Search, seek, share: A national survey assessing Americans’ information channels and sharing behaviors during a pandemic

Lauri Baker; Ashley McLeod-Morin; Shelli Rampold; Angela Lindsey; Ricky Telg; Meredith Ogelsby

doi:10.37433/aad.v3i2.219

Authors

Lauri Baker University of Florida, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4241-6077
Ashley McLeod-Morin University of Florida, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8649-9783
Shelli Rampold University of Tennessee, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4815-7157
Angela Lindsey University of Florida, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9859-7962
Ricky Telg University of Florida, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8729-1634
Meredith Ogelsby University of Florida, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3666-6456

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37433/aad.v3i2.219

Keywords:

Extension, communication, COVID-19, public health, agriculture

Abstract

The spread of accurate and inaccurate information happened quickly in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and understanding how this occurred is important to prepare for communication of future disease outbreaks. The purpose of this study was to understand Americans’ information seeking and sharing behaviors during the early stages of COVID-19 and was guided by the following objectives: identify passive sources/channels of information; identify active sources/channels of information; and describe how frequently and across which channels/sources the U.S. public shared information about COVID-19 in early stages of the pandemic. Results indicated people first found information about COVID-19 from personal communication but turned to national and international organizations if they were to actively seek information. Scientists and universities were some of the least sought after and shared sources of information. The sources shared most were from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. Implications from this research are a need for communicators to use grassroots communication efforts during a crisis, to actively share information early during a crisis, to share information outside of traditional academic networks, and to collaborate with sources inside and outside of traditional Extension networks.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

American Journal of Managed Care Staff. (2021, January 1). A timeline of COVID-19 developments in 2020. https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020

Baker, R., Brick, J. M., Bates, N.A., Battaglia, M., Couper, M.P., Dever, J. A., Gile, K. J., & Tourangeau, R. (2013). Report of the AAPOR task force on non-probability sampling. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. 1(2), 90–143. https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smt008

Bates, M. J. (2005). Berrypicking. In K.E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & L. McKechnie (Eds.), Theories of information behavior (pp. 58-62). Information Today Inc.

Brown, D. (2020). World Health Organization joins TikTok to share 'reliable' coronavirus information. Medical Press. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-world-health-tiktok-reliable-coronavirus.html

Chan, A. K. M., Nickson, C. P., Rudolph, J. W., Lee, A., & Joynt, G. M. (2020). Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination: Early experience from the COVID-19 pandemic. Anaesthesia, 75, 1579-1582. https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.15057

Clements, J. M. (2020). Knowledge and behaviors toward COVID-19 among U.S. residents during the early days of the pandemic: Cross-sectional questionnaire. JMIR Public Health & Surveillance, 6(2), e19161. https://doi.org/10.2196/19161

Colton, D., & Covert, R. (2007). Designing and constructing instruments for social research and evaluation. Jossey-Bass.

Covello, V. T. (2003). Best practices in public health risk and crisis communication. Journal of Health Communication, 8(S1), 5–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/713851971

Covello, V., & Sandman, P. M. (2001). Risk communication: Evolution and revolution. In A. Wolbarst, (Ed.), Solutions to an Environment in Peril (pp. 164-178). John Hopkins University Press. https://www.psandman.com/articles/covello.htm

Dillman, D. A., Smyth, J. D., Christian, L. M. (2014). Internet, phone, mail and mixed-mode surveys: The tailored design method (4th ed.). John Wiley

Endsley, T., Wu, Y., & Reep, J. (2014, May 18-21). The source of the story: Evaluating the credibility of crisis information sources. [Paper presentation]. ISCRAM 2014 Conference Proceedings - 11th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (160–164), University Park, Pennsylvania, USA. http://idl.iscram.org/files/endsley/2014/475_Endsley_etal2014.pdf

Glaser, B. (1965). The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis. Social Problems, 12(4), 436–445. https://doi.org/10.2307/798843

Kahlor, L., Dunwoody, S., Griffin, R. J., & Neuwirth, K. (2006). Seeking and processing information about impersonal risk. Science Communication, 28(2), 163–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547006293916

Kalton, G., & Flores-Cervantes, I. (2003). Weighting methods. Journal of Official Statistics, 19(2), 81–97. http://www.sverigeisiffror.scb.se/contentassets/ca21efb41fee47d293bbee5bf7be7fb3/weighting-methods.pdf

Kenyon, S. (2020, May 20). Coronavirus news: TikTok experiences boom during COVID-19 pandemic. ABC News. Arts & Entertainment. https://abc7ny.com/tiktok-social-medial-manuela-frey-coronavirus-new-york/6201468

Liu, B. F., Austin, L., & Jin, Y. (2011). How publics respond to crisis communication strategies: The interplay of information form and source. Public Relations Review, 37(4), 345–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.08.004

Nguyen, T., Yoon, D., & Tsetsura, K. (2017, March 8-12). Exploring the effects of media and information sources on individuals’ attitude, perception, and behavior intentions toward crisis responses [Paper presentation]. In B. R. Yook, Y. G. Ji, & Z. F. Chen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 20th international public relations research conference (218–229). Orlando, Florida, USA. https://www.instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/IPRRC20-proceedings_Final.pdf#page=219

Rohr, J. R., Barrett, C. B., Civitello, D. J., Craft, M. E., Delius, B., DeLeo, G. A., Hudson, P. J., Jouanard, N., Nguyen, K. H., Ostfeld, R. S., Remais, J. V., Riveau, G., Sokolow, S. H., & Tilman, D. (2019). Emerging human infectious diseases and the links to global food production. Nature Sustainability, 2(6), 445–456. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0293-3

Sahin A.R., Erdogan A, Ağaoğlu P.M., Dineri Y, Cakirci A.Y., Senel M.E., Okyay, R.A., & Tasdogan, A.M.(2020). 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: A review of the current literature. Eurasian Journal of Medicine and Oncology, 4(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.14744/ejmo.2020.12220

Telg, R. W. (2019). Risk and crisis communication: When things go wrong (WC093). University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Electronic Data Information Source Publication. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc093

Wang, K. (2020, March 26). How a coronavirus safety-themed dance took the world by storm, according to the TikTok star who created it. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-song-dance-wash-hands-quang-dang-2020-3