IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v374y2025ics0277953625003818.html

Communication analysis of the COVID-19 infodemic by medical practitioners in China: A mixed methods study

Author

Listed:
  • Zuo, Teng
  • He, Lingfeng
  • Zheng, Yuan
  • Lin, Zezheng
  • Xu, Zelin
  • Li, Ning

Abstract

The infodemic during the public health policy transformation in Chinese mainland is known; however, the contributions of medical practitioners have not been evaluated. This study aimed to estimate the role of medical practitioners during the COVID-19 infodemic in Chinese mainland and reveal content structure and spatiotemporal features.

Suggested Citation

  • Zuo, Teng & He, Lingfeng & Zheng, Yuan & Lin, Zezheng & Xu, Zelin & Li, Ning, 2025. "Communication analysis of the COVID-19 infodemic by medical practitioners in China: A mixed methods study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 374(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:374:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625003818
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118051
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625003818
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118051?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peng, Yala & Li, Jiajie & Xia, Hui & Qi, Siyuan & Li, Jianhong, 2015. "The effects of food safety issues released by we media on consumers’ awareness and purchasing behavior: A case study in China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 44-52.
    2. Heidi J. Larson, 2018. "The biggest pandemic risk? Viral misinformation," Nature, Nature, vol. 562(7727), pages 309-309, October.
    3. Bartosz M. Nowak & Cezary Miedziarek & Szymon Pełczyński & Piotr Rzymski, 2021. "Misinformation, Fears and Adherence to Preventive Measures during the Early Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study in Poland," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(22), pages 1-11, November.
    4. Anton Gollwitzer & Cameron Martel & William J. Brady & Philip Pärnamets & Isaac G. Freedman & Eric D. Knowles & Jay J. Van Bavel, 2020. "Partisan differences in physical distancing are linked to health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1186-1197, November.
    5. Andrea Moscadelli & Giuseppe Albora & Massimiliano Alberto Biamonte & Duccio Giorgetti & Michele Innocenzio & Sonia Paoli & Chiara Lorini & Paolo Bonanni & Guglielmo Bonaccorsi, 2020. "Fake News and Covid-19 in Italy: Results of a Quantitative Observational Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-13, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Aida El-Far Cardo & Thomas Kraus & Andrea Kaifie, 2021. "Factors That Shape People’s Attitudes towards the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany—The Influence of MEDIA, Politics and Personal Characteristics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(15), pages 1-14, July.
    2. Wood, Reed M. & Juanchich, Marie & Ramirez, Mark & Zhang, Shenghao, 2023. "Promoting COVID-19 vaccine confidence through public responses to misinformation: The joint influence of message source and message content," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    3. Wang, Ruijie & Zhou, Yuhao & Medo, Matúš, 2025. "Combining deliberate study and heuristics to form opinions on interconnected questions," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 199(P1).
    4. Lucia Freira & Marco Sartorio & Cynthia Boruchowicz & Florencia Lopez Boo & Joaquin Navajas, 2021. "The interplay between partisanship, forecasted COVID-19 deaths, and support for preventive policies," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Radosław Trepanowski & Dariusz Drążkowski, 2024. "The Vaccine-Education Paradox in a Cross-Country Analysis: Education Predicts Higher and Lower Vaccination Rates," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, May.
    6. Emiliano Ceccarelli & Giada Minelli & Viviana Egidi & Giovanna Jona Lasinio, 2023. "Assessment of Excess Mortality in Italy in 2020–2021 as a Function of Selected Macro-Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    7. Dongwoo Lim & Fujio Toriumi & Mitsuo Yoshida & Mikihito Tanaka & Kunhao Yang, 2024. "The variant of efforts avoiding strain: successful correction of a scientific discourse related to COVID-19," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-21, April.
    8. Martin-Gutierrez, Samuel & Losada, Juan C. & Benito, Rosa M., 2023. "Multipolar social systems: Measuring polarization beyond dichotomous contexts," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    9. James N. Druckman, 2022. "Threats to Science: Politicization, Misinformation, and Inequalities," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 8-24, March.
    10. Bierman, Alex & Upenieks, Laura & Glavin, Paul & Schieman, Scott, 2021. "Accumulation of economic hardship and health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Social causation or selection?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    11. Ma, Mac Zewei & Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua & Wang, Xijing, 2024. "Collective pronouns, collective health actions: Predicting pandemic precautionary measures through online first-person plural pronoun usage across U.S. states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 357(C).
    12. Hensel, Lukas & Witte, Marc & Caria, A. Stefano & Fetzer, Thiemo & Fiorin, Stefano & Götz, Friedrich M. & Gomez, Margarita & Haushofer, Johannes & Ivchenko, Andriy & Kraft-Todd, Gordon & Reutskaja, El, 2022. "Global Behaviors, Perceptions, and the Emergence of Social Norms at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 473-496.
    13. Chi Ma & Jianping Tao & Caifeng Tan & Wei Liu & Xia Li, 2023. "Negative Media Sentiment about the Pig Epidemic and Pork Price Fluctuations: A Study on Spatial Spillover Effect and Mechanism," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-23, March.
    14. Chen, Junyi & Zeng, Weixi & Mou, Yi, 2025. "Nationalism meets machine heuristics: Investigating the effect of AI’s “nationality” on the perceived credibility of AIGC," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    15. Guangbin Wang & Yingxia Xue & Mirosław Jan Skibniewski & Jiule Song & Hao Lu, 2018. "Analysis of Private Investors Conduct Strategies by Governments Supervising Public-Private Partnership Projects in the New Media Era," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-26, December.
    16. Rong Chen & Bih-Jen Fwu & Tong-Rong Yang & Yi-Kai Chen & Quang-Anh Ngo Tran, 2022. "To mask or not to mask: Debunking the myths of mask-wearing during COVID-19 across cultures," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, September.
    17. Torben E. Agergaard & Màiri E. Smith & Kristian H. Nielsen, 2020. "Vaccine Assemblages on Three HPV Vaccine-Critical Facebook Pages in Denmark from 2012 to 2019," Media and Communication, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 339-352.
    18. Marta R. Jabłońska & Karolina Zajdel & Radosław Zajdel, 2021. "Social and Psychological Consequences of COVID-19 Online Content at a Lockdown Phase—Europe and Asia Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-23, August.
    19. Philipp Lorenz-Spreen & Stephan Lewandowsky & Cass R. Sunstein & Ralph Hertwig, 2020. "How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1102-1109, November.
    20. Grimalda, Gianluca & Murtin, Fabrice & Pipke, David & Putterman, Louis & Sutter, Matthias, 2023. "The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eee:socmed:v:374:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625003818. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    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.