Channel selection and knowledge acquisition during the 2009 Beijing H1N1 flu crisis: a media system dependency theory perspective

Hu, Baishi; Zhang, Di

doi:10.1080/17544750.2014.926951

Cited by 34 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This process of increasing dependency is described, among others, in studies focused on the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (Lowrey 2004), in the 2009 N1H1 outbreak in China (Hu and Zhang 2014) or the earthquake 2008 in China (Jiang and Ouyang 2008). It is in the same category that the case of the present pandemic of COVID-19 fits-an outbreak with many uncertainties, in which scientists cannot give all the answers and guarantees, in which it is understandable that people are frightened and that the images of masks and large deserted cities cause more anxiety (Sahni and Sharma 2020).…”

Section: Dependence On the Media Systemmentioning

confidence: 88%

Media and Misinformation in Times of COVID-19: How People Informed Themselves in the Days Following the Portuguese Declaration of the State of Emergency

Ferreira

Borges

2020

Journalism and Media

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This study takes as a starting point the importance and dependence of the media to obtain information about the pandemic. The dependency theory of the media system was developed in the 1970s when mass media were the dominant source of information. Today, at a time when media choices have become abundant, studies are needed to understand the phenomenon of media dependence in light of new dimensions made important by the transformations that have taken place in the social and media fields—where the coexistence of mass media with social media platforms stands out. As large-scale crises rarely occur and the media environment changes rapidly, it is important to analyze how media dependence relates to choose and trust in different media (traditional media vs. social media) in times of crisis. Several questions arise. What is the trust attributed by individuals to social media as sources of information about COVID-19? How well informed are the individuals who choose these sources as the main sources of information? From a questionnaire administered to 244 individuals in Portugal, during the first week of the state of emergency (March 2020), this research seeks to identify how people gained access to information about COVID-19, how they acted critically towards the various sources and how they assess the reliability of different media. Finally, it analyzes the association between the type of medium chosen and adherence to misinformation content about the virus. The results reveal the existence of a phenomenon of dependence on the media, with a strong exposure (both active and accidental) to informative content, with conventional media being privileged as the main source, and positively distinguished in terms of confidence. Finally, a statistically significant association of a positive sign was identified between the use of social media as the main source and the acceptance of misinformation.

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Section: Dependence On the Media Systemmentioning

confidence: 88%

Media and Misinformation in Times of COVID-19: How People Informed Themselves in the Days Following the Portuguese Declaration of the State of Emergency

Ferreira

Borges

2020

Journalism and Media

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“…Social media users produce and share timely and locally situated health information in response to public health crises. Meanwhile, governments and health officials have been actively adopting social media to contain harm caused by health crises, for instance, the 2001 anthrax attack in multiple U.S. cities ( Reynolds & Seeger, 2005 ), the 2009 H1N1 flu crisis in Beijing ( Hu & Zhang, 2014 ), and the 2015 measles outbreak in California ( Meadows et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A great deal of work has been devoted to studying how people seek and share online health information in crisis situations ( Avery, 2010 , 2017 ; Hu & Zhang, 2014 ; Meadows et al, 2019 ; Park et al, 2019 ). Early studies in this stream had largely centered on audience channel selection and found that people were more likely to rely on traditional media for accessing health information in both crisis and routine contexts, who preferred newspapers or magazines over radio and television ( Avery, 2010 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early studies in this stream had largely centered on audience channel selection and found that people were more likely to rely on traditional media for accessing health information in both crisis and routine contexts, who preferred newspapers or magazines over radio and television ( Avery, 2010 ). Later, the public turned to use social media and mobile phones more than traditional media for accessing health information ( Hu & Zhang, 2014 ). One of the great scientific challenges in analyzing the mental health toll caused by COVID-19 lies in making invisible emotional trauma visible, deciphering the key macroscale sociotechnical factors involved.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mental health toll from the coronavirus: Social media usage reveals Wuhan residents’ depression and secondary trauma in the COVID-19 outbreak

Zhong

Huang

Liu

2021

Computers in Human Behavior

274

221

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This study investigates the possible association between social media usage and the mental health toll from the coronavirus at the peak of Wuhan's COVID-19 outbreak. Informed by the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication Model and Health Belief Model, it proposes a conceptual model to study how people in Wuhan – the first epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic – used social media and its effects on users' mental health conditions and health behavior change. The results show that social media usage was related to both depression and secondary trauma, which also predicted health behavior change. But no relation was detected between health behavior change and mental health conditions. As the virus struck, social media usage was rewarding to Wuhan people who gained informational, emotional, and peer support from the health information shared on social media. An excessive use of social media, however, led to mental health issues. The results imply that taking a social media break may promote well-being during the pandemic, which is crucial to mitigating mental health harm inflicted by the pandemic.

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“…Van Velsen et al (2012) studied college students' use of different media during the EHEC outbreak in Europe and found that news websites and websites of newspapers were most used and trusted, while social media such as Twitter and Facebook were less frequently used and less trusted. Hu and Zhang (2014) examined Beijing residents' information use during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak and found that TV was the most frequently used media, followed by print media and radio. Recent studies on Chinese residents' use of media during the COVID-19 outbreak showed that WeChat and TV were the two media most often used in information acquisition (Hua & Shaw, 2020).…”

Section: Health Information Seeking Scanning and Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

Health Information Consumption under COVID-19 Lockdown: An Interview Study of Residents of Hubei Province, China

Tang

Zou

2020

Health Communication

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Channel selection and knowledge acquisition during the 2009 Beijing H1N1 flu crisis: a media system dependency theory perspective

Cited by 34 publications

References 25 publications

Media and Misinformation in Times of COVID-19: How People Informed Themselves in the Days Following the Portuguese Declaration of the State of Emergency

Media and Misinformation in Times of COVID-19: How People Informed Themselves in the Days Following the Portuguese Declaration of the State of Emergency

Mental health toll from the coronavirus: Social media usage reveals Wuhan residents’ depression and secondary trauma in the COVID-19 outbreak

Health Information Consumption under COVID-19 Lockdown: An Interview Study of Residents of Hubei Province, China

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