TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of hyperlinks and exemplification on audience’s information seeking intentions in online health news
AU - Norman, Megan L.Pietruszewski
AU - Bao, Jiaqi Agnes
AU - Pinto, Juliet
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - With Lyme disease rates rising in many regions, health communicators must consider what message formats engage readers to learn more about the disease. This online experiment draws on technological affordances and exemplification theory to compare how presenting different levels of hyperlinks and exemplars (versus base-rate information) may shape audience perceptions of Lyme disease. Reading a news article with celebrity exemplars led to more anxiety perceptions compared to reading a base-rate article. There was an indirect effect of message type on information seeking intentions through anxiety. No main effect of hyperlink level was found. Future studies can explore other technological affordances and exemplars in risk communication.
AB - With Lyme disease rates rising in many regions, health communicators must consider what message formats engage readers to learn more about the disease. This online experiment draws on technological affordances and exemplification theory to compare how presenting different levels of hyperlinks and exemplars (versus base-rate information) may shape audience perceptions of Lyme disease. Reading a news article with celebrity exemplars led to more anxiety perceptions compared to reading a base-rate article. There was an indirect effect of message type on information seeking intentions through anxiety. No main effect of hyperlink level was found. Future studies can explore other technological affordances and exemplars in risk communication.
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U2 - 10.1080/08824096.2025.2471088
DO - 10.1080/08824096.2025.2471088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105001848830
SN - 0882-4096
VL - 42
SP - 128
EP - 138
JO - Communication Research Reports
JF - Communication Research Reports
IS - 2
ER -