Digital inequalities and public health during COVID-19: media dependency and vaccination

IF 4.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Information Communication & Society Pub Date : 2023-01-12 DOI:10.1080/1369118X.2023.2166356

Grant Blank, Bianca C. Reisdorf

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic information about the transmission of the virus came out slowly and recommended practices changed over time. This made communication media, like the Internet, especially important. Few prior studies have considered how digital inequalities influence information flows. Building on three research streams – vaccine hesitancy, information-seeking, and digital inequalities – we examine how digital inequalities, health media, and mass media affect COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Using representative survey data of US Internet users, our structural equation model demonstrates the importance of digital inequalities and media use for vaccine hesitancy. Digital inclusion plays an important role in public health. It leads to increased health information-seeking, which reduces vaccine hesitancy. Our model presents evidence supporting a comprehensive policy approach to vaccine hesitancy beyond factors like socio-demographics and prior health beliefs to include broader factors like digital equity measures and sources of health information. Where and how people find information on public health issues seems to be as important as demographics.

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COVID-19期间的数字不平等与公共卫生:媒体依赖和疫苗接种

摘要在新冠肺炎大流行期间，有关病毒传播的信息发布缓慢，建议的做法也随着时间的推移而改变。这使得像互联网这样的传播媒介变得尤为重要。此前很少有研究考虑数字不平等如何影响信息流。基于三个研究流——疫苗犹豫、信息寻求和数字不平等——我们研究了数字不平等、卫生媒体和大众媒体如何影响新冠肺炎疫苗犹豫。利用美国互联网用户的代表性调查数据，我们的结构方程模型证明了数字不平等和媒体使用对疫苗犹豫的重要性。数字包容在公共卫生中发挥着重要作用。这导致了更多的健康信息寻求，从而减少了对疫苗的犹豫。我们的模型提供了证据，支持在社会人口统计和先前健康信念等因素之外，对疫苗犹豫采取全面的政策方法，包括数字公平措施和健康信息来源等更广泛的因素。人们在哪里以及如何找到有关公共卫生问题的信息似乎与人口统计数据一样重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Information Communication & Society Multiple-

CiteScore

10.20

自引率

4.80%

发文量

110

期刊介绍： Drawing together the most current work upon the social, economic, and cultural impact of the emerging properties of the new information and communications technologies, this journal positions itself at the centre of contemporary debates about the information age. Information, Communication & Society (iCS) transcends cultural and geographical boundaries as it explores a diverse range of issues relating to the development and application of information and communications technologies (ICTs), asking such questions as: -What are the new and evolving forms of social software? What direction will these forms take? -ICTs facilitating globalization and how might this affect conceptions of local identity, ethnic differences, and regional sub-cultures? -Are ICTs leading to an age of electronic surveillance and social control? What are the implications for policing criminal activity, citizen privacy and public expression? -How are ICTs affecting daily life and social structures such as the family, work and organization, commerce and business, education, health care, and leisure activities? -To what extent do the virtual worlds constructed using ICTs impact on the construction of objects, spaces, and entities in the material world? iCS analyses such questions from a global, interdisciplinary perspective in contributions of the very highest quality from scholars and practitioners in the social sciences, gender and cultural studies, communication and media studies, as well as in the information and computer sciences.