Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

Global Bird Flu Communication

Sheldon Ungar

•Replication of Sandman study- Media coverage of crises will alter from coverage that concerns viewers to coverage that comforts viewers

•Huge epidemic scare came from the media coverage of the bird flu

•Scientific data coverage in the media is dramatized, leading to false conclusions

•Sheldon Ungar studied media coverage to Ebola Zaire

•Examined how media covers crises from the start of the outbreak as it progresses

•Social belief that the media tends to cover the most dramatic issues

•When the first outbreak of Ebola came out, the media coverage focused on the negative aspects that scared everyone before they needed to be scared

•Bird flu, H5N1 virus was first found in birds in 2003 in vietnam and Thailand

•Early on, very few humans were affected by the virus

•Researchers related four coverage topics to fear- predicted number of deaths, actual number of deaths, spread of virus, and medical plans

•Biggest concerns relate to human deaths and spread of the virus

•Belief that medicines and routines are enhanced when there’s a threat of a virus spreading

•Sample of at least five articles at specific points in time to compare commonalities among content

•Often, top stories one day won’t make the news even two days later

•Extra sampling was done for certain topics that deemed necessary

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Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

•One of the major tasks in this study was to monitor changes in the content to see progression of the coverage

•3 Stages of Discourse

  1. Sounding the alarm- fearful coverage is dominant
  2. Mixed messages- combination of fearful and reassuring coverage
  3. Crisis and containment- attempts to diminish fearful coverage

•Coverage dramatically changed after the first human-to-human transmission of bird flu

•Increase in fearful coverage diminishes hope of gaining control of the epidemic

•Scientists claimed bird flu could mutate and spread more easily- New virus means no immunity and severe consequences

•July & August 2005- H5N1 outbreak in wild birds and poultry in Siberia and Kazakhstan increased fear in the rate the disease will continue to spread

•Fearful coverage became more dominant including large numbers in respect to estimated number of death

•October 2005- H5N1 virus outbreak in Turkey, Romania and Croatia and questionably UK

•Coverage shifts from fearful to “no need for panic”

•President Bush becomes involved and talks of multibillion dollar national pandemic plan and quarantines

•Standardized template established; stating how H5N1 virus is transmitted and the future of its ability to spread is undeterminable

•Plans to take control of virus are being developed and reported

Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

•By announcing that plans to prevent and or control spread of virus help to develop hope and reassurance

•Medical promise package consists of efforts to control fearful coverage and convert it to reassuring coverage

•March 2006- bird flu is hot crisis in Europe

•Before issuing reassuring coverage, bird flu was associated with fearful terms like deadly

•Limited fear with catchphrases like “disease that mostly affects birds” and “does not pass easily to people”

•Compared contracting bird flu to winning the lottery

•Containment package issued clarifying claims that the bird flu is easily spread from human-to-human (another reassuring media coverage)

•Much of the early coverage on the virus is proved false and exaggerated after looking back on the progression of coverage and what topics were continuously covered

•Most consistent coverage over the two years were fearful aspects including mutation, spread of bird flu and number of deaths

•Like other viruses, the bird flu coverage is no longer dominating headlines but hasn’t necessarily been forgotten

The Defining Characteristics of Web 2.0 and Their Potential Influence in the Online Vaccination Debate

Holly O. Witteman & Brian J. Zikmund-Fisher

Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

•Online vaccination debate

•Three characteristics

  1. User Participation
  2. Openness
  3. Network Effects

•User participation supports influence of narratives and personal accounts

•Openness shapes expectations of higher levels of detail and movement towards informed decision making

•Network effects demonstrate social nature of decision making

•Vaccination resources need to be able to adapt to the constant changing environment of the internet

•Debate over vaccination oneself and one’s child- internet has provided more information to each side of the issue

•Web 2.0 shows how people interact online and the decision process

•Web 2.0 was a term developed in 2004 meaning “a set of economic, social and technological trends that collectively form the basis for the net generation of the internet- a more mature, distinctive medium characterized by the user participation, openness and network effects”

