When people are faced by a novel health threat, what effects do coverage in the news media and social media chatter have on risk perceptions and behavior?
The answer varies, as shown in the first study to directly examine the difference in impact of social and legacy media on risk perceptions for an infectious disease. The research, based on media messages and extensive survey data, finds that traditional news accounts and Twitter messages had different associations with risk perceptions and behavior during the 2016 U.S. Zika virus outbreak.
Twitter appears to act as an alarm, alerting people to a danger, and an increase in tweets correlated with an increase in people feeling at risk of getting Zika, the researchers found. By contrast, traditional news coverage appeared to serve as a “how-to” guide in instructing people how to respond; an increase in news stories about Zika correlated with people taking steps to protect themselves.
The study, by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was published online this month in the journal Social Science & Medicine.
Read more at the Annenberg Public Policy Center website.
