Vaccine Support and Hesitancy on Twitter: Opposing Views, Similar Strategies, and the Mixed Impact of Conspiracy Theories

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2023

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is vital to understanding individuals’ likelihood to be vaccinated and to have parents vaccinating their children (Jarrett et al., 2015; MacDonald, 2015). Social media, and Twitter in particular, have become shared spaces for individuals and organizations to exchange vaccine-related information and to discuss perceived merits and risks. This study examined vaccination-related tweets posted about childhood, flu and HPV vaccines in 2018, with a focus on better understanding audience hesitancy and strategic narratives being employed online. All tweets posted about each of three vaccine types for 2018 were collected. From each dataset, the 10 most retweeted posts, by week, were selected for coding, in order to capture the most disseminated content. A total of 520 top-shared posts were selected, for each dataset, and were coded for hesitancy, theme of anti-vaccination narratives, the use of hashtags and author characteristics. Initial findings revealed different communication patterns for the different types of vaccines being discussed on social media, including evidence of coordinated and strategic efforts being used by anti-vaxxers. While an overall anti-vaccination sentiment was identified in only 17% of tweets related to childhood vaccination, much higher levels were found for HPV and flu-related content (36% and 40%, respectively). In-depth analyses into the anti-vaccination content strategies reveal further differences. The “adverse reactions” theme was much more prevalent within childhood vaccination content (44%), than in HPV (32%) and flu-focused content (16%). In contrast, “conspiracy” and “anti-establishment” narratives were more common in flu vaccination tweets (46%), than in those focused on either HPV (29%) or childhood vaccines (13%). Concerns about vaccine ingredients were almost exclusively in discussions of the flu vaccine (26%). Theoretical and practical implications related are discussed.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Vaccine Communication Online Counteracting Misinformation Rumors and Lies

First Page

81

Last Page

101

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