Vaccinations in the Social Media: Between Knowledge and Trust

Social media is a central and important platform for science communication in general and vaccine communication in particular.

The goal of this project is to create a conceptual framework to account for situations where a scientific consensus appears to be well-established, yet social controversy seems to develop independently of the strength of the scientific arguments. This project looks at the epistemology of the Facebook debate on the Oral Polio Vaccination (OPV).

This project also participates in the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University’s discussion group on “Vaccination Policy in Israel“.

Project Members

Esther Laslo, Ph.D.

Esther Laslo, Ph.D.

Dr. Daniela Orr, Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Daniela Orr, Post-Doctoral Fellow

Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Associate Professor

Ayelet Baram-Tsabari, Associate Professor

Project performed in collaboration with Prof. Bruce Lewenstein.

Publications

Orr, D., Baram-Tsabari, A., & Landsman, K. (2016).
Social media as a platform for health-related public debates and discussions: The Polio vaccine on Facebook. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research 5(34). DOI:  10.1186/s13584-016-0093-4
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In the Popular Media

Coverage on “The Polio Network”, part of the Communication Initiative Network: