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

公共卫生和应急管理机构在宣传和教育公众有关病毒传播和预防的科学知识方面处于第一线。为了应对像新冠肺炎这样的威胁，他们的使命需要使用各种媒体渠道向当地民众传达准确可信的信息。社交媒体日益成为他们沟通工具箱的重要组成部分，但在拥挤的媒体环境中使用社交媒体快速有效地向公众提供信息仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在之前与寨卡和埃博拉疫情相关的在线传播工作中，私人投资机构确定，有效的信息传递取决于使用内容、风格和结构特征的组合-但正确的组合似乎取决于疾病事件的属性(包括威胁的不确定性和模糊性、涉及的后果的性质以及对公共信息的需求)。新冠肺炎构成了一个独特的风险概况，对美国公众和建筑环境的破坏潜力是几十年来从未见过的。这一快速反应研究(RAPID)项目将确定在新出现的流行病中有效传递信息的关键驱动因素，以及公共机构提高新冠肺炎社交媒体沟通有效性的战略。具体的重点将是消息重传的结果(对于高水平的消息渗透和确保对行为影响至关重要的多次曝光)和参与度(注意力的关键指标和信任的驱动力)，这两者都是可衡量的，并在先前的有效社交媒体沟通研究中被确立为核心结果。通过为机构建立循证指导，以便在新出现的大流行期间有效地警告、告知和参与公众，该项目将提供必要的关键指导，以便采取有效的干预措施，拯救生命，减少经济损失，并保护国家安全免受健康威胁，与国家卫生基金会的更广泛使命保持一致。这一目标将通过以下核心活动实现：(1)公共机构收集新冠肺炎消息上易腐烂的社交媒体数据，并让公众参与/转发这些消息；(2)新冠肺炎消息的内容编码，将针对当前事件的信息类型化；(3)描述公共机构在不断演变的新冠肺炎响应中使用的消息传递策略的特征；(4)根据消息的上下文、内容、风格和结构对消息结果进行预测性分析；以及(5)为公共机构应对这一事件和类似事件的有效社交媒体消息传递制定循证指导。这一研究战略建立在应对紧急传染病威胁以及在人为和自然灾害事件背景下成功开展的前期工作的基础上。这项研究的学术价值包括：社交媒体上的风险沟通信息是在迫在眉睫和持续的威胁条件下共享的在线正式/正式沟通的实时痕迹；在线沟通和信息传递动态研究提供了对风险通过信息传播的社会放大的洞察力；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应急管理Twitter账户的官方沟通，测试社交媒体模型上的风险沟通，以应对全球大流行。这项工作的发现将有助于风险社会放大框架和社交媒体上的风险沟通模型的进一步发展和完善。如上所述，这项工作的更广泛影响最突出的包括为社交媒体信息积累证据基础。这项研究将对负责就建筑环境中的紧急传染病向高危人群进行沟通的组织和机构产生立竿见影的好处。我们的发现将为风险沟通信息的设计和传播提供参考，并将立即适用于新冠肺炎背景下的公共卫生和安全组织。结果将通过情况说明书、网络研讨会、发表的论文和演讲与学术和从业人员观众分享。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.