The effectiveness will also magnify if these benefits can be visually framed in photos, videos, memes, and/or posters, for the augmented persuasiveness of visual stimuli than textual narratives. In short, the rhetoric for encouraging immunizations on social media should emphasize immediate and personalized benefits of taking the vaccines, rather than long-term protective or societal benefits. Instead of focusing on the severe consequences of not using those health practices, communication specialists emphasized the benefits of practicing safe sex - you can enjoy your life freely if you practice safe sex. A well-known example of this communication strategy is to encourage safe sex practices during the HIV epidemic. The revised mask mandate by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in alignment with these findings: Make clear the tangible, immediate and personal benefits of getting COVID-19 vaccines such as, вЂњYou can finally take off your masks as long as you get vaccinated!вЂќД¬onversely, focusing on societal, long-term benefits, such as the creation of herd immunity, has been known to be ineffective for encouraging individuals to take health behaviors. Also, focusing on the immediate and personalized benefits have been found more effective than distant, societal benefits. Prior studies on health communication have shown the importance of emphasizing the benefits of taking a health behavior rather than portraying the harms of refusing to take the health behavior. How can we frame the message around vaccines on social media to encourage higher participation in vaccination efforts? They also make moral judgements by suggesting a coalition between corrupted politicians and profit-driven health care industries and recommend rejecting vaccines as a remedy to this problem. They define the pressing issue as vaccine safety/injuries and inefficacy and blame pharmaceutical companies for вЂњcutting cornersвЂќ to rapidly produce vaccines. What propaganda techniques are used by anti-vaccination groups to influence the conversation around vaccines? Is this leading to more vaccine hesitancy?ДЄssistant professor Young Anna Argyris, in the College of Communications Arts and Sciences.ДЄnti-vaccination groups use all the four propaganda techniques known to be effective in political campaigns. Specifically, our latest study has shown that individualsвЂ™ engagement with anti-vaccine messages on social media has a negative impact on their intentions to get vaccinated, while their engagement with pro-vaccine messages has no significant association.

As a result, visual messaging on social media has significant associations with peopleвЂ™s intentions to get vaccinated - not only against COVID-19, but also for other immunizations. Since social media has rapidly grown as a source of news, more and more people are obtaining health information from social media. Especially since the visual often includes a personalized dramatization of vaccine injuries - like an individual having a life-threatening seizure after receiving a vaccine.

Visuals on social media like memes, videos, photos, posters and emojis are processed faster, accepted without being questioned, and remembered for a longer period than text posts. How do visuals on social media influence peopleвЂ™s likelihood to get vaccinated? Assistant professor Young Anna Argyris, in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences, sheds light on the data and social media influences behind vaccine hesitancy. Though COVID-19 vaccines are widely available, many people in the United States have not received the vaccine and donвЂ™t plan on getting one. They may feature historical information, background, research findings, or offer tips.

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