highly relevant questions of this research agenda, ranging from stigmatisation to impression management to collective action and from experimental designs to qualitative interviews and netnography. In sum, the articles demonstrate not only the diversity but also the relevance of academic research on social aspects of health communication. We expect that this topic will continue gaining importance, given the ongoing digitalisation of the media environment and the increasing interconnectedness of producers and users, doctors and patients, and experts and laypersons.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132875733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The stigmatisation of people with mental illness has severe negative consequences for affected individuals. As research in the context of exemplification theory (Zillmann & Brosius, 2000) shows, single-case descriptions of affected individuals (i.e., exemplars) have the potential to either strengthen or reduce stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental illness, in general. We examine the role of depicting social support for exemplars with mental illness (i.e., depression), exemplars’ age and sex as well as characteristics of the potential stigmatisers (e.g., sex, relationship status) in generalised stigma-related attitudes towards people with mental illness. A 2 × 2 × 2 online survey experiment with 854 participants was conducted. Univariate ANOVAs yielded main effects and complex interaction patterns of participants’ sex and relationship status, as well as combinations of exemplar characteristics. Overall, our results confirm the influence that single-case descriptions can have upon generalised stigma-related attitudes towards people with mental illness. They underline the potential of depicting social support for exemplars with mental illness as well as the consideration of potential stigmatisers’ sex and relationship status for (de-)stigmatisation and give starting points for future research in the field of health and anti-stigma-communication.
{"title":"The Influence of Social Support and Characteristics of the Stigmatisers on Stigmatising Attitudes Towards People With Mental Illness","authors":"Michélle Möhring, Natascha Katharina Krick, Anika Ditze","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.204","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.204","url":null,"abstract":"The stigmatisation of people with mental illness has severe negative consequences for affected individuals. As research in the context of exemplification theory (Zillmann & Brosius, 2000) shows, single-case descriptions of affected individuals (i.e., exemplars) have the potential to either strengthen or reduce stigmatising attitudes towards people with mental illness, in general. We examine the role of depicting social support for exemplars with mental illness (i.e., depression), exemplars’ age and sex as well as characteristics of the potential stigmatisers (e.g., sex, relationship status) in generalised stigma-related attitudes towards people with mental illness. A 2 × 2 × 2 online survey experiment with 854 participants was conducted. Univariate ANOVAs yielded main effects and complex interaction patterns of participants’ sex and relationship status, as well as combinations of exemplar characteristics. Overall, our results confirm the influence that single-case descriptions can have upon generalised stigma-related attitudes towards people with mental illness. They underline the potential of depicting social support for exemplars with mental illness as well as the consideration of potential stigmatisers’ sex and relationship status for (de-)stigmatisation and give starting points for future research in the field of health and anti-stigma-communication.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115405582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fam Te Poel, A. Linn, Susanne E. Baumgartner, L. van Dijk, E. Smit
During a pandemic outbreak, timely and accurate information that matches the information needs of the public is vital to inform the public. In April 2020, 977 individuals completed a questionnaire that measured the Dutch public’s health information needs and media consumption during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. Results show that respondents sought information about prevention of contamination, (the severity of) symptoms, treatment, and vaccination. News outlets, both online and offline, were the most preferred sources for information. Older people were more likely to search for information in traditional media, such as on TV, in newspapers, and on the radio. Younger people more often used news websites to find information. Respondents with lower levels of education obtained information via TV more frequently than respondents with higher levels of education, who in turn used newspapers more frequently. This study, guided by the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, was conducted during the early stages of the pandemic in the Netherlands to provide information that public health officials and governments can use to optimise information provision during pandemics. Presently, news media have the highest degree of coverage and impact and should thus be used first to convey reliable information.
