Cutting Through the Noise: Predictors of Successful Online Message Retransmission in the First 8 Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Scott Leo Renshaw, Sabrina Mai, Elisabeth Dubois, Jeannette Sutton, Carter T Butts

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Health security. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

7citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Internet-Based Communication for Public Health: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2022
Pooled it
Chicago Public Health Department Social Media Communications on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Mpox Epidemic: Cross-Sectional Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025
Article
Social presence for strategic health messages: An examination of state governments' use of Twitter to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.Public relations review · 2022
Article
A qualitative study of perceptions of control over potential causes of death and the sources of information that inform perceptions of risk.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2022
Article
Barely Tweeting and Rarely About Racism: Assessing US State Health Department Twitter Use During the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout.Ethnicity & disease · 2022
Article
The social amplification and attenuation of COVID-19 risk perception shaping mask wearing behavior: A longitudinal twitter analysis.PloS one · 2021
Article
Platform Effects on Public Health Communication: A Comparative and National Study of Message Design and Audience Engagement Across Twitter and Facebook.JMIR infodemiology
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Scott Leo RenshawScott Leo Renshaw, MA, and Sabrina Mai are PhD Students, Department of Sociology, and Carter T. Butts, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computers; all at the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA. Elisabeth Dubois, MBA, is a PhD Student and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, is an Associate Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber Security, University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.

Sabrina MaiScott Leo Renshaw, MA, and Sabrina Mai are PhD Students, Department of Sociology, and Carter T. Butts, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computers; all at the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA. Elisabeth Dubois, MBA, is a PhD Student and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, is an Associate Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber Security, University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.

Elisabeth DuboisScott Leo Renshaw, MA, and Sabrina Mai are PhD Students, Department of Sociology, and Carter T. Butts, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computers; all at the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA. Elisabeth Dubois, MBA, is a PhD Student and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, is an Associate Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber Security, University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.

Jeannette SuttonScott Leo Renshaw, MA, and Sabrina Mai are PhD Students, Department of Sociology, and Carter T. Butts, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computers; all at the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA. Elisabeth Dubois, MBA, is a PhD Student and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, is an Associate Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber Security, University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.

Carter T ButtsScott Leo Renshaw, MA, and Sabrina Mai are PhD Students, Department of Sociology, and Carter T. Butts, PhD, is a Professor in the Departments of Sociology, Statistics, Computer Science, and Electrical Engineering and Computers; all at the University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA. Elisabeth Dubois, MBA, is a PhD Student and Jeannette Sutton, PhD, is an Associate Professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cyber Security, University of Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how message construction, style, content, and the textual content of embedded images impacted message retransmission over the course of the first 8 months of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. We analyzed a census of public communications (n = 372,466) from 704 public health agencies, state and local emergency management agencies, and elected officials posted on Twitter between January 1 and August 31, 2020, measuring message retransmission via the number of retweets (ie, a message passed on by others), an important indicator of engagement and reach. To assess content, we extended a lexicon developed from the early months of the pandemic to identify key concepts within messages, employing it to analyze both the textual content of messages themselves as well as text included within embedded images (n = 233,877), which was extracted via optical character recognition. Finally, we modelled the message retransmission process using a negative binomial regression, which allowed us to quantify the extent to which particular message features amplify or suppress retransmission, net of controls related to timing and properties of the sending account. In addition to identifying other predictors of retransmission, we show that the impact of images is strongly driven by content, with textual information in messages and embedded images operating in similar ways. We offer potential recommendations for crafting and deploying social media messages that can "cut through the noise" of an infodemic.

Indexed as

COVID-19CommunicationHumansInformation DisseminationPublic Health InformaticsSARS-CoV-2Social MarketingSocial MediaCOVID-19Epidemic management/responsePublic health preparedness/responseRisk communicationSocial media

Identifiers

PMID33606574

DOI10.1089/hs.2020.0200

PMCPMC9195492

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.