Focus: Public Health

Brooke Liu, Lucinda Austin, Yen-I Lee, Yan Jin, and Seoyeon Kim. (Forthcoming). “Telling the Tale: The Role of Narratives in Helping People Respond to Crises.” Journal of Applied Communication Research. Abstract: During public health crises like infectious disease outbreaks, news media and governments are responsible for informing the public about how to protect themselves. A […]

Abstract: Recent studies have devoted attention to the effects of both expression and reception in communication process. However, there remain both theoretical and methodological complexities concerning whether and under what condition message expression and reception play significant but different roles in explaining various psychosocial health outcomes. Relying on theoretical insights from the social support literature […]

Abstract: The epidemic of opioid drug use and misuse in the United States and in many other continues unabated.  Communicating to healthcare practitioners, the public, news media, and those legally and illegally using opioids is unusually complex due to the multiple factors and varying use situations that have contributed to the current epidemic. To date, […]

Abstract: Epidemiologists and medical investigators deployed to disease outbreaks and public health investigations involving illness and deaths often need to communicate the journalists, local officials, and community members. This chapter identifies and describes the communication approaches and principles needed for effective communication. Drawing from professional experience and published research, this chapter provides epidemiologists and medical […]

Abstract: Recognizing that social media has become an important place for individuals to acquire vaccine-related information, this study investigated if and how user-generated comments on social media platforms influence individuals’ perception of public consensus regarding and attitude toward vaccines. In addition, perceived vaccine efficacy was considered as a factor moderating the relationship between exposure to […]

Abstract: this study examines the effect of discrete emotional appeal (i.e., regret and hope) in loss-framing-based narrative by exploring its impact on people’s emotional engagement and attitude toward the smoking issue. Emotional engagement in this study is not only defined as affective response, but also related to emotional sharing process between self and characters therein, […]

Abstract: Recognizing that social media has become an important place for individuals to acquire vaccine-related information, this study investigated if and how exposure to user-generated comments in social media platforms influences individuals’ attitude toward vaccines. In this investigation, social media comments were investigated in light of their effect on attitude toward vaccines through shaping perception […]

Abstract:  Due to prevalent misinformation and low coverage rates for flu vaccination, the role of health departments to address uncertainty and increase awareness of flu vaccination facts in their messaging became crucial. Utilizing Twitter data generated during the peak of the 2017-2018 flu season, this study suggests that people presented negative attitude toward flu vaccination […]

Abstract: To better understand how uncertainty influences publics’ risk perception and responses, this study introduced risk tolerance as a new concept to public relations literature and then investigated how publics react to health risks with different temporal distances: climate change and foodborne illness. Through an online survey, this study found out that uncertainty induced by […]

Abstract: An increasing lack of information truthfulness has become one fundamental challenge to communications. Insights into how to debunk this type of misinformation can especially be crucial for public health crises. To identify corrective information strategy that increases awareness and triggers actions during infectious disease outbreaks, an online experiment (N=700) was conducted, using a U.S. […]