Integrated analysis of online signals and insight generation about digital conversations on COVID-19 vaccines in Eastern and Southern Africa: a longitudinal analysis of social listening data.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, social listening programs across digital channels have become an integral part of health preparedness and response planning, allowing to capture and address questions, information needs, and misinformation shared by users. This study identifies key social listening trends around COVID-19 vaccines in Eastern and Southern Africa and analyses how online conversations about this issue evolved over time. METHODS: A taxonomy developed and refined in collaboration with social and behaviour change teams was used to filter online conversations into nine subtopic categories. The taxonomy was applied to online content tracked in 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa over the period December 1, 2020-December 31, 2021. Metrics captured included volume of posts or articles and related user engagement. Qualitative analysis of content was conducted to identify key concerns, information voids and misinformation. RESULTS: Over 300,000 articles and posts about COVID-19 vaccines shared by users or outlets geolocated in the region were analysed. These results generated over 14 million engagements on social media and digital platforms. The analysis shows how conversations about access and availability of vaccines represented the largest share of engagement over the course of the period. Conversations about vaccine effectiveness and safety represented the second and third largest share of engagement, with peaks observed in August and November 2021. Online interest in childhood vaccination increased over time as vaccine eligibility criteria expanded in some countries in the region. Conversations mentioning mandates and certificates peaked in the last quarter of 2021, as governments as private sector entities expanded vaccine requirements. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study show the importance of monitoring conversation trends over time and adjust social listening data collection systems to include emerging topics. The study also points to the need to consider concerns, information voids and misinformation around effectiveness and safety of vaccines in the context of overall concern for vaccine availability and access in Eastern and Southern Africa. This is fundamental to inform social and behaviour change strategies that promote vaccine demand effectively, without increasing public frustration over vaccine availability challenges and downplaying concerns around vaccine equity.

Social Listening in Eastern and Southern Africa, a UNICEF Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy to Address the COVID-19 Infodemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been closely tied with what has been called an infodemic, a "second disease" that occurs when massive information volumes (particularly with a high prevalence of false information) hinder the public health response. In this context, social listening, the process of monitoring and analyzing conversations to inform strategic activities both online and offline, becomes an even more essential component of risk communication and engagement strategies. In the Eastern and Southern Africa region, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and partners in the response have activated their capacity to gather insights on the information needs of the populations served to better inform and engage with local communities. We describe the social listening approach taken at the Eastern and Southern Africa regional level to respond to COVID-19 and highlight efforts by the Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, and Zambia UNICEF country offices to implement digital and nondigital social listening to inform risk communication and community engagement. The analysis highlights channels leveraged, types of data monitored, and provides examples of social listening data use, as well as early challenges and lessons learned.

Narrative Persuasion and Social Norms in Entertainment-Education: Results from a Radio Drama in Mozambique.

Narrative persuasion and social norms are part of the most recent theorizing behind the health communication strategy known as entertainment-education. There is little research, however, that compares these theoretical constructs from Mozambique, a setting that has not been researched to the same extent as other EE practice locations. This study uses mixed methods data from the midline evaluation of Ouro Negro (English translation: Black Gold), an EE radio program for individual health and social change in Mozambique to answer two research questions: what is the relationship between exposure to Ouro Negro and narrative persuasion?, and what is the relationship between narrative persuasion with Ouro Negro and social norms? Quantitative results related to the first question indicated that exposure significantly predicted three narrative persuasion constructs in multivariate regression models, results confirmed by a storytelling activity in focus groups. Quantitative results for the second question, which utilized propensity score matching, were not significant, and findings from a qualitative 2 × 2 table activity confirmed that behaviors were not normative in the directions promoted by the radio drama. Implications and recommendations for future entertainment-education research are discussed.