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

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 w

SUBMITTER: Tait ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9444310 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature