Distrust, danger, and confidence: A content analysis of the Australian Vaccination-Risks Network Blog

Abstract

The Australian Vaccination-risks Network is Australia’s most active counter-vaccine lobby group. This study employs a content analysis of the organization’s 2012–2019 blog posts, while further considering Australian-specific vaccine contexts. The goal is to identify the persuasion attributes of these counter-vaccine articles, and the ways that the group’s media employs persuasive cues when communicating to Australian publics. The project gauges the occurrence rates of message variables associated with the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, including those labeled as the Scarcity Principle, Arousal of Fear, Asking Questions, Source Cues, the Contrast Principle and Negativity Effect, as well as Statistics and Technical Jargon. Three overarching themes collectively exhibited by these message variables are further identified and described as Distrust, Danger, and Confidence. In view of these findings, the study then considers how persuasive cue expression in Australian Vaccination-risks Network blog posts corresponds with Australian vaccine hesitancies and the country’s No Jab No Pay/Play policies.

Psychological mechanisms and interventions directed at vaccination attitudes

“…Motta et al ( 2018 ) found a correlation between the Dunning–Kruger effect and anti-vaccination attitudes, indicating that those who hold anti-vaccination attitudes have overconfidence in their knowledge. This is consistent with Aechtner's ( 2021 ) study, which examined anti-vaccine websites and discovered that commentators typically believe their expertise to be superior to medical specialists. This is further congruent with other research suggesting a mistrust of the scientific community, lower likelihood to obtain information from scientific sources, discounting scientific findings, and Huynh and Senger's ( 2021 ) finding of low intellectual humility (Fowler et al, 2006 ; Bryden et al, 2018 ; Bianco et al, 2019 ; Rozbroj et al, 2019a ; Motta et al, 2021 ; Murphy et al, 2021 ).…”

Media Data and Vaccine Hesitancy: Scoping Review

“…Another study on repertoire echoes those using framing theories to understand how positive or negative framing could coerce behavior [ 60 ]. In total, 3% (2/65) of the studies looked at the influence of persuasion as a tactic in the delivery of text [ 46 ] and as a guide to framing certain cues to influence vaccine uptake behavior [ 43 ]. These studies used persuasion theory and the ELM of persuasion to guide discussion.…”

“…A set of studies (39/125, 31.2%) focused on what antivaccination topics arose. The most commonly recurring theme was a distrust of government institutions [ 18 , 20 , 21 , 36 , 37 , 43 , 70 , 75 , 76 , 81 , 102 , 124 , 131 ] or health institutions [ 32 , 35 , 36 , 49 , 67 , 93 , 100 , 125 ] or the idea of pharmaceutical companies profiteering off individuals [ 20 , 29 , 122 , 125 ]. This spilled into a related conversation about the infringement of civil liberties when individuals feel they are forced or mandated to receive a vaccine [ 37 , 46 , 47 , 64 , 73 , 131 ].…”

“…The discussion extended to how the Facebook network, being geographically unrestricted, may promote vaccine refusal in line with digital identity formation, expanding the realm of influence on vaccination. Aechtner [ 43 ] focused on persuasion cues derived from the ELM for persuasion to label and guide discussion of an Australian countervaccine lobby group. In total, 1.6% (2/125) of the studies, conducted by Luisi [ 40 , 41 ], also used two of the most prominent theories in health behavior and psychology to guide coding.…”

The fight to remain compliant

“…The anti-vax community has proven especially strong in Australia, where vaccine hesitancy has a long-established history, predating the COVID-19 pandemic. In 1994, the Australian Vaccination Network (now known as the Australian Vaccination-risks Network, or AVN) was created as a special interest lobby group dedicated to a range of anti-vaccine campaigns, including opposition to mandatory vaccination policies and the promotion of fringe scientific studies purporting health risks associated with vaccines (Aechtner, 2021). The AVN has been described as a "strong hold of the anti-vaccination movement" due to its active role as a facilitator and distributor of misinformation (Murray, 2009).…”