ABSTRACT

The Ebola outbreak that started in 2014 had infected 28,652 people and taken more than 11,325 lives by spring 2016. Along with this infectious disease pandemic, a pandemic of fear surfaced, especially on social media platforms. Yet little is known about the types of communications, the larger ecological context, and the associated risk perception factors that were present in the social media discussion. This study focused on the social media platforms Twitter and Pinterest and analyzed tweets and pins through the lens of a risk communication theory, the Risk Perception Model, as well as a health behavior theory, the Health Belief Model. Large differences were found in the presence of risk perception variables and health behavior variables between the two platforms, and recommendations for public health practitioners to address fear, anger, and attitudinal biases related to Ebola are included.

摘要

2014年开始的埃博拉疫情已感染28,652人，到2016年春季已夺走11,325多人的生命。伴随着这种传染病的流行，尤其是在社交媒体平台上，恐惧大流行浮出水面。对于社交媒体讨论中出现的交流类型，更大的生态环境以及相关的风险感知因素，人们知之甚少。这项研究的重点是社交媒体平台Twitter和Pinterest，并通过风险交流理论（风险感知模型）以及健康行为理论（健康信念模型）的角度分析了推文和图钉。在两个平台之间存在风险感知变量和健康行为变量时，发现存在很大差异，并且建议公共卫生从业人员解决恐惧，愤怒，