{"title":"Sick for Information?","authors":"Fam Te Poel, A. Linn, Susanne E. Baumgartner, L. van Dijk, E. Smit","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.302","url":null,"abstract":"During a pandemic outbreak, timely and accurate information that matches the information needs of the public is vital to inform the public. In April 2020, 977 individuals completed a questionnaire that measured the Dutch public’s health information needs and media consumption during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak. Results show that respondents sought information about prevention of contamination, (the severity of) symptoms, treatment, and vaccination. News outlets, both online and offline, were the most preferred sources for information. Older people were more likely to search for information in traditional media, such as on TV, in newspapers, and on the radio. Younger people more often used news websites to find information. Respondents with lower levels of education obtained information via TV more frequently than respondents with higher levels of education, who in turn used newspapers more frequently. This study, guided by the Risk Information Seeking and Processing (RISP) model, was conducted during the early stages of the pandemic in the Netherlands to provide information that public health officials and governments can use to optimise information provision during pandemics. Presently, news media have the highest degree of coverage and impact and should thus be used first to convey reliable information.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"92 8","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113933045","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Huisman, Eduard Cuelenaere, Stijn Joye, D. Biltereyst
As a much-used data collection method in qualitative research, interviewing is a primary way to make sense of social life. However, critics point out that interviews are often used uncritically and unreflectively, without considering epistemological foundations and self-presentation efforts by interviewees. By way of a two-step, theory-driven qualitative thematic analysis, this study examines how Belgian middle-aged and older adults (51-79 years old) construct their self-identity in research interviews as sensible internet users with regards to online health information (OHI) and their motivations for doing so. The findings are underpinned by a theoretical framework which enhances impression management (IM) theory with the third-person effect (TPE). The study finds that respondents engage in various IM behaviours, including instances of the TPE, to maximise positive impressions and minimise negative impressions. Through IM, interviewees 1) respond to critical questions; 2) proactively demonstrate knowledge, accomplishments, and positive outcomes; 3) compare and distance oneself from others; and 4) communicate limitations and offer external explanations. The findings contribute to the scant literature on IM in research interviews and among older adults and carry various implications for the field of health communication and beyond, such as the importance of critically reflecting on interviewing and going beyond the face value of the data.
{"title":"Sensible Use(rs) and the Construction of Self-Identity in Research Interviews","authors":"M. Huisman, Eduard Cuelenaere, Stijn Joye, D. Biltereyst","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.203","url":null,"abstract":"As a much-used data collection method in qualitative research, interviewing is a primary way to make sense of social life. However, critics point out that interviews are often used uncritically and unreflectively, without considering epistemological foundations and self-presentation efforts by interviewees. By way of a two-step, theory-driven qualitative thematic analysis, this study examines how Belgian middle-aged and older adults (51-79 years old) construct their self-identity in research interviews as sensible internet users with regards to online health information (OHI) and their motivations for doing so. The findings are underpinned by a theoretical framework which enhances impression management (IM) theory with the third-person effect (TPE). The study finds that respondents engage in various IM behaviours, including instances of the TPE, to maximise positive impressions and minimise negative impressions. Through IM, interviewees 1) respond to critical questions; 2) proactively demonstrate knowledge, accomplishments, and positive outcomes; 3) compare and distance oneself from others; and 4) communicate limitations and offer external explanations. The findings contribute to the scant literature on IM in research interviews and among older adults and carry various implications for the field of health communication and beyond, such as the importance of critically reflecting on interviewing and going beyond the face value of the data.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124735391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christina Leuker, Nadine Fleischhut, R. Hertwig, A. Kozyreva, John Gubernath
During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens have been exposed to vast amounts of mis- and disinformation. This “infodemic” has undermined key behavioural and pharmacological measures to contain the pandemic—for instance, by increasing vaccine hesitancy. In a cross-sectional survey of residents of Germany, we investigated citizens’ perceptions of and ability to deal with misinformation across three Waves of data collection in 2020/21 (Ntotal = 3324). We observed three main results. First, there was a strong increase in the perceived prevalence of misinformation in classic and online media and in social interactions over the course of the pandemic. Second, some—but by no means all—respondents knew how to identify misinformation. Third, higher susceptibility to misinformation was associated with support for the far-right AFD party, reliance on tabloids, neighbours and social media for information and news, lower education, as well as migration background. To help people navigate the challenges of the infodemic, we propose a two-pronged approach, namely, to boost individuals’ abilities to discern false from accurate information, and to enrich citizens’ proximate environments (e.g., neighbourhoods with high rates of migration) with reliable, accessible and high-quality information.
{"title":"Misinformation in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Christina Leuker, Nadine Fleischhut, R. Hertwig, A. Kozyreva, John Gubernath","doi":"10.31234/osf.io/cw2jn","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/cw2jn","url":null,"abstract":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens have been exposed to vast amounts of mis- and disinformation. This “infodemic” has undermined key behavioural and pharmacological measures to contain the pandemic—for instance, by increasing vaccine hesitancy. In a cross-sectional survey of residents of Germany, we investigated citizens’ perceptions of and ability to deal with misinformation across three Waves of data collection in 2020/21 (Ntotal = 3324). We observed three main results. First, there was a strong increase in the perceived prevalence of misinformation in classic and online media and in social interactions over the course of the pandemic. Second, some—but by no means all—respondents knew how to identify misinformation. Third, higher susceptibility to misinformation was associated with support for the far-right AFD party, reliance on tabloids, neighbours and social media for information and news, lower education, as well as migration background. To help people navigate the challenges of the infodemic, we propose a two-pronged approach, namely, to boost individuals’ abilities to discern false from accurate information, and to enrich citizens’ proximate environments (e.g., neighbourhoods with high rates of migration) with reliable, accessible and high-quality information.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125743050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
HPVs (Human Papilloma Viruses) are the cause of several diseases and types of cancer, but infections can be prevented through a vaccine that children are recommended to receive when they are about 12 years of age. Communicating with children about HPV is an important albeit underdeveloped task. This is especially critical in countries such as Italy, were the HPV vaccination rate is dropping. To understand Italian middle-school children’s communication challenges, needs and preferences, and to provide evidence to inform the development of targeted and culturally-sensitive messages about HPV for them, this study adopted a multi-method participatory approach consisting of focus group discussions and participatory drawings. Results indicated that children (N = 54) wanted to be actively engaged in decisions about their health but faced several communication challenges, including adults’ language and attitude. Children struggled to retrieve reliable information on their own. They provided specific information on the sources and the strategies they would want adults to adopt. Results helped to identify positive and negative behaviours among these themes, as well as key resources to be leveraged in the development of HPV-related messages. The communication strategies identified in this study may help parents, healthcare providers, and caregivers to improve their communication with children.
{"title":"Formative Research to Create Culturally Sensitive HPV Vaccine Messages for Middle-School Children","authors":"A. Occa, Sarah Julien-Bell","doi":"10.47368/EJHC.2021.104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/EJHC.2021.104","url":null,"abstract":"HPVs (Human Papilloma Viruses) are the cause of several diseases and types of cancer, but infections can be prevented through a vaccine that children are recommended to receive when they are about 12 years of age. Communicating with children about HPV is an important albeit underdeveloped task. This is especially critical in countries such as Italy, were the HPV vaccination rate is dropping. To understand Italian middle-school children’s communication challenges, needs and preferences, and to provide evidence to inform the development of targeted and culturally-sensitive messages about HPV for them, this study adopted a multi-method participatory approach consisting of focus group discussions and participatory drawings. Results indicated that children (N = 54) wanted to be actively engaged in decisions about their health but faced several communication challenges, including adults’ language and attitude. Children struggled to retrieve reliable information on their own. They provided specific information on the sources and the strategies they would want adults to adopt. Results helped to identify positive and negative behaviours among these themes, as well as key resources to be leveraged in the development of HPV-related messages. The communication strategies identified in this study may help parents, healthcare providers, and caregivers to improve their communication with children.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126311671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Aphasia is a language impairment caused by acquired brain injury such as stroke. Public awareness about aphasia is low in Sweden as well as internationally. The media is an important source of information on aphasia, but research on how people with aphasia are portrayed in the media is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to increase the knowledge about media representations of people living with aphasia, by studying Swedish journalistic newspaper articles. It focused on stories in which people with aphasia were included in the discussion rather than merely being the subject of the discussion. Drawing on framing theory and Frank’s typology of narrative types, a qualitative ethnographic content analysis was conducted. Swedish print media material published between 2007 and 2018 was collected and 84 articles were identified for inclusion in the analysis. The overall finding was that, within Swedish journalistic newspaper articles, living with aphasia is framed as a success story. Themes and sub-themes were identified within each narrative type, and we suggest expanding Frank’s typology with humour narratives and necessity narratives. Although several narrative types were identified in the studied articles, the overarching success story frame was predominant.
