Attractability and Virality: The Role of Message Features and Social Influence in Health News Diffusion

What makes health news articles attractable and viral? Why do some articles diffuse widely by prompting audience selections (attractability) and subsequent social retransmissions (virality), while others do not? Identifying what drives social epidemics of health news coverage is crucial to our understanding of its impact on the public, especially in the emerging media environment where news consumption has become increasingly selective and social. This dissertation examines how message features and social influence affect the volume and persistence of attractability and virality within the context of the online diffusion of New York Times (NYT) health news articles. The dissertation analyzes (1) behavioral data of audience selections and retransmissions of the NYT articles and (2) associated article content and context data that are collected using computational social science approaches (automated data mining; computer-assisted content analysis) along with more traditional methods (manual content analysis; message evaluation survey). Analyses of message effects on the total volume of attractability and virality show that articles with high informational utility and positive sentiment invite more frequent selections and retransmissions, and that articles are also more attractable when presenting controversial, emotionally evocative, and familiar content. Furthermore, these analyses reveal that informational utility and novelty have stronger positive associations with email-specific virality, while emotion-related message features, content familiarity, and exemplification play a larger role in triggering social media-based retransmissions. Temporal dynamics analyses demonstrate social influence-driven cumulative advantage effects, such that articles which stay on popular-news lists longer invite more frequent subsequent selections and retransmissions. These analyses further show that the social influence effects are stronger for articles containing message features found to enhance the total volume of attractability and virality. This suggests that those synergistic interactions might underlie the observed message effects on total selections and retransmissions. Exploratory analyses reveal that the effects of social influence and message features tend to be similar for both (1) the volume of audience news selections and retransmissions and (2) the persistence of those behaviors. However, some message features, such as expressed emotionality, are relatively unique predictors of persistence outcomes. Results are discussed in light of their implications for communication research and practice

The effects of evidence type on online health headline selection – A moderation of thinking style

The acquisition of health information is conducive to promoting the public's health literacy and improving citizens' health. The display of online health information features an entering page that lists headlines hyperlinked to health article pages. Among the various techniques that help increase headline effectiveness, this study was particularly interested in evidence type (anecdotal type/numerical) and investigated how it influenced headline selection in the form of fixation and clicking and considered thinking styles as a possible moderator. Based on an eyetracking experiment, this study found that participants were more likely to click on numerical headline than anecdotal headline. In addition, message credibility had moderating effects on the relationship between evidence type and fixation and that between evidence type and clicking count. The findings provide useful implications for creating effective online headlines in the health domain and enrich our understanding of how information characteristics affect information selection

Assessing Depression and Attributional Styles as Determinants of Engagement in Digital Behavior Change Interventions

Digital behavior change interventions are capable of promoting significant change in health behaviors, but often suffer high disengagement and nonusage dropout. The purpose of this dissertation was to determine if depressive symptoms or pessimistic attributional styles negatively influenced proximal engagement behaviors among users of study websites or smartphone apps. Three different interventions were assessed across the three Aims. Aim One used structural equation modeling to determine if CES-D scores were indirectly associated with 6-month weight change outcomes through mediating latent constructs for engagement and adherence among adults (N=338) in a 12-month eHealth intervention. CES-D scores were negatively associated with both engagement and adherence, which were positively associated with 6-month weight loss, contributing to a significant negative indirect effect. Additionally, CES-D scores predicted significantly higher risk of users disengaging from the website over time. Aim Two applied mixed effects modeling to estimate participants’ (N=52) likelihood of viewing messages as a function of the number of goals they were currently failing in an mHealth microrandomized pilot, and a generalization of log-linear regression analysis to assess the likelihood of reading consecutive program messages following receipt of goal-discrepant messages, and if these relationships were moderated by CES-D scores, net of other covariates. The more goals participants were failing, the less likely they were to read any program messages sent. Additionally, receipt of goal discrepant messages was associated with a significantly lower likelihood of participants reading the next program message sent, compared to neutral messages or no message; however, these relationships did not appear to be influenced by CES-D scores. Aim Three compared the CES-D indicating depressive symptoms and the DAQ indicating pessimistic attributional styles for their potential to predict lower engagement following goal-discrepant feedback using mixed effects regression among a subsample of participants (N=132) in an ongoing mHealth intervention. Both scales were associated with lower odds of reading the next program message sent following receipt of goal-discrepant feedback, and higher odds of disengagement, but no effects on app page views between messages. These results provide some support for tailoring message content based on psychological indicators to reduce negative influences on program engagement.Doctor of Philosoph

