Serving the public? A content analysis of COVID-19 public service announcements airing from March - December of 2020 in the U.S

Margaret E Tait; Jake Abrahams; Robert Brehm; Laura Baum; Erika Franklin Fowler; Jeff Niederdeppe; Sarah E Gollust

doi:10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101971

Serving the public? A content analysis of COVID-19 public service announcements airing from March - December of 2020 in the U.S

Prev Med Rep. 2022 Oct:29:101971. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2022.101971. Epub 2022 Sep 6.

Authors

Margaret E Tait¹, Jake Abrahams¹, Robert Brehm¹, Laura Baum², Erika Franklin Fowler^{2

3}, Jeff Niederdeppe^{4

5}, Sarah E Gollust¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, D305 Mayo Building, MMC 729, 420 Delaware St. SE, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
² Wesleyan Media Project, 222 Church St., Middletown, CT 06459, United States.
³ Department of Government, Wesleyan University, 45 Wyllys Ave., Middletown, CT 06459, United States.
⁴ Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University, 2211 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, United States.
⁵ Department of Communication, Cornell University, 476 Mann Library Building, Ithaca, NY 14853, United States.

Abstract

The objective of this research was to examine the health messages conveyed in public service announcements (PSAs) affiliated with the U.S. federal government response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of 132 federally-affiliated PSAs that were aired 170,820 times between March 12 and December 16, 2020. Using a quantitative coding instrument, we analyzed health behavioral guidance, messages about groups, people depicted, and other PSA features. We calculated frequencies of exposure to messages at the airing-level to account for the varying number of times each PSA was aired. Far more PSAs aired between March and June than between July and December. The most common health guidance was to stay at home (80.7%), practice social distancing (61.9%), and wash hands (54.5%); 36.1% of airings included guidance to wear masks. Few PSAs referenced group differences in risk of infection or transmission, nor did they reference scientific evidence or the future availability of vaccines. PSAs aired in 2020 missed opportunities to convey important information to the public and to center health equity in public communication.

Keywords: COVID-19; Health equity; Public service announcements.