Health Communication and Media Influence on Vaccine Uptake
Keywords:
Vaccine communication, Trust calibration, Digital media, Influencers, EngagementAbstract
Objective: This research examines the effects of novel health communication affordances - algorithmic filtering, meme resonance, narrative transportation, cross-platform echo, and micro-influencer credibility on vaccine intentions and adherence, mediated by Health Communication Trust Calibration.
Methods: An observational, cross sectional study design with adult participants, validated constructs, and SPSS regression–mediational analysis with Hayes PROCESS macro.
Results: The findings suggest that the credibility of micro-influencers have the most significant impact on vaccine adherence, cross-platform echo perception and the awareness of the algorithm are instrumental in determining trust, particularly among peri-urban areas and older age groups. Health Meme Resonance is more important for younger participants, while narrative immersion continuously enhances persuasion across participants. In particular, Health Communication Trust Calibration operates as a continual mediator, suggesting that people update trust in a dynamic manner when faced with communication cues. Not only is this heterogeneous impact evident across particular population subgroups, but the overall relationship between heterogeneity and public health impact proved to be consistent across a wide variety of analyses with respect to student population and school characteristics.
Novelty: This work introduces five novel motivational constructs under-examined in research on vaccine communication and offers a distinctive theorization of trust calibration as a mediator of rather than a single state predictor. Combining behavioural economics, digital communication and trust recalibration together in one explanation model, this study pushes the theoretical boundary and resolves inconsistency from previous findings.
Implications for Research: The results are a blueprint for education-based campaigns around the world. They emphasize the necessity to have more empathetic micro-influencers, to have consistent messaging across all platforms, to have transparent algorithmic communication and to recognize that building trust is key. This model enables policymakers, educators, and eHealth programmers to develop cost-effective and globally scalable interventions that effectively reduce hesitancy and promote sustained resiliency in public health systems.
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