ABSTRACT

The rise of social media as a source of science and health information has brought challenges to informed citizenship and social trust due to the spread of misinformation, particularly anti-vaccination messages that incite hatred and discourage necessary health precautions. These messages often employ emotional appeals and identity cues. However, scholarship examining emotional appeals and identity cues in anti-vax messages is still at the nascent stage. Furthermore, most literature on emotions and identities on social media has focused on text-based platforms, despite the increasing popularity of interactive, multimodal platforms. To address these gaps, our paper analyzes recent TikTok anti-vax videos and incorporates the framework of multimodal frame processing, emotion-as-frames model, affective intelligence theory, and social identity theory. Our paper uncovers how different message modalities affect the impact of emotional narratives and identity cues on user engagement. We also investigate sociopolitical identity cues beyond partisan identities, expanding the current terrain of political communication. Our results demonstrate that audiences engage with emotional and identity cues in anti-vax videos differently based on distinct message modalities. We also found that identity cues related to interpersonal relationships (e.g. parental) and conspiracy groups were prevalent, in addition to partisan identity cues. These results offer new insights into sociopolitical identities beyond partisanship and highlight the importance of considering the multi-modal nature of video platforms. Overall, our paper sheds light on the complex relationship between emotions, identities, and message modalities on social media and provides important implications for addressing misinformation and improving science communication on digital platforms.

摘要

社交媒体作为科学和健康信息来源的兴起，由于错误信息的传播，特别是煽动仇恨和阻碍必要的健康预防措施的反疫苗接种信息的传播，给知情公民和社会信任带来了挑战。这些信息通常采用情感诉求和身份线索。然而，研究反疫苗信息中的情感诉求和身份线索的学术研究仍处于起步阶段。此外，尽管交互式多模式平台越来越受欢迎，但大多数有关社交媒体上的情感和身份的文献都集中在基于文本的平台上。为了解决这些差距，我们的论文分析了最近的 TikTok 反疫苗视频，并结合了多模态框架处理、情感框架模型、情感智力理论和社会认同理论的框架。我们的论文揭示了不同的消息模式如何影响情感叙事和身份线索对用户参与度的影响。我们还研究党派身份之外的社会政治身份线索，扩大当前政治传播的领域。我们的结果表明，观众根据不同的信息方式对反疫苗视频中的情感和身份线索进行不同的处理。我们还发现，除了党派身份线索外，与人际关系（例如父母）和阴谋团体相关的身份线索也很普遍。这些结果为超越党派之争的社会政治身份提供了新的见解，并强调了考虑视频平台多模式性质的重要性。总的来说，我们的论文揭示了情感、身份、