Investigating the effects of a physician’s race and gender on user engagement with and perceived credibility of COVID-19 vaccine news

Abstract

A quasi-experiment (N = 676) manipulated the gender and race of physician sources in news about COVID-19 vaccinations. Results suggest no differences in perceived credibility across genders, but news featuring an African American or Latinx physician predicted higher reader engagement than news featuring a White physician. These findings address the effects of a source’s gender or race in health news and lend support for equal representation of women and racial minorities as expert sources.

Keywords

race news engagement credibility sexism COVID-19 sources

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Appiah

(2003). Americans online: Differences in surfing and evaluating race-targeted web site: By black and white users. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(4), 537–555. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4704_4

Arguedas

Mukherjee

Nielsen

(2024, March 8). Women and leadership in the news media 2024: Evidence from 12 markets. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/women-and-leadership-news-media-2024-evidence-12-markets

Association of American Medical Colleges. (2019, July 1). Figure 18. Percentage of all active physicians by race/ethnicity, 2018. https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/interactive-data/figure-18-percentage-all-active-physicians-race/ethnicity-2018

Berkowitz

A. D.

(2019). Reporters and their sources. In Wahl-Jorgensen

Hanitzsch

(Eds.), The handbook of journalism studies (2nd ed.) (pp. 165–179). Routledge.

Bigham

Meyers

Irlbeck

(2019). The effect of emphasizing credibility elements and the role of source gender on perceptions of source credibility. Journal of Applied Communications, 103(2).

Blatz

C. W.

Ross

(2009). Principled ideology or racism: Why do modern racists oppose race-based social justice programs? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(1), 258–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2008.08.008

Boulware

L. E.

Cooper

L. A.

Ratner

L. E.

LaVeist

T. A.

Powe

N. R.

(2016). Race and trust in the health care system. Public Health Reports, 118(4), 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1093/phr/118.4.358

Boyle

. (2021, February 2). Nation’s physician workforce evolves: More women, a bit older, and toward different specialties. AAMC News. https://www.aamc.org/news/nation-s-physician-workforce-evolves-more-women-bit-older-and-toward-different-specialties

Boyle

Dill

Kelly

Nouri

. (2024, May 28). Women are changing the face of medicine in America. AAMC News. https://www.aamc.org/news/women-are-changing-face-medicine-america

10.

Brann

Himes

K. L.

(2010). Perceived credibility of male versus female television newscasters. Communication Research Reports, 27(3), 243–252.

11.

Brewer

M. B.

(2000). Reducing prejudice through cross-categorization: Effects of multiple social identities. In Oskamp

(Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 165–183). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

12.

Buhrmester

Kwang

Gosling

S. D.

(2011). Amazon’s Mechanical Turk: A new source of inexpensive, yet high-quality data? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(1), 3–5. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610393980

13.

Butkowski

Humphreys

Mall

. (2024). Computing colorism: Skin tone in online retail imagery. Visual Communication, 23(2), 289–308.

14.

Cassese

E. C.

Holman

M. R.

(2018). Playing the woman card: Ambivalent sexism in the 2016 U.S. presidential race. Political Psychology, 40(1), 55–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12492

15.

Conn

O’Connell

Rao

(2020, December 4). Women are often overlooked in media coverage of Covid-19. STAT. https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/05/women-perspectives-voices-more-inclusion-covid-19-media-coverage/

16.

Cooky

Messner

M. A.

Hextrum

R. H.

(2013). Women play sport, but not on T.V.: A longitudinal study of televised news media. Communication & Sport, 1(3), 203–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167479513476947

17.

Dixon

T. L.

Linz

(2000). Overrepresentation and underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as lawbreakers on television news. Journal of Communication, 50(2), 131–154. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02845.x

18.

Feagin

Bennefield

(2014). Systemic racism and US health care. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 7–14.

19.

Flanagin

A. J.

Metzger

M. J.

(2000). Perceptions of internet information credibility. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77(3), 515–540.

20.

Freedman

Fico

(2005). Male and female sources in newspaper coverage of male and female candidates in open races for governor in 2002. Mass Communication & Society, 8(3), 257–272.

