Pandemics and PSAs: Rapidly Changing Information in a New Media Landscape

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into focus a shift in the communication of health-related information. Traditionally, public service announcements (PSAs) consisted of video or radio messages, posters, or billboards created by government agencies and health organizations to provide information about health topics. However, the widespread use of the internet and the growth of social media has changed PSA creation and dissemination in many ways. Increasingly, a variety of actors, including non-official sources and lay persons, have been using social media to disseminate PSAs or PSA-like content. Audiences are larger and more engaged with content, and users have the novel ability to interact with PSAs through shares, likes, or comments. While social media for health communication has many advantages, there are also a number of disadvantages including misinformation, conspiracy theories, bots, and trolls. Credibility of different sources has also become a topic of debate. An ongoing challenge during the pandemic has been reaching audiences in a crowded online environment, establishing authority as a trusted source, and countering misinformation. In this paper, we discuss how the media landscape is changing PSAs and the implications of these changes in the context of pandemics.