{"title":"Success Stories","authors":"Helena Taubner, Malin Hallén","doi":"10.47368/EJHC.2021.103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/EJHC.2021.103","url":null,"abstract":"Aphasia is a language impairment caused by acquired brain injury such as stroke. Public awareness about aphasia is low in Sweden as well as internationally. The media is an important source of information on aphasia, but research on how people with aphasia are portrayed in the media is scarce. Therefore, this study aimed to increase the knowledge about media representations of people living with aphasia, by studying Swedish journalistic newspaper articles. It focused on stories in which people with aphasia were included in the discussion rather than merely being the subject of the discussion. Drawing on framing theory and Frank’s typology of narrative types, a qualitative ethnographic content analysis was conducted. Swedish print media material published between 2007 and 2018 was collected and 84 articles were identified for inclusion in the analysis. The overall finding was that, within Swedish journalistic newspaper articles, living with aphasia is framed as a success story. Themes and sub-themes were identified within each narrative type, and we suggest expanding Frank’s typology with humour narratives and necessity narratives. Although several narrative types were identified in the studied articles, the overarching success story frame was predominant.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116284872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Thomas N. Friemel, Sarah Geber, Nico Pfiffner, J. V. van Weert, G. de Bruijn, D. Reifegerste
A decade ago, health communication research in Europe was still considered an emerging field. Today, in response to the assiduous efforts of European researchers and scholars, we are proud to present the European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC). As the first journal that is explicitly dedicated to European health communication research, EJHC can be regarded as a further milestone in the establishment of our discipline in Europe. EJHC is based on the principles of open science by making publications openly available without imposing any charges on readers or authors and providing alternatives to the traditional review and publication process. With this editorial, we want to introduce EJHC as a European journal, emphasise the arguments for the set-up of EJHC as a platinum open access journal, illustrate our efforts to improve academic publishing with various innovations, and present the people behind EJHC.
{"title":"A European Journal of Health Communication in the Age of Open Science","authors":"Thomas N. Friemel, Sarah Geber, Nico Pfiffner, J. V. van Weert, G. de Bruijn, D. Reifegerste","doi":"10.47368/EJHC.2020.001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/EJHC.2020.001","url":null,"abstract":"A decade ago, health communication research in Europe was still considered an emerging field. Today, in response to the assiduous efforts of European researchers and scholars, we are proud to present the European Journal of Health Communication (EJHC). As the first journal that is explicitly dedicated to European health communication research, EJHC can be regarded as a further milestone in the establishment of our discipline in Europe. EJHC is based on the principles of open science by making publications openly available without imposing any charges on readers or authors and providing alternatives to the traditional review and publication process. With this editorial, we want to introduce EJHC as a European journal, emphasise the arguments for the set-up of EJHC as a platinum open access journal, illustrate our efforts to improve academic publishing with various innovations, and present the people behind EJHC.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122002977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social networking sites have become increasingly important for self-diagnosis and obtaining health information, which are particularly relevant in the context of a lack of care. Their structures can further encourage the politicisation of health topics, as they offer a space for the production of crowdsourced knowledge and the amplification of activist content. Hence, it is important to examine how online discourse shapes the decision-making of specific patient groups. This article uses the conceptual lenses of health activism, connective action, and politicised illness identity to investigate health-related decision-making of people with thyroid disease. Drawing on a participatory netnography within activist spaces and 33 in-depth interviews, the study identifies contemporary decision-making paradigms and discusses the role of connective action and politicisation in this context. A typology based on salient strategic themes of decision-making is proposed. The results provide valuable input for researchers of illness identities, as well as practitioners who need to consider different patient types. They contribute to the study of socio-political dimensions of health and an increasingly important discourse that has so far been under-investigated by health communication research.
