Papers by Paola Pascual-Ferrá
Vaccines, 2022
Vaccination hesitancy is a barrier to India’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Considera... more Vaccination hesitancy is a barrier to India’s efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Considerable resources have been spent to promote COVID-19 vaccination, but evaluations of such efforts are sparse. Our objective was to determine how vaccine videos that manipulate message appeal (collectivistic versus individualistic), tone (humorous versus serious), and source (male versus female protagonist) toward vaccines and vaccination. We developed eight videos that manipulated the type of appeal (collectivistic or individualistic), tone of the message (humor or serious), and gender of the vaccine promoter (male or female) in a 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment. Participants (N = 2349) were randomly assigned to watch one of eight videos in an online experiment. Beliefs about vaccines and those about vaccination were obtained before and after viewing the video. Manipulation checks demonstrated that each of the three independent variables was manipulated successfully. After exposure to the video, beliefs about vaccines became more negative, while beliefs about vaccination became more positive. Humor reduced negative beliefs about vaccines. Collectivism and protagonist gender did not affect beliefs about vaccines or vaccination. Those able to remember the protagonist’s gender (a measure of attention) were likely to develop favorable beliefs if they had also seen the humorous videos. These findings suggest that people distinguish beliefs about vaccines, which deteriorated after exposure to the videos, from beliefs about vaccination, which improved. We recommend using humor when appropriate and focusing on the outcomes of vaccination, rather than on the vaccines themselves.
Gates Open Research, 2022
Background: Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest challenges to the success of coronavirus dis... more Background: Vaccine hesitancy is one of the greatest challenges to the success of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination campaigns. Videos promoting vaccines have a narrow scope focusing solely on facts, and less on the emotional and narrative elements of communication that can be equally persuasive. The role of humor, for example, has remained largely unexplored.
Objective: This study investigates whether theory-based videos can change people’s attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to receive the second COVID-19 vaccine. Our primary research question is: How do collectivistic and individualistic appeals, humor, and protagonist gender individually and jointly affect vaccination attitudes, beliefs, and intentions?
Methods: This project tapped into the underutilized Indian film industry—the world’s largest film producer—to promote vaccination messaging through short videos. Feedback from a community advisory board was utilized to inform the video scripts that were then shot by a production team. Eight videos were filmed and shared by adopting a 2 (appeal: individualistic or collectivistic) x 2 (tone: humor or non-humor) x 2 (protagonist gender: male or female) between-subjects design approach. Our sample includes Odia-speaking participants aged between 18 – 35 years old randomly assigned to watch one of the eight study videos. An online survey questionnaire, social media network analysis, and small group qualitative interviews will be utilized to explore how the entertainment-education videos can be used to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Discussion: Vaccine messages do not fall into a cultural or cognitive vacuum. People process and make sense of information based on their prior experience, properties of the message, and their social environment. Yet, these considerations have taken secondary importance in vaccine communications. This research shows that it is possible to deliver high-caliber videos created in accordance with the audience's cultural and cognitive background.
Conclusions: This study will inform future health promotion messaging through brief videos on the internet.
Keywords
Vaccination, COVID-19, entertainment-education videos, humor, gender, collectivist, vaccine hesitancy, messaging.
SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online, 2022
This guide introduces the reader to basic terminology and tools that are useful for conducting so... more This guide introduces the reader to basic terminology and tools that are useful for conducting social network analysis, including Communalytic, CrowdTangle, Netlytic, YouTube Data, and Gephi, all of which can be accessed for free and do not require coding skills. The guide includes preliminary considerations when designing social media-based studies and preparing to collect data from social media platforms. The author illustrates the process of conducting social network analysis using examples with data from YouTube and Facebook speci!cally. Through di"erent visualizations, the reader will gain a basic understanding of how to interpret social media network graphs and the kind of insights that can be derived from using this methodology. The Web Resources at the end includes a list of detailed step-by-step instruction guides for using each of the tools.
SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online, 2022
Toxicity in social media discourse around public issues is a fascinating area of research with re... more Toxicity in social media discourse around public issues is a fascinating area of research with real-world implications. When toxicity is left unchecked, it can result in devastating consequences to civil discourse and interpersonal relations online and o!ine. The debate around the use of face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic and the use of anti-and proface mask sentiment hashtags on Twitter presented an opportunity to study toxicity in social media discourse. This case study shows one way to analyze toxicity in social media discourse that is accessible to students and researchers with no prior computer programming skills. Several tools were used in conducting this research: Netlytic, a webbased software that enables live data collection from Twitter every 15 min, and Communalytic, a web-based software to conduct toxicity analysis using the Perspective API. The case study provides detailed steps for students and researchers interested in doing this kind of research, as well as some practical and ethical considerations for future studies.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2021
Objective: The aim of this study was to test the appearance of negative dominance in coronavirus ... more Objective: The aim of this study was to test the appearance of negative dominance in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine-related information and activity online. We hypothesized that if negative dominance appeared, it would be a reflection of peaks in adverse events related to the vaccine, that negative content would attract more engagement on social media than other vaccine-related posts, and posts referencing adverse events related to COVID-19 vaccination would have a higher average toxicity score. Methods: We collected data using Google Trends for search behavior, CrowdTangle for social media data, and Media Cloud for media stories, and compared them against the dates of key adverse events related to COVID-19. We used Communalytic to analyze the toxicity of social media posts by platform and topic. Results: While our first hypothesis was partially supported, with peaks in search behavior for image and YouTube videos driven by adverse events, we did not find negative dominance in other types of searches or patterns of attention by news media or on social media. Conclusion: We did not find evidence in our data to prove the negative dominance of adverse events related to COVID-19 vaccination on social media. Future studies should corroborate these findings and, if consistent, focus on explaining why this may be the case.
Big Data & Society, 2021
Medical and public health professionals recommend wearing face masks to combat the spread of the ... more Medical and public health professionals recommend wearing face masks to combat the spread of the coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19). While the majority of people in the United States support wearing face masks as an effective tool to combat COVID-19, a smaller percentage declared the recommendation by public health agencies as a government imposition and an infringement on personal liberty. Social media play a significant role in amplifying public health issues, whereby a minority against the imposition can speak loudly, perhaps using tactics of verbal aggression taking the form of toxic language. We investigated the role that toxicity plays in the online discourse around wearing face masks. Overall, we found tweets including anti-mask hashtags were significantly more likely to use toxic language, while tweets with promask hashtags were somewhat less toxic with the exception of #WearADamnMask. We conclude that the tensions between these two positions raise doubt and uncertainty around the issue, which make it difficult for health communicators to break through the clutter in order to combat the infodemic. Public health agencies and other governmental institutions should monitor toxicity trends on social media in order to better ascertain prevailing sentiment toward their recommendations and then apply these data-driven insights to refine and adapt their risk communication messaging toward mask wearing, vaccine uptake, and other interventions.
Communication Research Trends, 2021
This is the second part of the essay "The Measurement of Trust in Communication Research" (contin... more This is the second part of the essay "The Measurement of Trust in Communication Research" (continued from Part 1 published in December 2020). The aim of the essay was to review the last 100 years of the measurement of trust in Communication and related disciplines.
In: Communication Research Trends. March, 2021, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p4, 33 p.; Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, 2021. Language: English, Database: Gale Academic OneFile
Communication Research Trends, 2020
The goal of this essay is to examine how communication research has approached the concept of tru... more The goal of this essay is to examine how communication research has approached the concept of trust by examining the measures that we have developed, particularly in the areas of mass communication and media studies, interpersonal, organizational, strategic and other sub-specialties within communication, so that we may better understand how we think about trust, what are our motivations for studying trust, and the possibilities for research moving forward. The essay covers some of the most frequently used scales measuring trust in communication research in the last 100 years.
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 2020
Objective: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use of social network analysis to und... more Objective: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use of social network analysis to understand public discourse on Twitter around the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). We examined different network properties that might affect the successful dissemination by and adoption of public health messages from public health officials and health agencies.
