DDRIG in DRMS: An Investigation of Harm Perceptions from Communications on Social Media about COVID Vaccines

DRMS 中的 DDRIG：社交媒体传播中有关新冠疫苗的危害认知调查

• 批准号: 2149321
• 负责人: Raghav Rao
• 金额: $ 2.99万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-02-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2149321&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DDRIG; DRMS; Investigation; Harm; Perceptions

During health crises such as COVID-19, dissemination of health information on social media that is not backed by science has been shown to result in serious harms to communities. These harms include both physical harms (such as losses of life, long- and short-term health harms, or financial harms) and psychological harms (such as loss of trusts on others, emotional sufferings, or confusion). These negative effects can lead to wrong decisions such as drinking bleach to cure the viral infection. In investigating this type of harm, this proposal focuses on two specific research questions: (1) How can the perceptions of harm from information not backed by science be characterized in health crises? (2) How are harm perceptions associated with social media conversations in a health crisis? Results have the potential to advance national health and welfare. Official health organizations such as the CDC and WHO, may gain a better understanding of vulnerable population’s threat and need perceptions. An understanding of people’s perceptions of harmful inaccurate information ultimately helps improve the reliability of social media channels. Broader impacts include the support of a doctoral dissertation, dissemination of findings at professional outlets, and teaching modules related to this research project are part of a course at University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI).Despite prior efforts handling harms from inaccurate information in both COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine contexts, to our knowledge, there is no research that has characterized harm perceptions from such information in health crises. This project takes a sharp focus on perceived harms, rather than on actual harms, and examines the interplay between perceived harms and actual harms. Focusing on the COVID-19 vaccine context, studies examine several COVID-19 vaccine scenarios containing inaccurate information, and characterize harm from that information using three characteristics, i.e., unknown and dread and manageability. Using text mining the project examines the association between harm perceptions and nature of communication in Twitterverse. This is an early attempt at quantitatively measure the harm that results from inaccurate information in the pandemic context. The project advances knowledge in an under-studied area and use conversations in Twitterverse to investigate the nature of communication with respect to harm characteristics. This research bridges social media data with communication theory to unpack the role of social media around crisis communication.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.

在Covid-19等健康危机中，在社交媒体上不受科学支持的健康信息的传播已被证明会对社区造成严重伤害。这些危害包括身体危害（例如生命丧失，长期和短期健康危害或经济危害）和心理伤害（例如对他人的信任，情感痛苦或困惑）。这些负面影响可能导致错误的决定，例如饮用漂白剂以治愈病毒感染。在研究这种危害时，该提案重点介绍了两个具体的研究问题：（1）如何在健康危机中表征对不受科学支持的信息的危害的看法？ （2）在健康危机中，与社交媒体对话有关的伤害感知如何？结果有可能提高国家健康和福利。官方卫生组织（例如疾病预防控制中心）和谁可能会更好地了解脆弱人群的威胁和需求。了解人们对有害信息不准确信息的看法最终有助于提高社交媒体渠道的可靠性。更广泛的影响包括支持博士学位的支持，在专业渠道的调查结果以及与该研究项目相关的教学模块是在得克萨斯大学圣安东尼奥分校的一项课程的一部分，这是西班牙裔服务机构（HSI）（HSI）的一项。危害健康危机中此类信息的看法。该项目急切地专注于感知的危害，而不是实际的危害，并检查感知的危害与实际危害之间的相互作用。研究着专注于COVID-19疫苗的环境，研究了一些研究含有不准确信息的几种Covid-19疫苗场景，并使用三个特征（即未知，可怕和可管理性）从该信息中表征危害。使用文本挖掘项目考试，在Twitterverse中，危害感知与交流性质之间的关联。这是对大流行环境中信息不准确的危害进行定量衡量危害的早期尝试。该项目的进步在研究不足的领域中知道，并在Twitterverse中使用对话来研究有关危害特征的交流性质。这项研究将社交媒体数据带入了传播理论，以解开社交媒体在危机沟通中的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响标准来评估，被认为是宝贵的支持。