•The internet is a major tool for answers to medical questions (80% of American internet users use the internet to find health information)

•Criteria to measure quality of health information on the internet developed

-Current up to date information

-Comes from qualified authors

Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

-Sources must be cited & transparent

•Web 2.0 didn’t help with problems relating to who can contribute to the health information posted online and its accuracy

•Web 2.0 has increased ease of production

•User Participation: anyone who wants to participate, has the time to participate and can physically access the web

•Openness: total access to all data and information, ability to add to resources and create new resources

•Network Effects: make connections with other people

•User participation meant personal stories were shared as information and developed into influence

•Emotionality of stories develop stronger feelings towards vaccination debate

•The number of positive and negative stories readers are exposed to affect their sense of positive or negative outcomes

•Multiple stories about vaccination injuries can lead a reader to think that what they are reading is a common affect

•Efforts to note personal stories as red flags, as not quality health information

•Government based sites aim to share the positive aspects of vaccination with readers by sharing facts and historical numbers

•Messages about taking control and responsibility over personal health and decision making

•It’s crucial for readers to seek unbiased information

Danielle Mokarzel

Reading Summaries 10/27 & 10/30

•Open discussion online increases chance that specific messages about vaccination will become more accepted to others looking to make personal health decisions

•The internet as a resource to find answers to health questions is becoming more powerful as more people use it

•Debate over whether or not poor-quality information is actually harming decision making

•Shouldn’t it be obvious which information is good or bad?

•Effort to change how readers respond and interact with the web environment, not necessarily change the content

Olivia St. Martin

Readings Summaries 10/27-10/30

Issue Emergency, Evolution of Controversy, and Implications for Competitive Framing: The Case of the HPV Vaccine - Fowler et al

Introduction

Scholars acknowledge the role of mass media in “framing” issues

  • Examine whether and how multiple messages in competition can shape public attitudes and beliefs

When new issues emerge, opposing groups of practitioners, professional societies, industry reps, advocates, and consumers often compete to define the problem and influence ensuing debate

  • i.e. new medical technologies

Media coverage serves as an important setting for public deliberation

Study assesses how media coverage of the HPV vaccine and HPV school requirements emerges and develops over time

Issue Emergence, Problem Definition, and Integrating Disparate Literatures

Widely acknowledged that elite communication, media, and public opinion play central role in policy-making process

  • Scholars argue that the transmission of expert opinion through media can shape both public opinion and outcomes

Competitive Media Framing

  • Framing cycle: emergenceconflictresonanceequilibrium/resolution
  • New issues don’t necessarily start as controversial
  • Beginning stages of framing cycle can shape range of acceptable options pursued by policy makers and public support for gov’t action

Public Agendas

  • Research identifies important role of policy entrepreneurs in defining public issues
  • Define their positions using other, well-established arguments that are familiar to the public

News Production and Media as an Independent Actor and Formal Institution

  • Most important factors in choosing what stories get covered – conflict (how controversial it is), proximity (close to home), and timeliness

Justification for the HPV Vaccine as a Case

3 months after FDA approved the vaccine – lawmakers introduced legislation proposing compulsory vaccination for all girls entering 6th grade

Debate between arguing against cervical cancer vs. the idea that the vaccine might promote promiscuity

Case of HPV vaccine mandates = “new” issue, even elite experts’ opinions are dynamic

Discourse was politicized, so presence of political actors highly important feature of public debate

Research Aims and Expectations

Seek to understand the emergence of controversy in mass media

Expect to find more coverage and more coverage of controversy in states considering HPV vaccine mandates for school entry

Expect to find more coverage of controversy in states that have initiated legislative discussions

Expect more coverage of controversy in states that have introduced a bill requiring the vaccine

Expect that journalists will rely on major elites relevant to debate, but that as they begin to think of a new issue as controversial, more actors will enter to influence direction of debate

