The Study on Public-Interest Short Message Service (SMS) in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mobile User Survey and Content Analysis

Zhiyuan Yu, Yanghongyun Liu, Yongan Yu, Hongju Han and Yalin Li
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Zhiyuan Yu: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Yanghongyun Liu: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Yongan Yu: School of Physical Education, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Hongju Han: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China
Yalin Li: School of Journalism and Communication, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-15

Abstract: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has greatly threatened the global health system and triggered the public health emergency. In order to manage the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare and prevention information have been delivered through omni-media channels (e.g., television, radio, social platform, etc.). As a traditional outlet, the short message service (SMS) can timely provide abundant anti-epidemic alerts to mobile users. In this paper, we aim to investigate mobile users’ attitudes toward COVID-19 public-interest SMS sent from government authorities and then explore the insight from messaging texts collected between January and April 2020 in China. In general, respondents show a positive attitude towards content and the necessity of public-interest SMS during the pandemic. However, we find that gender and age differences not only affect content evaluation, but also influence reading and forwarding behaviors. For the necessity of SMS, it shows significant difference between the 18–25-year-old and over 40-year-old group, with the middle and elder group showing serious attitudes and giving higher remarks than the youth due to the habits of media usage. However no significant difference is presented between females and males. In terms of content, the category of topics and releasing institutions are analyzed, respectively. Due to the centralized responses and coordination of prevention and control in China, the messages from COVID-19 disposal organizations (e.g., municipal steering group and provincial CDC) account for more than 70% among four cities.

Keywords: COVID-19; public-interest short message service; epidemic prevention and healthcare; demographic difference; content analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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