Discourse Analysis of Health Risk Perceptions. Understanding Public Debates on Childhood Vaccination
##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.main##
Abstract
Childhood vaccination has become one of the most intensely discussed topics not alone in Romania but other European countries as well. Mass media articles, personal experiences claiming that vaccines have side effects and can even lead to autism have generated various responses among parents and determined various perceptions and assessments of the health risks. Certain groups have emerged in the middle of these confrontational debates: there are those who resist vaccination, advocating that they inflict sufferance on children. Yet others who refuse vaccines because they fear the unknown, along with those who have not made a decision and still search for medical opinion, and those who insist upon gathering more information before deciding whether to get their children immunized etc. Each of these groups perceives and defines the risk in a different way. A discourse analysis of the comments and posts identified on various online platforms from Romania revealed the fact that the individuals who resist vaccination reframe the risk as unknown, while calling for a more informed decision from parents. These individuals do not bring any logical, practical, or scientific argument in order to support their position. Some of them even consider that a mandatory vaccination policy is a characteristic of a totalitarian state thus infringing upon the right of the population to free choice. Another result of our analysis is the fact that the majority of the online debaters tend to perceive the risk of non-vaccination as bigger than the one of vaccination.
##plugins.themes.academic_pro.article.details##

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Bowler, G. (2010) Netnography: A method specifically designed to study cultures and communities online. The Qualitative Report, 15(5), 1270-1275.
Brewer, N., Chapman, G., Gibbons, F., Gerrard, M., McCaul, K. and Weinstein, N. (2007) Meta analysis of the relationship between risk perception and health behavior: the example of vaccination. Health Psychology, 26(2), 136-145.
Cottle, S. (1998) Ulrich Beck, “Risk society” and the media. A catastrophic view? European Journal of Communication, 5-32.
Covello, V. T. and Johnson, B. (1987) The social and cultural construction of risk. Essays on risk selection and perception. D. Reidel Publishing company.
Douglas, M. and Wildavsky, A. (1982) Risk and culture: An essay on the selection of technological and environmental dangers. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gutteling, J. M. and Wiegman, O. (1996) Exploring risk communication. Enschede: Springer.
Jorgensen, M.and Philips, L. (2002) Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: Sage Publication.
Kasperson, J. and Kasperson, R. (2005) The social contours of risk. Volume II: Risk analysis, corporations and the globalization of risk. London: Earthscan.
Kozinets, R. (2015) Netnography:understanding netwoked communication society,in A. Quan-Haaseand L. Sloan, Sage handbook of social media research methods.
Luhman, N. (1993) Risk: a sociological theory. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter publishing.
Pidgeon, N., Kasperson, R. and Slovic, P. (2003)The social amplification of risk. London: Cambridge University Press.
Reyna, F. V. (2012) Risk perception and communication in vaccination decisions: A fuzzy-trace. Vaccine, 30, 3790-3797.
Ruiz, J. (2009) Sociological Discourse Analysis: Methods and Logic. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Volume 10, 3-30.
Slovic, P. (2000) The perception of risk. Taylor and Francis.
Streefland, P., Chowdhury, A. and Jimenez, P. R. (1999) Patterns of vaccination acceptance. Social Science and Medicine, 49.
West, P. H. (2003) Understanding vaccination resistance: moving beyond risk. Health, risk and society, 5(3).
West, P. H. (2007) Trusting blindly can be the biggest risk of all: organized resistance to childhood vaccination in the UK. Sociology of health and illness, 29(2), 198-215.
Zinn, J. O. (2008) Social theories of risk and uncertainty. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.