Data and Methods

Examined media coverage in all 50 states from Jan 1, 2006 through December 31, 2007

Total of 101 newspapers were sampled

  • Articles were identified using validated key word search: i.e. “HPV vaccine,” “vaccine mandate”
  • Coded for three general types of information: 1) explicit mentions of controversial state actions, 2) the distribution of arguments for or against government mandates, and 3) the positions actors took regarding potential action
  • Arguments for/against mandates fell into one of four general categories: 1) political, 2) practical, 3) medical, and 4) moral
  • Coded for the presence of key stakeholders (politicians, advocates, and healthcare actors) along with their stated position
  • Total of 1,659 articles included in analysis
  • Consisted of calculating frequencies of the key content variables and assessing differences in messages conveyed and actors cited across time/state environmental contexts

Results/Discussion

Presentation of the issue as controversial increases from 20% of all articles during pre-Texas phase (before Texas mandated that girls had to get the vaccine) to 38% post-Texas

Results showed that proximity was an important factor in controversy and media coverage

  • Also found large increase in explicit mention of controversy

Proliferation of actors referenced as well as growth in opposing viewpoints within/between types of actors

  • Also evidence of shift in opinion within actor types

As messages became more controversial in tone, the policy options available to advocates became more limited

Overall, case is suggestive of the important role that framing may have had in shaping public response to HPV vaccine

New Media Landscapes and the Science Information Consumer – Brossard et al

Introduction

Individuals increasingly turning to online environments to find information about science and follow scientific developments

Article discusses latest findings in the area of science communication in online environments/implications for science as institution

Media Landscapes and New Information Environments

Print sources starting to become obsolete, esp. for science communication

  • Internet provides new medium for transferring and translating info, also offers platform for advertisers

Some issues include the fact that blogs don’t always separate opinions from facts and that online news is never consumed in isolation

  • Aka people care about how many “likes” a science article gets on social media

Digital access is only one form of new media environments – mobile information (from tablets/smart phones) starting to become increasingly popular

The Science Information Consumer

Became clear by 2004 that internet was displacing traditional sources for information about science in the US

  • Primary source for people seeking information about science

Scientists themselves starting to rely on alternative channels to stay up-to-date with scientific developments

Finding and Evaluating Science Info Online: Insights from Science Communication Research

What motivates individuals to seek science-related info online?

  • Majority (70%) use it to look up meaning of specific term or concept
  • 68% look for an answer to a question about specific concept or theory
  • 65% to learn more about a science story or discovery they first heard about offline
  • attitudes toward specific scientific issue motivate people to learn more
  • esp. positive views towards an issue

What is the nature of the science content encountered online?

  • In study done about coverage of genomic research: no significant differences between online and offline coverage
  • Though nature may not be different, important to consider the specific search terms people are using to find science-related info and the content they are likely to find using those terms
  • Media also gives weight to certain issues – can affect audiences’ attitudes and understanding of issues
  • Also need to question the extent of accuracy of info encountered online and the trustworthiness of sources
  • Luckily, most people aren’t passive when selecting which science stories to pay attention to – tend to choose writers with more expertise

Is the Internet changing public knowledge and attitudes about science?

  • Those who tend to pay attention to science content online tend to be more knowledgeable about science and more educated
  • Online environment can boost learning about science, but this is dependent on individual characteristics and online modalities
  • Established that mediated info can influence attitudes towards science; online contextualization matters
  • i.e. civility of comments following objective online news story impacts viewers perceptions

Looking Forward

Science communication being redefined, as online environments gain prominence over traditional science reporting

  • Increasingly taking place through blogs and other online-only forums

Though there is some research on it, research examining specifically online science communication processes and outcomes is still scant

21st century science communicators have embraced the social web as a powerful tool in communicating science at a greater speed

Science as an institution is in great need of public support (federal funding is shrinking) – theoretical understanding of the processes at play in online environments will have to be achieved at a faster rate in order to leverage the online revolution for successful public engagement