Communicative Aspects of Public Health Campaigns: A Content Analysis of the Pro-vaccination Campaign in Romania during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to observe the pro-vaccination campaign in Romania from an informative and communicative perspective. A qualitative content analysis was carried out on the videos broadcast both on the Government's YouTube channel and on the Facebook page, describing the video messages’ structure, framing, and linguistic and extralinguistic elements. The results highlighted the fact that the messages, in terms of content and significance, were not fully adapted to the target audience’s needs, that communication efforts failed to influence vaccine acceptance behaviors and that the campaign message could be improved to comply with the existing recommendations/standards.

Keywords

• content analysis
• communication
• rhetoric
• pro-vaccination campaign
• covid-19 pandemic
• video message