Comics in the time of COVID-19: Tracking data on web-based comics and evaluating their potential for communicating public health messages

我们的流行病生活深深地被基于网络的视觉公共卫生信息所包围，从指导性的洗手象形图到关于封锁期间身体活动的信息图表。除了这些官方的公共卫生信息，人们还创作了成千上万的网络漫画来传达公共卫生信息。我们现在收集和编码这些漫画至关重要。作为短暂的、基于网络的人工制品，我们有可能无法接触到数千种这样的创造物及其特定的流通环境。现在捕获和编码这些数据将使我们能够快速跟踪他们的信息，覆盖范围和参与度。特别是，我们将重点关注疫情爆发前6个月的网络漫画，从而能够评估通过漫画媒介在社交媒体平台上制作和传播具有时效性的公共卫生信息的影响和潜力。捕捉这些网络漫画在数字平台上的覆盖面和参与度，还将深入了解公共卫生信息如何在社交媒体上分享和解读，以及行为改变是如何被拥护和抵制的。编码将通过对漫画的叙述和视觉效果进行定性内容分析，以及对社交媒体评论的分析来完成，使我们能够评估行为改变和与公共卫生指南相关的实时依从性建设的证据。为了最大限度地发挥这一资源对受益者的影响，来自图形医学集体，信息素养小组，研究数据将存储在BU的安全云服务和外部硬盘上。最后可交付的数据集将采用Excel和CSV格式，与网络界面、数据库和数字编目兼容，以便于适应未来的活动。

Our pandemic lives are deeply entwined with visual, web-based public health messages, from instructional hand-washing pictograms to infographics about physical activity during lockdowns. Alongside these official public health communications, people are creating thousands of web-based comics conveying public health messages.It is critical that we collect and code these comics now. As ephemeral, web-based artefacts we risk losing access to thousands of these creations and their specific circulation contexts. Capturing and coding this data now will allow us to rapidly track their messages, reach and engagement. In particular, focusing on web-comics from the first 6 months of the pandemic, we will be able to evaluate the impacts and potentials of producing and circualting time-sensitive public health messages via the comics medium across social media platforms.Capturing these web-comics' reach and engagement on digital platforms will also yield insight into how public health messages are shared and interpretted on social media, as well as into how behavioral change is championed and resisted. Coding will be done through a qualitative content analysis of comics' narratives and visuals, as well as an analysis of social media comments, allowing us to evaluate for evidence of behavioural change and real-time resilience-building in relation to public health guidelines.To maximise the impact of this resource on beneficiaries, key stakeholders from the Graphic Medicine Collective, Information Literacy Group, and Public Health Dorset will help shape data collection and analysis.Research data will be stored on BU's secure cloud service and on external hard drives. The final, deliverable dataset will be in Excel and CSV formats, compatible with web interface, database and digital cataloguing for ease of adaptation for future activities.