Finding the facts in an infodemic
Framing effective Covid-19 messages to connect people to authoritative content
Bibliographic Data
The public’s need for timely and trusted COVID-19 information remains high. Governments and global health agencies such as the WHO have sought to disseminate accurate and timely information to counteract misinformation and disinformation that has arisen as part of an ‘infodemic’—the overabundance of information on COVID-19—some accurate and some not. In early 2020, WHO began a collaboration with Google to run online public service announcements on COVID-19, in the form of search ads displayed above results of Google Search queries. Web-based text ads can drive online searchers of COVID-19 information to authoritative COVID-19 content but determining what message is most effective is a challenge. WHO wanted to understand which message framing, that is, the way in which ad information is worded for the public, leads searchers to click through to WHO content. WHO tested 71 text ads in English across four COVID-19 topics using a mix of message frames: descriptive, collective, gain, loss, appeals to values and emphasising reasons. Between 11 September 2020 and 23 November 2020, there were 13 million views of the experimental WHO text ads leading to 1.4 million click-throughs to the WHO website. Within the set of 71 ads, there was a large spread between the most effective and least effective messages; for messages on COVID-19, the best performing framings were more than twice as effective as the worst performing framings (18.7% vs 8.5% engagement rate). Health practitioners can apply the messaging tactics WHO found to be successful to rapidly optimise messages for their own public health campaigns and better reach the public with authoritative information. Similar collaboration between big technology companies and governments and global health agencies has the potential to advance public health
Advertising · Business · Computer security · Disinformation · Dissemination · Information Dissemination · Internet privacy · Misinformation · Pandemic · Political science · Public health · Public relations · Social media · World Wide Web · Computer Science · COVID-19 and Mental Health · Engineering · Medicine · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy
Age Differences in Preferred Methods of Obtaining and Understanding Health Related Information During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Australia
When do persuasive messages on vaccine safety steer Covid-19 vaccine acceptance and recommendations? Behavioural insights from a randomised controlled experiment in Malaysia
Uncertainty Management in Chinese Mainstream Media’s Health Communication on Weibo After Covid-19 Policy Shifts
Strategies and effectiveness of the Chinese government debunking Covid-19 rumors on Sina Weibo
Health Message Framing Effects on Attitudes, Intentions, and Behavior
Novel strategies to support global promotion of Covid-19 vaccination
Encouraging Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake Through Effective Health Communication
Harnessing behavioural science in public health campaigns to maintain ‘social distancing’ in response to the Covid-19 pandemic
Motivating social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic
Shaping perceptions to motivate healthy behavior
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |