ABSTRACT

Despite strong consensus about the benefits of vaccines among global health authorities, opposition to vaccination persists and may be growing. Recent research into anti-vaccination attitudes indicates they are complicated and socially embedded, not simply the result of failure to understand vaccine science. That position is supported by theories from science communication and sociological risk, which posit that divergent views about scientific subjects rarely, if ever, result solely from a deficit of knowledge. This study reconceptualises theories of language construction to reflect sociological understandings, demonstrating how scientific and non-scientific dimensions of the vaccination debate operate according to different ‘modes’ of communication, each with ‘radically different procedures for verification’. Understanding this modal distinction may assist pro-vaccination communicators construct messages that more directly address concerns about vaccination objection currently unattended to by deficit model communication.

摘要

尽管全球卫生主管部门对疫苗的益处达成了共识，但对疫苗接种的反对仍在持续，并且可能还在增长。最近对反疫苗态度的研究表明，它们是复杂的和社会根深蒂固的，而不仅仅是不了解疫苗科学的结果。这一立场得到了科学传播和社会学风险理论的支持，这些理论认为，关于科学学科的不同观点很少（即使有的话）完全是由知识不足造成的。这项研究重新构想了语言建构的理论，以反映社会学的理解，论证了疫苗辩论的科学性和非科学性是如何根据不同的“交流方式”进行操作的，每种交流方式都具有“完全不同的验证程序”。