Background Previous research has indicated that demographic differences affect COVID-19 vaccination rates. Trust, in both the vaccine itself and institutional trust, is one possible factor. The present study examines racial differences in institutional trust and vaccine status among a nationally representative sample of adults in the United States. Methods Data for the current study was collected as part of Wave 8 Omnibus 2000 survey conducted by RAND ALP and consisted of 2080 participants. Responses were collected through the online RAND ALP survey in March 2021. Results Trust in the scientific community was the strongest predictor for already receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the time of study. Asians had a significantly higher trust in the scientific community compared to all other groups. Results also showed a significant difference in level of trust of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic with Indian/Alaskan Natives reporting lower trust compared to Whites, Blacks and Asians. Asians also had a significantly higher level of trust when compared to those who identified as racial Other. Those who identify as American Indian/Alaskan Natives had the lowest levels of institutional trust. Trust in the government's response was not indicative of vaccination within the sample. Conclusions Strategies to increase trust of the scientific community can be employed to address vaccine hesitancy through community-based initiatives and building of partnerships between the scientific community and local community stakeholders.

Racial differences in institutional trust and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal

The Covid-19 pandemic is characterized by uncertainty and constant change, forcing governments and health authorities to ramp up risk communication efforts. Consequently, visuality and social media platforms like Twitter have come to play a vital role in disseminating prevention messages widely. Yet to date, only little is known about what characterizes visual risk communication during the Covid-19 pandemic. To address this gap in the literature, this study’s objective was to determine how visual risk communication was used on Twitter to promote the World Health Organisations (WHO) recommended preventative behaviours and how this communication changed over time. We sourced Twitter’s 500 most retweeted Covid-19 messages for each month from January–October 2020 using Crowdbreaks. For inclusion, tweets had to have visuals, be in English, come from verified accounts, and contain one of the keywords ‘covid19’, ‘coronavirus’, ‘corona’, or ‘covid’. Following a retrospective approach, we then performed a qualitative content analysis of the 616 tweets meeting inclusion criteria. Our results show communication dynamics changed over the course of the pandemic. At the start, most retweeted preventative messages came from the media and health and government institutions, but overall, personal accounts with many followers (51.3%) predominated, and their tweets had the highest spread (10.0%, i.e., retweet count divided by followers). Messages used mostly photographs and images were found to be rich with information. 78.1% of Tweets contained 1–2 preventative messages, whereby ‘stay home’ and ‘wear a mask’ frequented most. Although more tweets used health loss framing, health gain messages spread more. Our findings can inform the didactics of future crisis communication. The results underscore the value of engaging individuals, particularly influencers, as advocates to spread health risk messages and promote solidarity. Further, our findings on the visual characteristic of the most retweeted tweets highlight factors that health and government organisations should consider when creating visual health messages for Twitter. However, that more tweets used the emotive medium of photographs often combined with health loss framing raises concerns about persuasive tactics. More research is needed to understand the implications of framing and its impact on public perceptions and behaviours.

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Qualitative analysis of visual risk communication on twitter during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research problem: In light of the growing popularity of LinkedIn as a self-promotional tool for the job search process, this paper examines the rhetorical structure of LinkedIn Summaries. Research questions: (1) Which rhetorical moves are found in the Summary sections of LinkedIn profiles? (2) Do the Summary sections display similar patterns of textual organization? (3) What strategies do the writers of the Summary sections deploy to achieve these rhetorical moves? Literature review: This paper has a genre analytic theoretical orientation of approach, whose underlying assumption is that genres sharing the same purposes and context of use are likely to have similar organizational patterns and to deploy similar strategies to achieve these purposes. Previous research on LinkedIn has focused on characteristics of the service and its impact on interactions, but not as a medium used in the classroom. A much deeper literature exists on job application letters, which concludes that a job application uses similar rhetorical moves, or discoursal units that perform distinct communicative functions, to a sales promotion letter. The moves include: introducing candidature, establishing credentials, essential detailing of candidature, indicating value of candidature, offering incentives, enclosing documents, using pressure tactics, soliciting response, and ending politely. Methodology: It is a study that analyzed the rhetorical structure of LinkedIn Summaries of 50 professional résumé writers in the US from a genre analytic perspective. Results and conclusions: The LinkedIn Summary shares many moves in common with the job application letter. Moves that were found in all or nearly all of the texts were establishing credentials, identifying target market and detailing service; an additional move, not seen in job application letters, was also identified-that of personal branding. However, a rigid organizational structure was not seen. The results and the methodology used to obtain them will be of use to students and others wishing to use LinkedIn to promote themselves to potential employers. The study is limited to one particular professional group in one region, but there is ample scope for further research looking at LinkedIn profiles in other professions and other parts of the world.

