Undermining Credibility: The Limited Influence of Online Comments to Vaccine-related News Stories

References

• Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments. In H. Guetzkow (Ed.), Groups, leadership, and men (pp. 177–190). Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie Press.
   Google Scholar
• Broniatowski, D. A., Jamison, A. M., Qi, S., AlKulaib, L., Chen, T., Benton, A., … Dredze, M. (2018). Weaponized health communication: Twitter bots and Russian trolls amplify the vaccine debate. American Journal of Public Health, 108(10), 1378–1384. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304567
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• CDC. (2019). Flu Vaccination Coverage, United States, 2018–19 Influenza Season. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/coverage1819estimates.htm#:~:text=Vaccination%20coverage%20varied%20by%20state,the%2owest%20coverage%20for%20adults
   Google Scholar
• Chun, J. W., & Lee, M. J. (2017). When does individuals’ willingness to speak out increase on social media? Perceived social support and perceived power/control. Computers in Human Behavior, 74, 120–129. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.04.010
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Clarke, C. E. (2008). A question of balance: The autism-vaccine controversy in the British and American elite press. Science Communication, 30(1), 77–107. doi:10.1177/1075547008320262
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dube, E., Vivion, M., & MacDonald, N. E. (2015). Vaccine hesitancy, vaccine refusal and the anti-vaccine movement: Influence, impact and implications. Expert Review of Vaccines, 14(1), 99–117. doi:10.1586/14760584.2015.964212
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Dunlop, R. (2013). Anti-vaccination activists should not be given a say in the media. The Guardian, 35.
   Google Scholar
• Funk, C., Kennedy, B., & Hefferon, M. (2017). Vast majority of Americans say benefits of childhood vaccines outweigh risks. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.
   Google Scholar
• Gallup (2019). Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
   Google Scholar
• Hayes, A. F. (2018). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford publications.
   Google Scholar
• Heinonen, A. (2011). The Journalist’s relationship with users: New dimensions to conventional roles. In J. B. Singer, et al. (Ed.), Participatory journalism: Guarding open gate at online newspapers (pp. 34–53). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
   Google Scholar
• Hlavach, L., & Freivogel, W. H. (2011). Ethical implications of anonymous comments posted to online news stories. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 26(1), 21–37. doi:10.1080/08900523.2011.525190
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Horne, Z., Powell, D., Hummel, J. E., & Holyoak, K. J. (2015). Countering antivaccination attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(33), 10321–10324. doi:10.1073/pnas.1504019112
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Houston, J. B., Hansen, G. J., & Nisbett, G. S. (2011). Influence of user comments on perceptions of media bias and third-person effect in online news. Electronic News, 5(2), 79–92. doi:10.1177/1931243111407618
   Google Scholar
• Hwang, H., Kim, Y., & Huh, C. U. (2014). Seeing is believing: Effects of uncivil online debate on political polarization and expectations of deliberation. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(4), 621–633. doi:10.1080/08838151.2014.966365
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Jacobs, W., Amuta, A. O., & Jeon, K. C. (2017). Health information seeking in the digital age: An analysis of health information seeking behavior among US adults. Cogent Social Sciences, 3(1), 1302785. doi:10.1080/23311886.2017.1302785
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Johnen, M., Jungblut, M., & Ziegele, M. (2018). The digital outcry: What incites participation behavior in an online firestorm? New Media & Society, 20(9), 3140–3160. doi:10.1177/1461444817741883
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Jolley, D., & Douglas, K. M. (2014). The effects of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories on vaccination intentions. PloS One, 9(2), e89177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089177
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kata, A. (2012). Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm–An overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine, 30(25), 3778 3789. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.11.112
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Kim, E.-M., & Sun, Y.-H. (2006). The effect of replies in Internet news on the audience. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 50, 33–64.
   Google Scholar
• Kim, M. (2016). Facebook’s Spiral of Silence and participation: The role of political expression on Facebook and partisan strength in political participation. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 19(12), 696–702. doi:10.1089/cyber.2016.0137
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• LaBarre, S. (2013, September 24). Why we’re shutting off our comments. PopularScience. com.
