Gao Jiayue, Raza Syed Hassan, Yousaf Muhammad, Shah Amjad Ali, Hussain Iltaf, Malik Aqdas
The Bartlett, UCL Faculty of the Built Environment, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
Institute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, Pakistan.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Jan 3;11(1):114. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11010114.
Digital media has remained problematic during COVID-19 because it has been the source of false and unverified facts. This was particularly evident in the widespread misinformation and confusion regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Past research suggested infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism as potential threats to public COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. However, the literature is primarily void of empirical evidence associating demographic attributes with efforts to build vaccine hesitancy. Therefore, this research uses two studies: (Study 1) Google Trends and (Study 2) survey method to provide inclusive empirical insight into public use of digital media during COVID-19 and the detrimental effects of infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism as they were related to building COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Using Google Trends based on popular keywords the public searched over one year, Study 1 explores public digital media use during COVID-19. Drawing on this exploration, Study 2 used a cross-sectional national representative survey of 2120 adult Pakistanis to describe the influence of potential hazards such as infodemics on public vaccine hesitancy. Study 2 revealed that infodemics, conspiracy beliefs, and religious fatalism predict vaccine hesitancy. In addition, gender moderates the relationship between infodemics and conspiracy beliefs and vaccine hesitancy. This implies that there is a dispositional effect of the infodemics and conspiracy beliefs spread digitally. This study's findings benefit health and other concerned authorities to help them reduce religious fatalism, vaccine hesitancy, and conspiracy theories with targeted communication campaigns on digital media.
在新冠疫情期间，数字媒体一直存在问题，因为它一直是虚假和未经证实信息的来源。这在关于新冠疫苗的广泛错误信息和混乱中尤为明显。过去的研究表明，信息疫情、阴谋论信仰和宗教宿命论是公众对新冠疫苗犹豫不决的潜在威胁。然而，文献中主要缺乏将人口统计学属性与制造疫苗犹豫情绪的努力相关联的实证证据。因此，本研究采用两项研究：（研究1）谷歌趋势和（研究2）调查方法，以全面深入地了解新冠疫情期间公众对数字媒体的使用情况，以及信息疫情、阴谋论信仰和宗教宿命论与制造新冠疫苗犹豫情绪相关的有害影响。研究1基于公众在一年中搜索的热门关键词使用谷歌趋势，探索新冠疫情期间公众对数字媒体的使用情况。基于这一探索，研究2对2120名成年巴基斯坦人进行了全国代表性横断面调查，以描述信息疫情等潜在危害对公众疫苗犹豫情绪的影响。研究2表明，信息疫情、阴谋论信仰和宗教宿命论预示着疫苗犹豫情绪。此外，性别调节了信息疫情与阴谋论信仰和疫苗犹豫情绪之间的关系。这意味着信息疫情和阴谋论信仰通过数字方式传播具有倾向性影响。本研究的结果有助于卫生和其他相关当局通过在数字媒体上开展有针对性的宣传活动，帮助他们减少宗教宿命论、疫苗犹豫情绪和阴谋论。
