Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism
Recently, misinformation and disinformation, as well as fake news, have become global threats to public health owing to their role in spreading viral health hazard information. The growing explosive religious fatalistic views presented on social media and widespread misinformation, disinformation, a...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-10-01
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Series: | Vaccines |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/10/1733 |
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author | Qiang Jin Syed Hassan Raza Muhammad Yousaf Rehana Munawar Amjad Ali Shah Saima Hassan Rehan Sadiq Shaikh Emenyonu C. Ogadimma |
author_facet | Qiang Jin Syed Hassan Raza Muhammad Yousaf Rehana Munawar Amjad Ali Shah Saima Hassan Rehan Sadiq Shaikh Emenyonu C. Ogadimma |
author_sort | Qiang Jin |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Recently, misinformation and disinformation, as well as fake news, have become global threats to public health owing to their role in spreading viral health hazard information. The growing explosive religious fatalistic views presented on social media and widespread misinformation, disinformation, and fake news can result in detrimental outcomes in adopting protective behavior. The moderating implications of misinformation and religious fatalism can be severe, leading to adverse effects on polio vaccine acceptance. Consequently, this research provides brief empirical evidence on the efficacy of risk communication strategies to address polio vaccine reluctance in a digital age landscape, an area that remains understudied. This research argues that the spread of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism is not solely the bane of the polio vaccine, but rather represents the absence of risk communication strategies. The study opines that polio vaccine acceptance can be improved using risk communication strategies. Recognizing these risk factors and counter-risk communication strategies, this research tested a theoretical model using the cross-sectional survey design. Overall, data was collected from 2160 parents with children aged below five years. The results, based on structural equation modeling, revealed that public service advertisements are an effective tool to counter the inverse impacts of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism. Furthermore, the inverse moderating role of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism has been verified to potentially diminish polio vaccine acceptance. These results suggest that healthcare providers must identify and address all forms of digitally disseminated information that encumbers public health behaviors. Accordingly, this research recognized the utilization of evidence-based strategic communication campaigns to cultivate and encourage the literacy necessary to counter health hazard information, including misinformation. This study’s findings will benefit health and other concerned authorities in utilizing strategic communication on different media platforms to reduce or eradicate the polio endemic. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:24:02Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-7f1cd91819d24232abaeceb79087c024 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2076-393X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-09T19:24:02Z |
publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
record_format | Article |
series | Vaccines |
spelling | doaj.art-7f1cd91819d24232abaeceb79087c0242023-11-24T03:05:07ZengMDPI AGVaccines2076-393X2022-10-011010173310.3390/vaccines10101733Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious FatalismQiang Jin0Syed Hassan Raza1Muhammad Yousaf2Rehana Munawar3Amjad Ali Shah4Saima Hassan5Rehan Sadiq Shaikh6Emenyonu C. Ogadimma7Intercultural Communication Research Center, Hebei University, Baoding 071000, ChinaInstitute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, PakistanCentre for Media and Communication Studies, University of Gujrat, Gujrat 50700, PakistanDepartment of Mass Communication, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad 44000, PakistanInstitute of Media and Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, PakistanDistrict Headquarter Hospital, Multan 66000, PakistanCentre for Applied Molecular Biology, University of the Punjab, Lahore 54000, PakistanCollege of Communication, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab EmiratesRecently, misinformation and disinformation, as well as fake news, have become global threats to public health owing to their role in spreading viral health hazard information. The growing explosive religious fatalistic views presented on social media and widespread misinformation, disinformation, and fake news can result in detrimental outcomes in adopting protective behavior. The moderating implications of misinformation and religious fatalism can be severe, leading to adverse effects on polio vaccine acceptance. Consequently, this research provides brief empirical evidence on the efficacy of risk communication strategies to address polio vaccine reluctance in a digital age landscape, an area that remains understudied. This research argues that the spread of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism is not solely the bane of the polio vaccine, but rather represents the absence of risk communication strategies. The study opines that polio vaccine acceptance can be improved using risk communication strategies. Recognizing these risk factors and counter-risk communication strategies, this research tested a theoretical model using the cross-sectional survey design. Overall, data was collected from 2160 parents with children aged below five years. The results, based on structural equation modeling, revealed that public service advertisements are an effective tool to counter the inverse impacts of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism. Furthermore, the inverse moderating role of misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and religious fatalism has been verified to potentially diminish polio vaccine acceptance. These results suggest that healthcare providers must identify and address all forms of digitally disseminated information that encumbers public health behaviors. Accordingly, this research recognized the utilization of evidence-based strategic communication campaigns to cultivate and encourage the literacy necessary to counter health hazard information, including misinformation. This study’s findings will benefit health and other concerned authorities in utilizing strategic communication on different media platforms to reduce or eradicate the polio endemic.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/10/1733polio vaccinevaccine acceptancepublic service advertisementprotection action decision modelmisinformationfake news |
spellingShingle | Qiang Jin Syed Hassan Raza Muhammad Yousaf Rehana Munawar Amjad Ali Shah Saima Hassan Rehan Sadiq Shaikh Emenyonu C. Ogadimma Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism Vaccines polio vaccine vaccine acceptance public service advertisement protection action decision model misinformation fake news |
title | Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism |
title_full | Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism |
title_fullStr | Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism |
title_full_unstemmed | Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism |
title_short | Ingraining Polio Vaccine Acceptance through Public Service Advertisements in the Digital Era: The Moderating Role of Misinformation, Disinformation, Fake News, and Religious Fatalism |
title_sort | ingraining polio vaccine acceptance through public service advertisements in the digital era the moderating role of misinformation disinformation fake news and religious fatalism |
topic | polio vaccine vaccine acceptance public service advertisement protection action decision model misinformation fake news |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/10/1733 |
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