Methods: We focused on conversations on Twitter during three key communication events from late January to early June of 2020. We used Netlytic, a free web-based software that collects publicly available data from social media sites such as Twitter.
Results: We found that the network of conversations around COVID-19 is highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected; these characteristics can hinder the successful dissemination of public health messages in a network. Competing conversations and misinformation can hamper risk communication efforts in a way that imperil public health.
Conclusion: Looking at basic metrics might create a misleading picture of the effectiveness of risk communication efforts on social media if not analyzed within the context of the larger network. Social network analysis of conversations on social media should be an integral part of how public health officials and agencies plan, monitor, and evaluate risk communication efforts.
This article reports on the first stage of a mixed-methods community-based research project invol... more This article reports on the first stage of a mixed-methods community-based research project involving residents and service-learning students in technical and professional communication courses at a faith-based university The study measured the effects of service-learning on students’ and community members’ transformational and educational experiences. To measure these outcomes, we analyzed student surveys and student critical reflections, as well as student and community member semi-structured interviews. Initial findings indicate that there were no statistically significant mean differences in some educational experiences between service-learning and non-service-learning students, but both groups reported transformational experiences. Findings also indicate that community members responded positively. This paper argues that the model the researchers present aligns with high-impact practices as defined by current scholarship in writing studies and higher education.
Communication Teacher, 2019
Faculty who are interested in activism and social justice often struggle with how to integrate pr... more Faculty who are interested in activism and social justice often struggle with how to integrate principles of community activism into courses that have been traditionally designed to prepare students for careers in the corporate world. Most public relations textbooks now dedicate a section or chapter to corporate social responsibility due to its impact on corporate image and reputation. Some textbooks will include a chapter on advocacy and nonprofits, but a look at most public relations textbooks show a scarcity of innovative approaches on how to integrate principles of activism and social justice into the teaching of common public relations practices. In the absence of textbooks that have taken this approach toward the teaching of public relations, this exercise shows how recent scholarship in communication activism can be used in the classroom as a tool to teach these principles and guide reflection on common public relations practices such as event planning and fundraising.
Conversations On Jesuit Higher Education, 2018
Short essay on the power of social media to serve as a vehicle for communal catharsis in the afte... more Short essay on the power of social media to serve as a vehicle for communal catharsis in the aftermath of a tragedy
This article provides an overview of verbal aggressiveness as a communication construct and trait... more This article provides an overview of verbal aggressiveness as a communication construct and trait. It examines communication theories and treatments for aggressive communication.
Presidential candidates use different language intensity in different situations. However, the li... more Presidential candidates use different language intensity in different situations. However, the literature is unclear as to when they should use low- or high-intensity language. We applied language expectancy theory and Edwards’ theory of presidential influence to situations varying in circumstances during a presidential campaign. Results indicated significant interactions between language intensity and economic conditions. In support of theories of persuasion applied to presidential campaign contexts, the effects of language intensity and circumstances each depend on the other. During exigent economic times, people consider a presidential candidate to have more presidentiality and trustworthiness when using high- instead of low-intensity language. And during stable economic times, people consider a presidential candidate to have more presidentiality and trustworthiness when using low- instead of high-intensity language.
Coefficient alpha is perhaps the most widely employed estimate of reliability for self-report mea... more Coefficient alpha is perhaps the most widely employed estimate of reliability for self-report measures in communication research. However, coefficient alpha misestimates internal consistency when measures are not congeneric. Congeneric measures meet the assumption of classical test theory in that all item errors are uncorrelated or random; when item errors are correlated, the measure fails to be congeneric, signaling the presence of latent factor(s) other than those the researcher intended to measure. Scholars have alerted to the fact that many self-report measures used are noncongeneric and that coefficient alpha might be yielding inaccurate, often inflated, reliability estimates. In this essay, we propose a formula for estimating the internal consistency of a measure that reflects the degree to which reliability is affected by correlated item errors.
