a Graduate School of Communication and Arts , Yonsei University.
b College of Communication , Yonsei University.
Health Commun. 2019 Aug;34(9):991-998. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1449552. Epub 2018 Mar 20.
Public health officials (PHOs) are responsible for providing trustworthy information during a public health crisis; however, there is little research on how the public behaves when their expectations for such information are violated. Drawing on media dependency theory and source credibility research as our primary theoretical framework, we tested how credibility of information from PHOs is associated with people's reliance on a particular communication channel in the context of the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in South Korea. Using nationally representative data ( = 1036) collected during the MERS outbreak, we found that less credible information from PHOs led to more frequent use of online news, interpersonal networks, and social media for acquiring MERS-related information. However, credibility of information from PHOs was not associated with the use of television news or print newspapers. The theoretical and practical implications of our results on communication channels usage are discussed.
公共卫生官员（PHO）负责在公共卫生危机期间提供可靠的信息；然而，关于当公众对这些信息的期望受到违反时，他们的行为如何，几乎没有研究。本研究以媒体依赖理论和来源可信度研究为主要理论框架，检验了在韩国 2015 年中东呼吸综合征（MERS）爆发期间，PHO 提供的信息可信度与人们对特定传播渠道的依赖之间的关系。我们使用 MERS 爆发期间收集的全国代表性数据（n=1036），发现 PHO 提供的可信度较低的信息会导致更多人频繁使用在线新闻、人际网络和社交媒体获取与 MERS 相关的信息。然而，PHO 提供的信息的可信度与使用电视新闻或平面报纸无关。我们对传播渠道使用的研究结果在理论和实践上都具有意义。