{"title":"Health-Related Decision-Making of People with Thyroid Disease","authors":"Judith Schossböck","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.202","url":null,"abstract":"Social networking sites have become increasingly important for self-diagnosis and obtaining health information, which are particularly relevant in the context of a lack of care. Their structures can further encourage the politicisation of health topics, as they offer a space for the production of crowdsourced knowledge and the amplification of activist content. Hence, it is important to examine how online discourse shapes the decision-making of specific patient groups. This article uses the conceptual lenses of health activism, connective action, and politicised illness identity to investigate health-related decision-making of people with thyroid disease. Drawing on a participatory netnography within activist spaces and 33 in-depth interviews, the study identifies contemporary decision-making paradigms and discusses the role of connective action and politicisation in this context. A typology based on salient strategic themes of decision-making is proposed. The results provide valuable input for researchers of illness identities, as well as practitioners who need to consider different patient types. They contribute to the study of socio-political dimensions of health and an increasingly important discourse that has so far been under-investigated by health communication research.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127833671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While extraordinary events like pandemics may prompt an increase in information-seeking behaviour, such trends are unlikely to be sustainable. Over time, issue fatigue/overdose is expected to set in. This study employed generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs) to determine whether attention to TV news corresponded with real-world developments. We sought to predict news use in Germany during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic based on disease occurrence next to two well-established predictors of news use (total TV use and day of the week). The association of key events with news use was also assessed. Initially, news use increased with disease occurrence. However, as the pandemic progressed, the linkage between the two variables weakened considerably, suggesting the onset of a habituation effect. Some support emerged for the idea that key events increased news use. Overall, our results are more in line with the explanation provided by agenda-setting theory and various information-seeking models than with the notion of coping through information avoidance. Thus, how the pandemic progresses appears to be a good predictor of news use at the aggregate level, although its predictive power decreases over time.
{"title":"The Onset of Habituation Effects","authors":"Viorela Dan, H. Brosius","doi":"10.47368/ejhc.2021.303","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.47368/ejhc.2021.303","url":null,"abstract":"While extraordinary events like pandemics may prompt an increase in information-seeking behaviour, such trends are unlikely to be sustainable. Over time, issue fatigue/overdose is expected to set in. This study employed generalised additive mixed models (GAMMs) to determine whether attention to TV news corresponded with real-world developments. We sought to predict news use in Germany during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic based on disease occurrence next to two well-established predictors of news use (total TV use and day of the week). The association of key events with news use was also assessed. Initially, news use increased with disease occurrence. However, as the pandemic progressed, the linkage between the two variables weakened considerably, suggesting the onset of a habituation effect. Some support emerged for the idea that key events increased news use. Overall, our results are more in line with the explanation provided by agenda-setting theory and various information-seeking models than with the notion of coping through information avoidance. Thus, how the pandemic progresses appears to be a good predictor of news use at the aggregate level, although its predictive power decreases over time.","PeriodicalId":358828,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Health Communication","volume":"109 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"113969195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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