Thinking about the media: a review of theory and research on media perceptions, media effects perceptions, and their consequences

This review explicates the past, present and future of theory and research concerning audience perceptions of the media as well as the effects that perceptions of media have on audiences. Before the sections that examine media perceptions and media effects perceptions, we first identify various psychological concepts and processes involved in generating media-related perceptions. In the first section, we analyze two types of media perceptions: media trust/credibility perceptions and bias perceptions, focusing on research on the Hostile Media Perception. In both cases, we address the potential consequences of these perceptions. In the second section, we assess theory and research on perceptions of media effects (often referred to as Presumed Influence) and their consequences (referred to as the Influence of Presumed Influence). As examples of Presumed Influence, we evaluate the literature on the Persuasive Press Inference and the Third-Person Perception. The bodies of research on media perceptions and media effects perceptions have been featured prominently in the top journals of the field of mass communication over the past 20 years. Here we bring them together in one synthetic theoretical review

Employees on social media: A multi-spokespeople model of CSR communication

Increasing societal and stakeholder expectations, along with easy access to information through social media, means corporations are asked for more information. The traditional approach to CSR communication, with corporations controlling what and how much to share with stakeholders has been restructured by social media, with stakeholders taking control. As legitimacy on social media is created through the positive and negative judgements of stakeholders, corporations must plan how to meet stakeholder demands for information effectively and legitimately, and this includes choosing appropriate spokespeople. Corporations in India have now turned towards their employees as CSR spokespeople. By encouraging employee activity on social media, these corporations are attempting to meet stakeholder demands and generate legitimacy through spokespeople whom stakeholders perceive as equals. This article examines that strategy and discusses its viability of using employees as spokespeople for CSR communication and engagement with stakeholder

Integrative Framing Analysis

Much of framing scholarship focuses either exclusively on the analysis of words or of visuals. This book aims to address this gap by proposing a six-step approach to the analysis of verbal frames, visual frames and the interplay between them—an integrative framing analysis. This approach is then demonstrated through a study investigating the way words and visuals are used to frame people living with HIV/AIDS in various communication contexts: the news, public service announcements and special interest publications. This application of integrative framing analysis reveals differences between verbal frames and visual frames in the same messages, underscoring the importance of looking at these frames together

Integrative Framing Analysis

Much of framing scholarship focuses either exclusively on the analysis of words or of visuals. This book aims to address this gap by proposing a six-step approach to the analysis of verbal frames, visual frames and the interplay between them—an integrative framing analysis. This approach is then demonstrated through a study investigating the way words and visuals are used to frame people living with HIV/AIDS in various communication contexts: the news, public service announcements and special interest publications. This application of integrative framing analysis reveals differences between verbal frames and visual frames in the same messages, underscoring the importance of looking at these frames together

Colorectal Cancer

The projections for future growth in the number of new patients with colorectal cancer in most parts of the world remain unfavorable. When we consider the substantial morbidity and mortality that accompanies the disease, the acute need for improvements and better solutions in patient care becomes evident. This volume, organized in five sections, represents a synopsis of the significant efforts from scientists, clinicians and investigators towards finding improvements in different patient care aspects including nutrition, diagnostic approaches, treatment strategies with the addition of some novel therapeutic approaches, and prevention. For scientists involved in investigations that explore fundamental cellular events in colorectal cancer, this volume provides a framework for translational integration of cell biological and clinical information. Clinicians as well as other healthcare professionals involved in patient management for colorectal cancer will find this volume useful