Learning from the experts: An analysis of resume writers’ self-presentation on LinkedIn.

This article analyzes user work during open game development and presents an alternative model for participatory design. During open development, developers publicly distribute incomplete games, di...

Open Video Game Development and Participatory Design

This study examines how and why 20 instructors (17 tenure-line and 3 nontenure-line) in introductory service courses enact their pedagogical values and address current concerns (e.g., personal bran...

Teaching Workplace Genre Ecologies and Pedagogical Goals Through Résumés and Cover Letters

In this second golden age of data design, digital affordances enable the news media to share occasionally misleading charts about COVID-19. Examining data visualizations about COVID-19 highlights t...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1050651920958392

Misrepresenting COVID-19: Lying With Charts During the Second Golden Age of Data Design

The authors examined a corpus of figure captions from technical and professional communication (TPC)-journal articles to test their sense that TPC captions do not fulfill their communicative potential as well as, they sensed, journals in science often do. The authors performed a content analysis on captions from biology-journal articles and iteratively tested a coding scheme of caption content. The resulting scheme can help in analyzing caption content, developing captions, and imparting a variety of TPC-related skills to students.

The Communicative Work of Biology-Journal Captions: Lessons for Technical and Professional Communication

Background: Professional communication instructors give profuse feedback on student writing in service or introductory courses; however, professional communication has traditionally borrowed feedback practices from first-year writing. In addition, professional communication instructors have relied on lore instead of data when giving students feedback. Literature review: Three recent studies examine the content of feedback comments given by professional communication instructors; nevertheless, these studies open questions about how professional communication instructors enact their pedagogical values when giving feedback. Research questions: 1. What do instructors value when teaching professional communication service courses? 2. What do instructors emphasize in their feedback? 3. To what extent do instructors’ values align with the feedback that they give on students’ writing? Research methodology: To answer these questions, this pilot study does close qualitative work to test interview questions and a coding scheme formed by inductive content analysis. I triangulated four interviews about instructors’ pedagogical values with content analysis of their 599 feedback comments on students’ writing. Results and discussion: The results reveal three implications: Rhetorical terminology may contradict the goals of professional communication, overly conversational or directive feedback may not give students tools to improve their writing, and borrowing pedagogical training from first-year composition may not prepare instructors to teach professional communication. Conclusion: Tensions between instructors’ values and their feedback comments highlight a lack of consensus about professional communication's pedagogical values for the service course, particularly higher order values, such as audience analysis or purpose through giving feedback.

Contradictory Comments: Feedback in Professional Communication Service Courses

While previous studies have noted how instructors comment on students’ content, more attention should be given to how instructors give feedback on abstract issues of content, detail, and information. In this study, I interviewed 20 instructors about feedback they had given on students’ resumes and cover letters; I used critical discourse analysis to code the interviews. Instructors’ mentions of content, detail, and information formed six major themes: providing and expressing information, orienting audiences, seeing information, finding information, considering detail, and revising content. Instructors often framed as a deficit, for example, a lack of information; however, when students included appropriate or meaningful content, instructors praised students. Better understanding how instructors teach students to understand, analyze, and communicate information connects students with the types of problem-solving skills necessary for today’s changing workplaces.

Sara Doan

Papers

Misrepresenting COVID-19: Lying With Charts During the Second Golden Age of Data Design

Teaching Workplace Genre Ecologies and Pedagogical Goals Through Résumés and Cover Letters

The Communicative Work of Biology-Journal Captions: Lessons for Technical and Professional Communication

Contradictory Comments: Feedback in Professional Communication Service Courses

Digging, Displaying, and Translating: Content-Centric Feedback, Powered by Metaphors