The diffusion of vaccine hesitancy: media visibility versus scientific authority

Subjects: Library Science，Information Science >> Library Science submitted time 2022-08-17

Yao, Yonghui Zhai;Yujia Liang,Yixiao

Abstract： Abstract： Purpose/Significance Our research gathers media articles and scientific literature data (98% in English) of vaccine scientists and anti-vaxxers to investigate the differences in their media visibility and scientific authority. The media co-occurrence networks and scientific citation networks are utilized to detect the associations between the two groups. The research can inform domestic media on how unevenly vaccine topics are covered and assist people understand the causes of the spread of vaccine hesitancy.  Methods/Process  We collect data of 213 anti-vaccine advocates and 200 vaccine scientists, including 100,000 research documents and 60,000 English-language media article metadata. In order to investigate the reasons for the differences in media visibility between vaccine scientists and anti-vaxxers, our research first analysis from the group-level of the data. Then we focus on the people’s media visibility from the perspectives of passive presentation and active presentation, respectively. Finally, the media co-occurrence network and the scientific citation network are created separately to explore the association between vaccine scientists and anti-vaxxers. Results/Conclusions Anti-vaxxers have 52% more media articles than vaccine scientists when we compare solely media visibility, but when we compare the 50 most authoritative individuals in the two groups, vaccine scientists have greater media visibility than anti-vaxxers. The findings imply that the media's selection of topic buzz may have a role in the capacity of anti-vaxxers to get a lot of attention. Even though the majority of anti-vaxxers have weak scientific authority, they can still generate a lot of buzz by spreading false information and exaggerated propaganda on various social media platforms or new media, while the media visibility of vaccine scientists is primarily focused on those with higher scientific authority. Additionally, we discover that anti-vaxxers are more closely linked to each other than vaccine scientists, creating a team effect that facilitates the spread of their anti-vaccine rhetoric.

Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review

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