To address O1 and O2, the Fellow engaged in a detailed review of the research literature between 2000 and 2020 – a rigorous research undertaking to identify gaps in the literature prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
This work resulted in the publication of one research article:
Neff, T. Kaiser, J. Pasquetto, I. Jemielniak, D. Dimitrakopoulou, D., Grayson, S. Gyenes, N. Ricaurte, P. Ruiz-Soler, J., Zhang, A. (2021). Vaccine hesitancy in online spaces: A scoping review of the research literature, 2000-2020, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, October 2021, Volume 2, Issue 6
Objective 2
Identifying the need to understand qualitatively the challenge of misinformation around COVID-19 vaccination, the Fellow prioritized O2 before engaging with tasks under O1. To address O2, the Fellow designed and conducted the following studies:
A. A large-scale qualitative study over 18 months in which a series of focus groups (50 in total) were conducted. The qualitative data acquired from these focus groups provided highly in-depth and nuanced insights into the diverse challenges that coronavirus vaccination introduces to different segments of the population. More details on the tasks addressing O2 are provided in the description of the relevant Work Packages in the next section.
B. A large-scale survey experiment to evaluate the impact of coronavirus-related messaging on the vaccine for children including parents of young children under 11 years old. The survey experiment is expected to be concluded in early spring 2022. More details on the tasks addressing O2 are provided in the description of the relevant Work Packages in the next section.
This work resulted in the publication of one research article and the submission of another that is currently under review:
- Dimitrakopoulou, D. and Lewis, S. (forthcoming). The Generative Dialogue Framework and the Pursuit of Better Listening by Journalists: A Design-Centered Approach for More Constructive Conversations with Audiences. Digital Journalism; Special Issue Design + Journalism.
- Dimitrakopoulou, D. (under review). Deep Listening as a Method for Surfacing Perceptions of COVID-19 Vaccines: A Bottom-Up Approach to Unravel Public Thought and Sentiment. Science Communication.
Objective 1
To further address O1, the Fellow is studying the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccine messaging by official public health institutions on Twitter. With a special focus on the Twitter discourse on the COVID-19 vaccine for children, as the most up-to-date topic related to vaccine hesitancy, the Fellow is exploring the following research questions: (a) How are public health institutions and agencies communicating about the vaccine? (b) How are people reacting/responding to the message? What is the conversation that is happening as a reaction to those messages?
The Fellow will work on publishing the results from the social media analysis in a scientific article that will be submitted to a journal in the summer of 2022.