   Google Scholar
• Lee, E. J., & Jang, Y. J. (2010). What do others’ reactions to news on Internet portal sites tell us? Effects of presentation format and readers’ need for cognition on reality perception. Communication Research, 37(6), 825–846. doi:10.1177/0093650210376189
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Lee, M. J., & Chun, J. W. (2016). Reading others’ comments and public opinion poll results on social media: Social judgment and spiral of empowerment. Computers in Human Behavior, 65, 479–487. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.09.007
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Matthes, J., Knoll, J., & von Sikorski, C. (2018). The “spiral of silence” revisited: A meta analysis on the relationship between perceptions of opinion support and political opinion expression. Communication Research, 45(1), 3–33. doi:10.1177/0093650217745429
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• McKee, M., & Middleton, J. (2019). Information wars: Tackling the threat from disinformation on vaccines. British Medical Journal, 365, l2144. doi:10.1136/bmj.l2144
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Meyer, H. K., & Speakman, B. (2016). Quieting the commenters: The spiral of silence’s persistent effect on online news forums. ISOJ, 6(1), 51.
   Google Scholar
• Meyer, P. (1988). Defining and measuring credibility of newspapers: Developing an index. Journalism Quarterly, 65(3), 567–574. doi:10.1177/107769908806500301
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Neubaum, G., & Krämer, N. C. (2017). Monitoring the opinion of the crowd: Psychological mechanisms underlying public opinion perceptions on social media. Media Psychology, 20(3), 502–531. doi:10.1080/15213269.2016.1211539
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). The halo effect: Evidence for unconscious alteration of judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(4), 250. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.35.4.250
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Noelle-Neumann, E. (1977). Turbulences in the climate of opinion: Methodological applications of the spiral of silence theory. Public Opinion Quarterly, 41(2), 143–158. doi:10.1086/268371
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Noelle-Neumann, E. (1993). The spiral of silence: Public opinion—Our social skin. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
   Google Scholar
• Nyhan, B., & Reifler, J. (2015). Does correcting myths about the flu vaccine work? An experimental evaluation of the effects of corrective information. Vaccine, 33(3), 459–464. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.11.017
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Paul, C., & Matthews, M. (2016). The Russian “firehose of falsehood” propaganda model (PP. 2–7).  Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
   Google Scholar
• Prier, J. (2017). Commanding the trend: Social media as information warfare. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 11(4), 50–85.
   Google Scholar
• Quinn, S. C. (2018). Probing beyond individual factors to understand influenza and pneumococcal vaccine uptake. American Journal of Public Health, 108(4), 427–429. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304326
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Shapiro, G. K., Holding, A., Perez, S., Amsel, R., & Rosberger, Z. (2016). Validation of the vaccine conspiracy beliefs scale. Papillomavirus Research, 2, 167–172. doi:10.1016/j.pvr.2016.09.001
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Stroud, N. J., Scacco, J. M., Muddiman, A., & Curry, A. L. (2015). Changing deliberative norms on news organizations’ Facebook sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 20(2), 188–203. doi:10.1111/jcc4.12104
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Tomeny, T. S., Vargo, C. J., & El-Toukhy, S. (2017). Geographic and demographic correlates of autism-related anti-vaccine beliefs on Twitter, 2009-15. Social Science & Medicine, 191, 168–175. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.08.041
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• van der Linden, S. L., Clarke, C. E., & Maibach, E. W. (2015). Highlighting consensus among medical scientists increases public support for vaccines: Evidence from a randomized experiment. BMC Public Health, 15(1), 1207. doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2541-4
   PubMedGoogle Scholar
• Webb, S. (2014). A new digital community? An analysis of Gawker’s commenters-to contributors approach. Journal of Magazine & New Media Research, 15(2), 1–15.
   Google Scholar
• Williams, K. D. (2007). Ostracism. Annual Review of Psychology, 58(1), 425–452. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085641
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Winter, S., Brückner, C., & Krämer, N. C. (2015). They came, they liked, they commented: Social influence on Facebook news channels. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 18(8), 431–436. doi:10.1089/cyber.2015.0005
   PubMed Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Wu, T. Y., & Atkin, D. J. (2018). To comment or not to comment: Examining the influences of anonymity and social support on one’s willingness to express in online news discussions. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4512–4532. doi:10.1177/1461444818776629
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• Xie, T., Grady, C., Cacciatore, M., & Nowak, G. (2019). Understanding flu vaccination acceptance among US adults: The health belief model and media sources. Proceedings of the International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference, 2(11), 35–37. doi:10.30658/icrcc.2019.10
   Google Scholar
• Zogby. (2018). Americans’ views on vaccines and infectious disease outbreaks. Research America. Retrieved from https://www.researchamerica.org/sites/default/files/MAY182018_VaccinePressRelease_inal.pdf
   Google Scholar