Examining the cultural dimension of contact-tracing app adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-country study in Singapore and Switzerland

IF 4.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Information Communication & Society Pub Date : 2023-08-18 DOI:10.1080/1369118X.2022.2082880

Sarah Geber, S. Ho

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

ABSTRACT Contact-tracing applications (CTAs) have been introduced as part of the COVID-19 containment strategy worldwide. In most countries, however, their uptake has been too low to realize their full potential. This study contributes to the understanding of CTA adoption by investigating the influence of public perceptions on adoption and the role of media in forming these perceptions in Singapore and Switzerland. In a comparative approach, online surveys in both countries (Singapore: N = 998; Switzerland: N = 1,022) and multigroup structural equation modeling reveal national differences. First, attention to media was associated more strongly with app-related perceptions in Singapore than in Switzerland, with news media attention correlating positively with favorable perceptions in both countries (i.e., perceived usefulness of the CTA, perceived social norms of adoption) and social media attention correlating negatively with these perceptions in Singapore. Second, regarding the influence of these perceptions on CTA adoption, perceived usefulness was associated with CTA adoption in Switzerland but not in Singapore; conversely, perceived social norms were more important in Singapore than in Switzerland. These results suggest that the communicative formation of public perceptions and their behavioral relevance are contingent on media systems (authoritarian vs. democratic media system) and cultural values (collectivism vs. individualism), highlighting the theoretical value of a country-comparative approach and the practical need for a culturally sensitive implementation of health technologies.

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2019冠状病毒病大流行期间接触者追踪应用程序采用的文化维度:在新加坡和瑞士进行的一项跨国研究

摘要：作为新冠肺炎全球遏制战略的一部分，引入了接触追踪应用程序（CTA）。然而，在大多数国家，它们的吸收率太低，无法充分发挥潜力。本研究通过调查公众对收养的看法以及媒体在新加坡和瑞士形成这些看法中的作用，有助于理解CTA的收养。在比较方法中，两国的在线调查（新加坡：N = 998；瑞士：N = 1022）和多组结构方程建模揭示了国家差异。首先，与瑞士相比，新加坡对媒体的关注与应用程序相关认知的相关性更强，新闻媒体关注与两国的好感度（即CTA的有用性、采用的社会规范）呈正相关，社交媒体关注与新加坡的这些认知负相关。其次，关于这些认知对CTA采用的影响，在瑞士，感知有用性与CTA采用有关，但在新加坡没有；相反，新加坡的社会规范比瑞士更重要。这些结果表明，公众认知的传播形成及其行为相关性取决于媒体系统（威权与民主媒体系统）和文化价值观（集体主义与个人主义），突出了国家比较方法的理论价值和对卫生技术进行文化敏感实施的实际需要。

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.