From the CDC to emerging infectious disease publics: The long-now of polarizing and complex health crises

2025-03-26

AI Summary

This study examines the unidirectionality deficit in CDC Twitter communication during the COVID-19 pandemic and its role in exacerbating societal fragmentation and political polarization. Drawing on two years of Twitter data, it employs a mixed-methods approach—integrating computational linguistics, social media sentiment and network analysis, content coding, and qualitative interviews—to demonstrate that the CDC’s failure to foster bidirectional engagement, coupled with perceived contradictions in its guidance, was weaponized by diverse publics as “evidence” of institutional untrustworthiness. The study introduces the novel theoretical framework of the “crisis information journey,” identifying heterogeneous public segments (e.g., racial equity advocates) and proposing a dynamic, audience- and crisis-phase–adaptive information design paradigm. It delivers actionable guidelines for tailored messaging and rumor mitigation, offering both theoretical advancement and practical strategies for public health crisis communication in polarized environments.

Technology Category

• Application Domains: Misinformation & Fake News
• Reasoning under Uncertainty: Causality
• Natural Language Processing: Fact-Checking / Misinformation Detection (NLP Focus)

Application Category

• Social Networks and Social Media: Media and governance, opinion dynamics, filter bubbles, polarization
• Responsible Web: Mitigating misinformation and disinformation
• Web Mining and Content Analysis: Content-based information diffusion

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention used Twitter to share updates about the virus and safety guidelines, reaching millions instantly, in what we call the CDC public. We analyze two years of tweets, from, to, and about the CDC using a mixed-methods approach to characterize the nature and credibility of COVID-19 discourse and audience engagement. We found that the CDC is not engaging in two-way communication with the CDC publics and that discussions about COVID-19 reflected societal divisions and political polarization. We introduce a crisis message journey concept showing how the CDC public responds to the changing nature of the crisis (e.g., new variants) using ``receipts'' of earlier, and at times contradictory, guidelines. We propose design recommendations to support the CDC in tailoring messages to specific users and publics (e.g., users interested in racial equity) and in managing misinformation, especially in reaction to crisis flashpoints.

Problem

• Analyzing CDC's Twitter communication during COVID-19
• Assessing credibility and polarization in public discourse
• Proposing design to improve crisis messaging and misinformation

Innovation

• Mixed-methods analysis of CDC tweets
• Crisis message journey concept
• Tailored messaging for specific publics