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Understanding the messages and motivation of vaccine hesitant or refusing social media influencers
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Understanding the messages and motivation of vaccine hesitant or refusing social media influencers

Amy E. Leader, Amelia Burke-Garcia, Philip M. Massey and Jill B. Roark
Vaccine, v 39(2), pp 350-356
08 Jan 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2020.11.058
PMID: 33280856
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8152170View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified),  Open

Abstract

Health communication Information dissemination Online influencers Social media Vaccination Vaccine hesitancy
While anti-vaccine messages on social media have been studied for content, reach, and effectiveness, less is known about those who create and promote the messages. Online influencers, or ‘everyday people who are influential within their online social networks’, are viewed as trusted voices who are often making similar life decisions as their followers. Therefore, their experiences with and perspectives on health issues can be persuasive. We collaborated with a formal network of online influencers to interview, using a semi-structured interview guide, vaccine hesitant influencer mothers about their views on vaccination; their process for developing health-related social media content; their motivation to promote anti-vaccine messages; and their opinions on current vaccination messaging. Prescreening ensured a diverse sample by race/ethnicity, age, education, number of children, and geographic residence. Interviews occurred by telephone, were audio recorded, and transcribed. Themes were generated independently by two coders using a deductive coding approach. We interviewed 15 online influencer mothers from across the U.S. (average age 39 years old; all married; 13 Caucasian, 1 African American, 1 Hispanic). In some capacity, 5 of the 15 wrote about vaccination on their blog. Those who chose not to post anti-vaccine content did so for fear of alienating followers or having their platform be the site of combative discourse among readers. When researching their social media posts, the influencers did not trust mainstream sources of health information and relied on alternative sources and search engines. Implications: This exploratory study interviewed influential mothers who have the ability to spread anti-vaccine messages on social media. While most do not contribute to the anti-vaccine sentiment, understanding the motivation and practices of those that do assists the public health community in better understanding the online vaccination communication environment, leading to more effective messages to counterbalance anti-vaccine content on social media.

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10 Record Views
29 citations in Web of Science
32 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Immunology
Medicine, Research & Experimental
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