Electroencephalographic (EEG) analysis allows measurement of electrical activity in bundles of ne... more Electroencephalographic (EEG) analysis allows measurement of electrical activity in bundles of neurons around electrodes placed at various locations on the scalp. In this essay, we provide an overview of the biological basis of EEG methodology and outline basic principles and practices of data collection. We conducted a study using EEG to test expectations from two competing cognitive theories of communication—computational theory and dynamic memory theory. Participants (N = 30) were assigned to one of two conditions—routine talk and direction-giving. EEG was used to measure the electrical activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), an area of the brain that is associated with message production. Results indicated that DLPFC activity was far more suggestive of dynamic memory theory. Specifically, electrical activity in the DLPFC was significantly lower during routine talk than during direction-giving. We discuss the implications of our findings and the limitations of EEG methods in communication research.
Meta-analysis indicates moderate correlations between the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (VAS) and o... more Meta-analysis indicates moderate correlations between the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (VAS) and other self-report measures but near-zero correlations with behavioral measures. Accurately interpreting correlations between the VAS and other variables, however, requires an examination of the untested error theory underlying the measurement model for the VAS. In two separate studies, the results of single-factor correlated uniqueness confirmatory factor analytic models revealed a pattern of significant error covariances indicating that VAS item scores are confounded by systematic error attributable to multiple unspecified latent effects. After pruning the item sets, we identified 4 items that were free of latent variable influences other than trait verbal aggressiveness. Implications for interpreting the verbal aggressiveness literature are discussed along with recommendations for revising the VAS.
The present study examines the effects of language intensity on presidential candidates' credibil... more The present study examines the effects of language intensity on presidential candidates' credibility. We manipulated language intensity levels and experience levels for hypothetical candidates for president of the United States. Manipulation checks confirmed the effectiveness of the experimental conditions. The dimensions of source credibility, character, and authoritativeness were confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis. Analysis of variance indicated that candidates using low-intensity language received higher scores on character than did candidates using high-intensity language. Experienced candidates received higher scores on authoritativeness than did inexperienced candidates. Implications for political marketing of candidates are discussed.
According to the National Safety Commission, 28% of auto accidents or 1.6 million accidents per y... more According to the National Safety Commission, 28% of auto accidents or 1.6 million accidents per year are attributable to cell phone use and texting while driving. In response to this problem, state and federal agencies, as well as coalitions of citizens such as Mothers Against Texting and Driving, are leading public campaigns to ban texting while driving. The evidence in support of such campaigns often compares texting while driving to other forms of impairment, such as drunk driving, but the evidence is often anecdotal or is selectively drawn from single studies. Such appeals do little to overcome drivers’ overestimations of their abilities to “multi-task” while driving. Based on the assumption that scientific evidence regarding the comparative effects of text messaging while driving to other forms of impairment is required to establish credibility of campaigns, the authors conducted a planned contrast meta-analysis of the research in 3 domains. Results indicated large and comparable effects on poor driving performance for texting (r = .572) and alcohol use (r = .539), as well as marihuana use (r = .27), which, although moderate, was significantly less than either texting or alcohol.
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Papers by Paola Pascual-Ferrá
Objective: This study investigates whether theory-based videos can change people’s attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to receive the second COVID-19 vaccine. Our primary research question is: How do collectivistic and individualistic appeals, humor, and protagonist gender individually and jointly affect vaccination attitudes, beliefs, and intentions?
Methods: This project tapped into the underutilized Indian film industry—the world’s largest film producer—to promote vaccination messaging through short videos. Feedback from a community advisory board was utilized to inform the video scripts that were then shot by a production team. Eight videos were filmed and shared by adopting a 2 (appeal: individualistic or collectivistic) x 2 (tone: humor or non-humor) x 2 (protagonist gender: male or female) between-subjects design approach. Our sample includes Odia-speaking participants aged between 18 – 35 years old randomly assigned to watch one of the eight study videos. An online survey questionnaire, social media network analysis, and small group qualitative interviews will be utilized to explore how the entertainment-education videos can be used to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Discussion: Vaccine messages do not fall into a cultural or cognitive vacuum. People process and make sense of information based on their prior experience, properties of the message, and their social environment. Yet, these considerations have taken secondary importance in vaccine communications. This research shows that it is possible to deliver high-caliber videos created in accordance with the audience's cultural and cognitive background.