21.

Freedman

Fico

Durisin

(2010). Gender diversity absent in expert sources for elections. Newspaper Research Journal, 31(2), 20–33.

22.

Frevert

T. K.

Walker

L. S.

(2014). Physical attractiveness and social status. Sociology Compass, 8(3), 313–323.

23.

Glick

Fiske

S. T.

(1996). The Ambivalent Sexism Inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491

24.

Greve-Poulsen

Larsen

F. K.

Pedersen

R. T.

Albæk

(2023). No gender bias in audience perceptions of male and female experts in the news: Equally competent and persuasive. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 28(1), 116–137.

25.

Hall

W. J.

Chapman

M. V.

Lee

K. M.

Merino

Y. M.

Thomas

T. W.

Payne

B. K.

. . .Coyne-Beasley

(2015). Implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals and its influence on health care outcomes: A systematic review. American Journal of Public Health, 105(12), 60–76.

26.

Holt

L. F.

Carnahan

(2020). Which bad news to choose? The influence of race and social identity on story selections within negative news contexts. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 97(3), 644–662. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699019892632

27.

Hong

Len-Riós

M. E.

(2015). Does race matter? Implicit and explicit measures of the effect of the PR spokesman’s race on evaluations of spokesman source credibility and perceptions of a PR crisis’ severity. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27(1), 63–80.

28.

Kalogeropoulos

(2017). News avoidance [Digital News Report]. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2017/news-avoidance-2017/

29.

Kassova

(2020). The missing perspectives of women in COVID-19 News. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

30.

Kaiser Family Foundation. (2020, October 14). KFF/The undefeated survey on race and health. https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/report/kff-the-undefeated-survey-on-race-and-health/

31.

Kitzinger

Chimba

M. D.

Williams

Haran

Boyce

(2008). Gender, stereotypes and expertise in the press: How newspapers represent female and male scientists. UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology. https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/28633/

32.

Klaas

Boukes

(2022). A woman’s got to write what a woman’s got to write: The effect of journalist’s gender on the perceived credibility of news articles. Feminist Media Studies, 22(3), 571–587.

33.

Knobloch-Westerwick

Appiah

Alter

(2008). News selection patterns as a function of race: The discerning minority and the indiscriminating majority. Media Psychology, 11(3), 400–417. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213260802178542

34.

LaVeist

T. A.

Nuru-Jeter

(2002). Is doctor-patient race concordance associated with greater satisfaction with care? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(3), 296–306. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090205

35.

Len-Rios

M. E.

(2005). Representation of women in news and photos: Comparing content to perceptions. Journal of Communication, 55(1), 152–168. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/55.1.152

36.

Marshall

W. F.

(2020, August 13). Why is covid-19 more severely affecting people of color? Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/expert-answers/coronavirus-infection-by-race/faq-20488802

37.

Mastro

D. E.

Behm-Morawitz

Kopacz

M. A.

(2008). Exposure to television portrayals of Latinos: The implications of aversive racism and social identity theory. Human Communication Research, 34(1), 1–27.

38.

McConahay

J. B.

(1986). Modern racism, ambivalence, and the modern racism scale. In Dovidio

J. F.

Gaertner

S. L.

(Eds.), Prejudice, discrimination, and racism (pp. 91–125). Academic Press.

39.

Miller

Kurpius

(2010). A citizen-eye view of television news source credibility. American Behavioral Scientist, 54(2), 137–156.

40.

Miller

L. S.

(1995). The origins of the presumption of black stupidity. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 9, 78–82. https://doi.org/10.2307/2962640

41.

Mitchell

McKinnon

(2018). “Human” or “objective” faces of science? Gender stereotypes and the representation of scientists in the media. Public Understanding of Science, 28(2), 177–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662518801257

42.

Monaghan

L. F.

Rich

Bombak

A. E.

(2019). Media, “fat panic” and public pedagogy: Mapping contested terrain. Sociology Compass, 13(1), Article e12651.

43.

