IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i1p891-d1024257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

COVID-19 News Exposure and Vaccinations: A Moderated Mediation of Digital News Literacy Behavior and Vaccine Misperceptions

Author

Listed:
  • Yuanyuan Wu

    (Department of Communications and New Media, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117416, Singapore)

  • Ozan Kuru

    (Department of Communications and New Media, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117416, Singapore)

  • Dam Hee Kim

    (Department of Communication, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA)

  • Seongcheol Kim

    (School of Media and Communication, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea)

Abstract

Being exposed to and believing in misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is a challenge for vaccine acceptance. Yet, how countervailing factors such as news literacy could complicate “the information exposure—belief in vaccine misinformation—vaccination” path needs to be unpacked to understand the communication of scientific information about COVID-19. This study examines (1) the mediating role of belief in vaccine misinformation between COVID-19 information exposure and vaccination behavior and (2) the moderating role of news literacy behaviors. We examine these relationships by collecting data in two distinct societies: the United States and South Korea. We conducted online surveys in June and September 2021 respectively for each country ( N = 1336 [the U.S.]; N = 550 [South Korea]). Our results showed a significant moderated mediation model, in which the association between digital media reliance and COVID-19 vaccination was mediated through vaccine misperceptions, and the relationship between digital media reliance and misinformed belief was further moderated by news literacy behavior. Unexpectedly, we found that individuals with stronger news literacy behavior were more susceptible to misinformation belief. This study contributes to the extant literature on the communication of COVID-19 science through probing into the mediating role of belief in vaccine-related misinformation and the moderating role of news literacy behavior in relation to COVID-19 information exposure and vaccination behaviors. It also reflects the concept of news literacy behavior and discusses how it could be further refined to exert its positive impact in correcting misinformation beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuanyuan Wu & Ozan Kuru & Dam Hee Kim & Seongcheol Kim, 2023. "COVID-19 News Exposure and Vaccinations: A Moderated Mediation of Digital News Literacy Behavior and Vaccine Misperceptions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:1:p:891-:d:1024257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/891/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/1/891/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pang, Hua & Liu, Jun & Lu, Jiahui, 2022. "Tackling fake news in socially mediated public spheres: A comparison of Weibo and WeChat," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Miller, E.A. & Pole, A., 2010. "Diagnosis blog: Checking up on health blogs in the blogosphere," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(8), pages 1514-1519.
    3. Brendan Nyhan, 2020. "Facts and Myths about Misperceptions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 220-236, Summer.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Angelika Bernsteiner & Thomas Schubatzky & Claudia Haagen-Schützenhöfer, 2023. "Misinformation as a Societal Problem in Times of Crisis: A Mixed-Methods Study with Future Teachers to Promote a Critical Attitude towards Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-22, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jordi Brandts & Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan & Judith Panadés, 2022. "Images Say More Than Just Words: Effectiveness of Visual and Text Communication in Dispelling the Rent–Control Misconception," Working Papers 1322, Barcelona School of Economics.
    2. Kerim Peren Arin & Juan A. Lacomba & Francisco Lagos & Deni Mazrekaj & Marcel Thum, 2021. "Misperceptions and Fake News during the Covid-19 Pandemic," CESifo Working Paper Series 9066, CESifo.
    3. Sergei Guriev & Elias Papaioannou, 2022. "The Political Economy of Populism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 753-832, September.
    4. Nadine Rozenkranz & Andreas Eckhardt & Mirko Kühne & Christoph Rosenkranz, 2013. "Health Information on the Internet," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 5(4), pages 259-274, August.
    5. Sebastian Blesse & Philipp Lergetporer & Justus Nover & Katharina Werner, 2023. "Transparency and Policy Competition: Experimental Evidence from German Citizens and Politicians," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 387, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    6. Marino, Maria & Iacono, Roberto & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2023. "(Mis-)perceptions, information, and political polarization," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119268, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Brandts, Jordi & Busom, Isabel & Lopez-Mayan, Cristina & Panadés, Judith, 2022. "Dispelling misconceptions about economics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    8. Lergetporer, Philipp & Woessmann, Ludger, 2023. "Earnings information and public preferences for university tuition: Evidence from representative experiments," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    9. Ing-Haw Cheng & Alice Hsiaw, 2023. "Bayesian Doublespeak," Working Papers 135, Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School.
    10. Adeola Abdulateef Elega & Bahire Efe Özad, 2018. "New media scholarship in Africa: an evaluation of Africa-focused blog related research from 2006 to 2016," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 2239-2254, September.
    11. Wen Zhang & Qiang Wang & Jian Li & Zhenzhong Ma & Gokul Bhandari & Rui Peng, 2023. "What makes deceptive online reviews? A linguistic analysis perspective," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Markus Demary & Timo Wollmershäuser & Gerit Vogt & Gertud R. Traud & Stefan Mütze & Thomas Mayer & Pascal Seiler & Lukas Haffert & Nils Redeker & Tobias Rommel, 2021. "Konsumstau, höhere Energiepreise, lockere Geldpolitik: Droht nach Corona die große Inflation?," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 74(09), pages 03-26, September.
    13. Collette Sosnowy, 2014. "Practicing Patienthood Online: Social Media, Chronic Illness, and Lay Expertise," Societies, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-14, June.
    14. Rehse, Dominik & Tremöhlen, Felix, 2020. "Fostering participation in digital public health interventions: The case of digital contact tracing," ZEW Discussion Papers 20-076, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Gsottbauer, Elisabeth & Kirchler, Michael & König-Kersting, Christian, 2024. "Financial professionals and climate experts have diverging perspectives on climate action," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122590, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Beatriz Tovar & David Boto-García & José Francisco Baños Pino, 2024. "Meeting externalities: The effects of educational training on support for tourism activities," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 785-805, May.
    17. Jordi Brandts & Isabel Busom & Cristina Lopez-Mayan, 2024. "Do Voice and Social Information Contribute to Changing Views about Rent Control Policy?," Working Papers 1428, Barcelona School of Economics.
    18. Kai Ruggeri & Bojana Većkalov & Lana Bojanić & Thomas L. Andersen & Sarah Ashcroft-Jones & Nélida Ayacaxli & Paula Barea-Arroyo & Mari Louise Berge & Ludvig D. Bjørndal & Aslı Bursalıoğlu & Vanessa Bü, 2021. "The general fault in our fault lines," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 1369-1380, October.
    19. Teck Hong Tan & Izian Idris, 2023. "Assessing the significance of first place and online third places in supporting Malaysian seniors’ well-being during the pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Pang, Hua & Ruan, Yang, 2023. "Determining influences of information irrelevance, information overload and communication overload on WeChat discontinuance intention: The moderating role of exhaustion," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:1:p:891-:d:1024257. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.