RAPID/Collaborative Research: Agency COVID-19 Risk Communication on Social Media: Characterizing Drivers of Message Retransmission and Engagement

RAPID/协作研究：社交媒体上的机构 COVID-19 风险沟通：描述消息转发和参与的驱动因素

• 批准号: 2027399
• 负责人: Jeannette Sutton
• 金额: $ 9.32万
• 依托单位: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-05-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2027399&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Collaborative; Research; Agency; COVID

Public health and emergency management agencies are on the front lines of informing and educating the public about the science of virus transmission and prevention. In response to a threat such as COVID-19, their mission requires the communication of accurate and credible information to local populations using a variety of media channels. Increasingly, social media is a critical component of their communication toolbox - but using it to rapidly and effectively inform the public in a crowded media environment remains a significant challenge. In prior work on online communication associated with the Zika and Ebola outbreaks, the PIs established that effective messaging depended upon employing a combination of content, style, and structure features - but that the right mix seemed to depend upon properties of the disease event (including the uncertainty and ambiguity of the threat, the nature of the consequences involved, and the need for public information). COVID-19 poses a distinct risk profile, with a disruption potential to the American public and the built environment not seen by any threat within decades. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) project will identify the key drivers of effective messaging in an emerging pandemic, and strategies for improving effectiveness in social media communication involving COVID-19 by public agencies. The specific focus will be on the outcomes of message retransmission (essential for both high levels of message penetration and ensuring multiple exposures critical for behavioral influence) and engagement (a critical indicator of attention and a driver of trust), both of which are measurable and established as core outcomes in prior studies of effective social media communication. By establishing evidence-based guidance for agencies to effectively warn, inform, and engage the general public during an emerging pandemic, this project will provide critical guidance needed to mount effective interventions that save lives, reduce economic losses, and protect the security of the nation against health threats, in alignment with the broader mission of the NSF.This objective will be pursued through the following core activities: (1) collection of perishable social media data on COVID-19 messaging by public agencies, and public engagement with/retransmission of those messages; (2) content coding of COVID-19 messages, to typologize information that is specific to the present event; (3) characterization of messaging strategies used by public agencies in the evolving COVID-19 response; (4) predictive analysis of message outcomes based on message context, content, style, and structure; and (5) development of evidence-based guidance for effective social media messaging by public agencies in response to this and similar events. This research strategy builds on successful prior work in response to emergent infectious disease threats and in the context of anthropogenic and natural hazard events. The intellectual merit of the research includes: Risk communication messages on social media are real time traces of online in/formal communication shared under conditions of imminent and ongoing threat; Research on communication and messaging dynamics online provides insights into the social amplification of risk, via diffusion of information; and strategies to design effective messages. This project will test the risk communication on social media model in response to a global pandemic by analyzing official communication from state, local, and national public health and emergency management Twitter accounts. The findings from this work will lead to the further development and refinement of the social amplification of risk framework and the risk communication on social media model. The broader impacts of this work most prominently include the accumulation of an evidence base for social media messaging, as noted above. This research will have immediate benefits to organizations and agencies tasked with communicating to at risk populations about emergent infectious disease in the context of the built environment. Our findings will inform the design and dissemination of risk communication messages and will be immediately applicable to public health and safety organizations in the context of COVID-19. Results will be shared via fact sheets, webinars, published papers, and presentations with academic and practitioner audiences.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

公共卫生和应急管理机构处于向公众介绍病毒传播和预防科学的前线。为了应对诸如Covid-19的威胁，他们的使命要求使用各种媒体渠道向当地人群进行准确和可信的信息。越来越多的社交媒体是他们交流工具箱的关键组成部分 - 但使用它来快速有效地在拥挤的媒体环境中向公众告知公众仍然是一个重大挑战。 在与寨卡和埃博拉病毒爆发相关的在线沟通的先前工作中，PIS确定有效的消息依赖于采用内容，样式和结构特征的组合 - 但是正确的组合似乎取决于疾病事件的特性（包括威胁的不确定性和含糊，涉及后果的性质以及公众信息的需求）。 Covid-19提出了独特的风险特征，对美国公众以及几十年来没有任何威胁所见的建筑环境的破坏潜力。 这项快速响应研究（快速）项目将确定新兴大流行中有效消息传递的关键驱动力，以及提高公共机构Covid-19涉及社交媒体沟通有效性的策略。 具体的重点将放在消息重传的结果上（对于高水平的消息渗透和确保对行为影响至关重要的多重暴露至关重要）和参与度（关注的关键指标和信任驱动力的关键指标），这都是可以衡量的，并且是在先前有效社交媒体沟通研究的核心结果。 通过为机构建立基于证据的指导，以有效警告，告知和吸引公众在新兴的大流行期间，该项目将提供所需的关键指导，以实施有效的干预措施，以挽救生命，减少经济损失，保护国家的安全性免受健康威胁的安全性，并在NSF的范围内通过更广泛的核心媒体进行数据，以促进NSF的范围。代理商，以及与这些消息的公众参与/重新传播； （2）COVID-19号消息的内容编码，以类型化针对本事件的信息； （3）表征公共机构在不断发展的Covid-19响应中使用的消息传递策略； （4）基于消息上下文，内容，样式和结构的消息结果的预测分析； （5）开发公共机构对这一事件和类似事件的有效社交媒体消息的基于证据的指南。 该研究策略以成功的先前工作为基础，以应对新兴的传染病威胁以及人为和自然危害事件的背景。 研究的智力优点包括：在社交媒体上的风险交流信息是在迫在眉睫和持续威胁的条件下共享的在线/正式沟通的实时痕迹；通过信息的扩散，有关在线通信和消息传递动力学的研究提供了对风险社会扩增的见解；以及设计有效信息的策略。该项目将通过分析来自州，地方和国家公共卫生和紧急事务管理Twitter帐户的官方交流，以响应全球大流行的社交媒体模型上的风险交流。 这项工作的发现将导致风险框架的社会扩增和社交媒体模型的风险交流的进一步发展和完善。 如上所述，这项工作的更广泛影响包括积累社交媒体消息的证据基础。 这项研究将对在建筑环境的背景下与有关新兴传染病的风险沟通的组织和机构有直接的好处。我们的发现将为风险交流信息的设计和传播提供信息，并将在Covid-19的背景下立即适用于公共卫生和安全组织。结果将通过事实说明，网络研讨会，发表论文以及与学术和从业者受众的演讲共享。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，认为值得通过评估来获得支持。