Mulupi

Zirugo

. (2023). Who gets to speak? Sources in Covid-19 news coverage by Kenyan and Zimbabwean press. Feminist Media Studies, 23(7), 3157–3174.

44.

Nelson

J. L.

(2021). The next media regime: The pursuit of “audience engagement” in journalism. Journalism, 22(9), 2350–2367.

45.

Nicholson

R. A.

Kreuter

M. W.

Lapka

Wellborn

Clark

E. M.

Sanders-Thompson

. . .Casey

(2008). Unintended effects of emphasizing disparities in cancer communication to African-Americans. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 17(11), 2946–2953.

46.

Padilla

L. M.

(2020). Women law deans, gender sidelining, and presumptions of incompetence. Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice, 35, 1.

47.

Paolacci

Chandler

(2014). Inside the Turk: Understanding Mechanical Turk as a participant pool. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(3), 184–188.

48.

Poindexter

(2008). When women ignore the news. In Poindexter

Meraz

Weiss

A. S.

(Eds.), Women, men, and news (pp. 35–47). Routledge.

49.

Poindexter

P. M.

Smith

Heider

(2003). Race and ethnicity in local television news: Framing, story assignments, and source selections. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(4), 524–536.

50.

Robinson

(2020). Black scholars’ burden: An examination of life and career experiences of African-American faculty at a PWI [Doctoral dissertation]. Valdosta State University.

51.

Saha

Komaromy

Koepsell

T. D.

Bindman

A. B.

(1999). Patient-physician racial concordance and the perceived quality and use of health care. Archives of Internal Medicine, 159(9), 997–1004. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.159.9.997

52.

Schrøder

K. C.

Ørsten

(2016). The nature of news avoidance in a digital world. In Newman

Fletcher

Levy

Kleis Nielsen

(Eds.), Reuters digital news report 2016. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/essays/2016/nature-news-avoidance-digital-world/

53.

Sears

D. O.

Henry

P. J.

(2005). Over thirty years later: A contemporary look at symbolic racism. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 37(1), 95–125. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(05)37002-X

54.

Somani

I. S.

Hopkinson

. (2019). Color, caste and the public sphere: Black journalists who joined television networks from 1994 to 2014. Journalism Practice, 13(3), 314–330.

55.

Spence

P. R.

Lachlan

K. A.

Westerman

Spates

S. A.

(2013). Where the gates matter less: Ethnicity and perceived source credibility in social media health messages. Howard Journal of Communications, 24(1), 1–16.

56.

Takeshita

Wang

Loren

A. W.

Mitra

Shults

Shin

D. B.

Sawinski

D. L.

(2020). Association of racial/ethnic and gender concordance between patients and physicians with patient experience ratings. JAMA Network Open, 3(11), Article e2024583.

57.

Todd

P. R.

Melancon

(2018). Gender and live-streaming: Source credibility and motivation. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 12(1), 79–93.

58.

Tomasik

Gottfried

(2023, April 4). U.S. Journalists’ beats vary widely by gender and other factors. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/04/us-journalists-beats-vary-widely-by-gender-and-other-factors/

59.

Truyens

Picone

(2021). Audience views on professional norms of journalism. A media repertoire approach. Journalism and Media, 2(2), 258–274.

60.

Tuchman

(1979). Women’s depiction by the mass media. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 4(3), 528–542.

61.

UN Women. (2021, March 24). Women “systematically excluded” from COVID response, despite being worst affected. UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1087982

62.

Van Duyn

Peacock

Stroud

N. J.

(2021). The gender gap in online news comment sections. Social Science Computer Review, 39(2), 181–196.

63.

Weibel

Wissmath

Groner

(2008). How gender and age affect newscasters’ credibility—An investigation in Switzerland. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(3), 466–484.

64.

Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. (2016). Women for media report: An analysis of the gender balance of sources and experts across Australian metropolitan print media. https://womenformedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Women-for-Media-Report-2016-FINAL.pdf

65.

Zeldes

G. A.

Fico

(2005). Race and gender: An analysis of sources and reporters in the networks’ coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign. Mass Communication & Society, 8(4), 373–385.