The Relevance of Scientific Dissemination during the Vaccine Campaign: The Italian Virologist Communication on Social Media

Abstract

The scientist role has progressively gained an essential relevance during the 2020 pandemic. In fact, the virologists’ exposition turned out to be fundamental for the public opinion, both for the well-informed and people unaware about health, transmission, infection and, today, vaccination programs. This paper aims to first set an explorative investigation about the social communication practices during the first three months of the vaccine campaign addressed on social media by Italy’s most established virologists. The arising digital scenario and the resultant pervasive presence in our daily life of web platforms, such as social media, has revolutionized the nexus between science and society. More scholars argued about the disintermediated current shape of science communication that directly connects scientists and the larger public, driving the sociological debate towards the analysis of the current processes of sense-making construction. On this assumption, we aim to answer the research question about how Italian scientists communicate and approach the larger public on social media. Therefore, the empirical part of this paper consists of a data collection phase conducted on Facebook and Twitter. The collected data have been analyzed by a content analysis oriented to identify the contradictory or uniformity of disintermediated communication features of the observed social media profiles in order to push and follow, during the ongoing vaccine dosing program, a proactive reflection about the key role of scientific dissemination of information. Keywords: communication of science, scientists’ visibility, social media communication, content analysis, topic modelling

Between alternative and traditional social platforms: the case of gab in exploring the narratives on the pandemic and vaccines

“…as in the AstraZeneca case in Italy (Crescentini and Padricelli, 2023), through false crossclaims about the vaccine efficiency 'not constrained within a single platform' (Gruzd et al, 2023). Considering this, public communication policies provided fast resilience policies oriented to monitoring and restraining the impact of misinformation, taking care that as in the U.K. case, 'government-generated messages may be less effective than those of other actors' (Bloomfield et al, 2021) According to this, social media platforms have had the role of disseminating not only scientific and technological content but also the opinions of scientific experts even though they are not widely used.…”

“…Many studies described how social media, despite their efforts to remove COVID-19 vaccine–related misinformation, have featured as vectors for vaccination hesitation in many countries worldwide (Lou and Ahmed, 2019 ; Burki, 2020 ; Gruzd et al, 2023 ). In this way, hesitant reactions were driven by many different reasons related to any other effects of misinformation as in the AstraZeneca case in Italy (Crescentini and Padricelli, 2023 ), through false crossclaims about the vaccine efficiency ‘not constrained within a single platform' (Gruzd et al, 2023 ). Considering this, public communication policies provided fast resilience policies oriented to monitoring and restraining the impact of misinformation, taking care that as in the U.K. case, 'government-generated messages may be less effective than those of other actors' (Bloomfield et al, 2021 )…”

The Ecosystem of Science Communication in the Post-Truth Era: Perspectives, Contexts, Dynamics

“…A third part is web-based communication, which has become an inevitable element in contemporary science communication. Indeed, the Internet, during the period of its own evolution, has become the media environment that has most revolutionised science communication (Crescentini & Padricelli, 2023). As a result of the "socially-distributed" redefinition of the validity, trustworthiness, and authoritativeness of scientific knowledge, today's digital technologies have lowered the boundary between science and pseudoscience.…”

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“…A comprehensive review of literature, albeit confined to publications in Athens Journals, offers insights into numerous studies elucidating its impact on the economy and tourism industry[Adejare et al (2022),Jones (2022),Jones and Comfort (2020),Reid (2022),Tran (2023)], the Management/ Finance[Gukiina and Lamunu (2021),Struwig and Watson (2023),Uwah et al (2022)]. Health[Crescentini and Padricelli (2023),Galea (2022),Menekli et al (2021),Mukherjee and Ray (2023),Shah et al (2022),Stoyanov (2023),Uysal et al (2020), ŽegaracLeskovar et al (2022)], Social/ Media/Sports[Bäckman (2021), Cezar Dias and Moreira de Oliveira (2023), De Falco (2021),Fitzpatrick (2022),Jurić (2022a, b),Lust (2022),Mengu et al (2021),Okaka and Omondi (2022),Osisanwo (2022), Polo Martín (2022), Regret Iyer (2023,Stefani (2023)], Education[Charalambous and Papademetriou (forthcoming),Güvercin et al (2022), Jereb et al (2023,Makgopa (2022), Oluwadamilola Uleanya and Mulliah Naidoo (2023), RodariMeisner and McKenzie (2023), Turan-Güntepe et al (2023)], Technology[Hassan and Bellos (2022),Ismaili and Ibrahimi (2021),Joolfoo and Hosany (2023)], and Law/Judiciary[Iancu (2023[Iancu ( , 2021,Patraus and Ofrim (2021)].…”