Conclusions: This study will inform future health promotion messaging through brief videos on the internet.
Keywords
Vaccination, COVID-19, entertainment-education videos, humor, gender, collectivist, vaccine hesitancy, messaging.
In: Communication Research Trends. March, 2021, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p4, 33 p.; Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, 2021. Language: English, Database: Gale Academic OneFile
Methods: We focused on conversations on Twitter during three key communication events from late January to early June of 2020. We used Netlytic, a free web-based software that collects publicly available data from social media sites such as Twitter.
Results: We found that the network of conversations around COVID-19 is highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected; these characteristics can hinder the successful dissemination of public health messages in a network. Competing conversations and misinformation can hamper risk communication efforts in a way that imperil public health.
Conclusion: Looking at basic metrics might create a misleading picture of the effectiveness of risk communication efforts on social media if not analyzed within the context of the larger network. Social network analysis of conversations on social media should be an integral part of how public health officials and agencies plan, monitor, and evaluate risk communication efforts.
Objective: This study investigates whether theory-based videos can change people’s attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to receive the second COVID-19 vaccine. Our primary research question is: How do collectivistic and individualistic appeals, humor, and protagonist gender individually and jointly affect vaccination attitudes, beliefs, and intentions?
Methods: This project tapped into the underutilized Indian film industry—the world’s largest film producer—to promote vaccination messaging through short videos. Feedback from a community advisory board was utilized to inform the video scripts that were then shot by a production team. Eight videos were filmed and shared by adopting a 2 (appeal: individualistic or collectivistic) x 2 (tone: humor or non-humor) x 2 (protagonist gender: male or female) between-subjects design approach. Our sample includes Odia-speaking participants aged between 18 – 35 years old randomly assigned to watch one of the eight study videos. An online survey questionnaire, social media network analysis, and small group qualitative interviews will be utilized to explore how the entertainment-education videos can be used to reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Discussion: Vaccine messages do not fall into a cultural or cognitive vacuum. People process and make sense of information based on their prior experience, properties of the message, and their social environment. Yet, these considerations have taken secondary importance in vaccine communications. This research shows that it is possible to deliver high-caliber videos created in accordance with the audience's cultural and cognitive background.
Conclusions: This study will inform future health promotion messaging through brief videos on the internet.
Keywords
Vaccination, COVID-19, entertainment-education videos, humor, gender, collectivist, vaccine hesitancy, messaging.
In: Communication Research Trends. March, 2021, Vol. 40 Issue 1, p4, 33 p.; Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, 2021. Language: English, Database: Gale Academic OneFile
Methods: We focused on conversations on Twitter during three key communication events from late January to early June of 2020. We used Netlytic, a free web-based software that collects publicly available data from social media sites such as Twitter.
Results: We found that the network of conversations around COVID-19 is highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected; these characteristics can hinder the successful dissemination of public health messages in a network. Competing conversations and misinformation can hamper risk communication efforts in a way that imperil public health.
Conclusion: Looking at basic metrics might create a misleading picture of the effectiveness of risk communication efforts on social media if not analyzed within the context of the larger network. Social network analysis of conversations on social media should be an integral part of how public health officials and agencies plan, monitor, and evaluate risk communication efforts.
In this chapter, the authors identify current issues in communication research and theory that merit attention. Increased specialization, a commitment to intersubjectivity of meaning and rigor, the need to examine extant theories and further develop those that can be applied to help solve practical problems, and refining methodological issues, measurement in particular, should be key concerns among researchers interested in advancing our growing discipline. The authors argue that more powerful theories are needed in order to effectively address practical problems in communication; in turn, improving theoretical precision will require the use of improved research methods, especially regarding measurement.