Measles, Moral Regulation and the Social Construction of Risk: Media Narratives of “Anti-Vaxxers” and the 2015 Disneyland Outbreak

Capurro, Gabriela; Greenberg, Josh; Dubé, Ève; Driedger, S. Michelle

doi:10.29173/cjs29301

Cited by 45 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In an unfolding crisis, stories often provide a likely cause or origin for the threat, and propose possible strategies for counteracting that threat; the implementation of those strategies can move into real-world action, with the strategy and results playing themselves out in the physical world. This pattern has repeated itself many times throughout history, including during recent events such as Edgar Welch’s attempt to “free” children allegedly being held in a Washington DC pizza parlor [ 45 ], the genocidal eruptions that crippled Rwanda with paroxysms of violence in 1994 [ 19 ], and the global anti-vaccination movement that continues to threaten global health [ 13 , 32 ].…”

Section: Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news

Shahsavari¹,

Holur²,

Wang³

et al. 2020

J Comput Soc Sc

213

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Rumors and conspiracy theories thrive in environments of low confidence and low trust. Consequently, it is not surprising that ones related to the COVID-19 pandemic are proliferating given the lack of scientific consensus on the virus’s spread and containment, or on the long-term social and economic ramifications of the pandemic. Among the stories currently circulating in US-focused social media forums are ones suggesting that the 5G telecommunication network activates the virus, that the pandemic is a hoax perpetrated by a global cabal, that the virus is a bio-weapon released deliberately by the Chinese, or that Bill Gates is using it as cover to launch a broad vaccination program to facilitate a global surveillance regime. While some may be quick to dismiss these stories as having little impact on real-world behavior, recent events including the destruction of cell phone towers, racially fueled attacks against Asian Americans, demonstrations espousing resistance to public health orders, and wide-scale defiance of scientifically sound public mandates such as those to wear masks and practice social distancing, countermand such conclusions. Inspired by narrative theory, we crawl social media sites and news reports and, through the application of automated machine-learning methods, discover the underlying narrative frameworks supporting the generation of rumors and conspiracy theories. We show how the various narrative frameworks fueling these stories rely on the alignment of otherwise disparate domains of knowledge, and consider how they attach to the broader reporting on the pandemic. These alignments and attachments, which can be monitored in near real time, may be useful for identifying areas in the news that are particularly vulnerable to reinterpretation by conspiracy theorists. Understanding the dynamics of storytelling on social media and the narrative frameworks that provide the generative basis for these stories may also be helpful for devising methods to disrupt their spread.

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Section: Prior Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news

Shahsavari¹,

Holur²,

Wang³

et al. 2020

J Comput Soc Sc

213

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The power of social media and the impact of narrative are prevalent and strong, so there is an imperative to strategically draw upon their advantages to counter some of their more problematic applications. For example, research has shown that narratives presenting the ramifications of not vaccinatingspecifically children's suffering from preventable illnesscan have a real impact on intention to vaccinate [128,129]. Additionally, clear and definitive statements with a narrative component, made by respected and trusted voices will prove highly useful, and also provide dependable resources upon which journalists can rely.…”

Section: Policy Optionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health Misinformation and the Power of Narrative Messaging in the Public Sphere

et al. 2019

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Numerous social, economic and academic pressures can have a negative impact on representations of biomedical research. We review several of the forces playing an increasingly pernicious role in how health and science information is interpreted, shared and used, drawing discussions towards the role of narrative. In turn, we explore how aspects of narrative are used in different social contexts and communication environments, and present creative responses that may help counter the negative trends. As traditional methods of communication have in many ways failed the public, changes in approach are required, including the creative use of narratives.

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“…A growing number of people use the Internet and social media to obtain information about health-related issues, including information about vaccines. Nowadays, social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, are becoming increasingly more popular sources of health information [8,29] despite their content being often subject to popularity dynamics. As a recent study shows, the consumption of vaccine-related content on Facebook is dominated by the "echo chamber" effect [40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human Values and Attitudes towards Vaccination in Social Media

Kalimeri

Beiró²,

Urbinati

et al. 2019

Companion Proceedings of the 2019 World Wide Web Conference

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Psychological, political, cultural, and even societal factors are entangled in the reasoning and decision-making process towards vaccination, rendering vaccine hesitancy a complex issue. Here, administering a series of surveys via a Facebook-hosted application, we study the worldviews of people that "Liked" supportive or vaccine resilient Facebook Pages. In particular, we assess differences in political viewpoints, moral values, personality traits, and general interests, finding that those sceptical about vaccination, appear to trust less the government, are less agreeable, while they are emphasising more on anti-authoritarian values. Exploring the differences in moral narratives as expressed in the linguistic descriptions of the Facebook Pages, we see that pages that defend vaccines prioritise the value of the family while the vaccine hesitancy pages are focusing on the value of freedom. Finally, creating embeddings based on the health-related likes on Facebook Pages, we explore common, latent interests of vaccine-hesitant people, showing a strong preference for natural cures. This exploratory analysis aims at exploring the potentials of a social media platform to act as a sensing tool, providing researchers and policymakers with insights drawn from the digital traces, that can help design communication campaigns that build confidence, based on the values that also appeal to the socio-moral criteria of people.

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Measles, Moral Regulation and the Social Construction of Risk: Media Narratives of “Anti-Vaxxers” and the 2015 Disneyland Outbreak

Cited by 45 publications

References 19 publications

Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news

Conspiracy in the time of corona: automatic detection of emerging COVID-19 conspiracy theories in social media and the news

Health Misinformation and the Power of Narrative Messaging in the Public Sphere

Human Values and Attitudes towards Vaccination in Social Media

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