This study is designed to look at the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19, which is highly
recommended as a way to end the pandemic through the Health Belief Model. In order to enhance
COVID-19 vaccination intention, the safety of the vaccine and its public trust must be ensured.
However, media coverage of the COVID-19 vaccine mainly shows its adverse effects that raise doubts
and aggravate fear about its safety.
Therefore, this study is designed to empirically understand how the media coverage affects people's
perception of bCOVID-19 and the vaccine and, in turn, how this affects the intention to be
vaccinated.
The study uses the Health Belief Model of perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 as the main variable of
the study to identify the intention of vaccination against the COVID-19. To this end, it presents news
emphasizing the susceptibility of the COVID-19 infection and news emphasizing the susceptibility of
COVID-19 vaccine in order to look at their perceived susceptibility with the intention of its vaccination.
The study involved participants between the ages of 20 to 49, who had not previously been infected
with COVID-19 or vaccinated. As a result, 226 data were collected, based on which an analysis on the parallel multiple mediator effects was conducted.
The results of the study are as follows. The respondents who read news emphasizing the susceptibility
of the COVID-19 infection increased their perceived susceptibility to the COVID-19, and such result
had a positive effect on the COVID-19 vaccination intention. Therefore, the mediating effect of
perceived susceptibility to the COVID-19 as a mediating variable was found to have a significant
effect. In addition, the respondents who read news emphasizing susceptibility to the adverse effects
of COVID-19 vaccine increased their perceived susceptibility to the adverse effects of the COVID-19
vaccine. Moreover, it had a negative effect on COVID-19 vaccination intention. Therefore, their
perceived susceptibility to the adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccine as a mediating variable had a
significant effect. However, it was found that types of news as an independent variable did not affect
the COVID-19 vaccination intention.
The study looked at the influence of media reports during the pandemic and the effects on the
COVID-19 vaccination intention with perceived susceptibility of the health belief model and cue to
action. In a pandemic crisis such as the COVID-19, what kind of messages can be used to promote
people's health behavior is as important as the influence of the media. The study results confirm that
health-related media reports have a significant influence on people's actual health behavior intention.
Therefore, this study will offer useful directions in recommending COVID-19 vaccination to the public.