Proposal for COVID-19 Vaccinations

Proposal
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor
Date
Proposal
Introduction
The studies regarding the COVID-19 vaccinations over the past months have provided clear evidence supporting adult vaccines that have substantially reduced the likelihood of testing positive for the virus or death. However, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have presented statistics showing that the case with children aged 5 to 11 is quite different. Therefore, an FDA advisory panel has determined that the vaccination benefits offset the risks for the children in this age group (Weintraub, 2021). Due to this, parents will be at a challenging spot deciding between their children falling severely ill due to COVID-19 and the lower risk of the vaccines harming them. The case regarding the COVID-19 vaccines for children has presented various statistics, including those presented to the FDA panel, to facilitate the decision by parents on whether their children should receive the vaccination shots or not. Due to this, the audience of the information must be aware of the gatekeeping theory to ensure they consume only the relevant and appropriate content.
Social media has been helpful in crisis management people, governments, and health organizations since the first covid 19 case in China. Whether social networks should be regulated or not is a debate that is likely to trend for quite a while, COVID-19 demonstrates that social networks remain a vital space for governments, charitable agencies, and consistent users to discuss often complex educational ideas in new and novel ways, as well as to mediate the impact of these ideas on their lives. However, social media networks are becoming more involved in regulating the spread of false information. Social media describes a customized environment geared toward the user, in which computers forecast the preferred news options based on the data obtained from the same user. In this case, the information found on social media about child vaccination may at times be based on myths and misconceptions. USA TODAY has carefully summarized the content while paying attention to the possible cognitive biases and news values to ensure only the most relevant information reaches the reader.
Literature Review
Burkey, B. (2019). Millennials at the back gates: how young adults’ digital news practices present a new media logic for news gathering and gatekeeping as user-oriented activities in a participatory news ecosystem.
The users of digital news are significant factors for consideration during news selection, contextualization, authentication, and distribution. Also, journalists must redefine their newsgathering and gatekeeping into user-oriented models to cope with the digital systems and news users (Burkey, 2019). The media must pay more attention to the sources of fake news, the attitudes, and reasonings of the digital users to ensure all news contents are audience-centered.
DeIuliis, D. (2015). Gatekeeping theory from social fields to social networks.
Gatekeeping theory entails carefully selecting information that allows the media officials to reach the readers and those that do not. Deluliis (2015) has noted that gatekeeping in communication involves news selection to enable only the most relevant content to pass the journalists onto the audience. However, the traditional gatekeeping concept, originated from Kurt Lewin, gradually loses its meaning as the World Wide Web has resulted in new challenges where raw content can easily pass to the readers directly (Deluliis, 2015). Moreover, many web users can now create and disseminate information without considering the norms and news values. Due to this, network gatekeeping is necessary to protect gated norms and ensure a steady flow of good information.
Ho, S. S., Liao, Y., & Rosenthal, S. (2015). Applying the theory of planned behavior and media dependency theory: Predictors of public pro-environmental behavioral intentions in Singapore.
The literature article analyzes the impacts of media information on two pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs); environmental civic engagement and green buying. According to Ho et al. (2015), there has been little success in spreading relevant information regarding climate change mitigation practices, causing increased environmental disasters. Therefore, the relevant organizations and governments should consider planned behavior and media dependency theory to assess the factors influencing behavioral intentions, including social norms, attitudes, media use, dependency, and perceived behavioral control (PBC). The article’s findings revealed that media attention and dependency, internet attention, and interpersonal communication significantly determine behavioral intention. Thus, transforming information into a more manageable form makes it easier for the parents to make quick decisions regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.
Muddiman, A., & Stroud, N. J. (2017). News values, cognitive biases, and partisan incivility in comment sections.
News comments have failed to observe deliberative norms and have instead enhanced a lack of civility, especially toward other commenters and their opinions. According to Muddiman and Stroud (2017), the incivility level in news comments can result in devastating impacts, including negative attitudes toward opinions and political parties. USA TODAY has eliminated the comment section from the news case. Due to this, the case about the COVID-19 vaccines for children has observe...