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Health information communication during a pandemic crisis: analysis of CDC Facebook Page during COVID-19

Sue Yeon Syn (Department of Library and Information Science, The Catholic University of America, Washington, District of Columbia, USA)

Online Information Review

ISSN: 1468-4527

Article publication date: 1 June 2021

Issue publication date: 24 August 2021

887

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Facebook Page to examine what kinds of information is shared to public using Facebook and how Facebook users share and engage with information during a health crisis situation with a case of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Facebook Graph API, CDC's Facebook Page posts and users' engagement and reactions for six months from January to June 2020 were collected and analyzed. The posts were categorized into five categories. Users' engagement and reactions include share, comment, like, love, haha, wow, sad and angry.

Findings

The findings show that the type of posts have significant association with COVID-19 situation and the level of users' engagement and reactions differs significantly when COVID-19 related information is shared. The findings show that users become more active during health emergency situation. The results provided an insight into how different types of posts gain users' attention and motivation to interact.

Originality/value

This study investigates the use of social media during a national health crisis situation. While literature provides the use of social media during emergency and crisis cases, as health crisis situation is unique in that the boundary of time and location as well as people's daily life, the findings of this study provide an insight into how health authorities could communicate with the public during a health crisis situation.

Peer review

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-09-2020-0416

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author appreciates Leah Valenti for her help with the coding process of the content analysis of this study.

Citation

Syn, S.Y. (2021), "Health information communication during a pandemic crisis: analysis of CDC Facebook Page during COVID-19", Online Information Review, Vol. 45 No. 4, pp. 672-686. https://doi.org/10.1108/OIR-09-2020-0416

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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