Why Do Citizens Engage With the TikTok Accounts of Public Hospitals in China?

Chinese public hospitals have increased usage of TikTok to communicate with citizens on health-related matters. This study aims to investigate the engagement of citizens with the official TikTok accounts of public hospitals, and identify the major characters of the videos with the highest public engagement level, as well as underlying factors that make them successful. A comprehensive search on TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service, was completed to identify all official accounts of public hospitals in Mainland China. Data was collected from 40 public hospitals with the top 100 TikTok videos being identified for content analysis. The majority of them were created by public hospitals located in the Central and Western regions of China. The common features of the top 100 identified videos include: low message sensation value and short video length, and are typically accompanied by background music, subtitles, and an introduction at the beginning of the video. The most frequently viewed video type is film clips which are used to disseminate knowledge of diseases and promote healthcare professionals. Health communication via the official TikTok accounts of public hospitals in China offers significant potential. Hospitals are encouraged to engage citizens in health-related conversations to build their credibility and professional image online. Among the popular short-videos, the message sensation value is not largely connected to video popularity, while the content of videos seems more important. This requires skills in video creation or procurement, and editing, while rhetoric should be cautiously applied. The content of videos should provide education and positive energy.

Message Sensation Value in Health and Risk

Message sensation value (MSV) is defined as the degree to which a message’s format and content features elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses. MSV research has received considerable scholarly and professional attention for more than two decades. The seminal work, to date, has been conducted by the Kentucky School. MSV was initially operationalized as perceived message sensation value (PMSV). The activation model of information exposure (AMIE) provides the basis for explaining the functional mechanism of MSV and PMSV. The AMIE proposes that exposure is a function of the interaction between an individual’s sensation-seeking tendency and sensation-enhancing attributes of the message itself. There are three primary types of message features that contribute to MSV: (a) the formal video dimension, (b) the formal audio dimension, and (c) the content dimension. There is an important distinction between subjective reactions to the message (PMSV) and the format and content features contributing to these reactions (MSV). In general, messages of high relative to low in sensation value have elicited greater message processing and more favorable evaluations across a range of outcome variables in health communication. Some health communication campaigns have employed high sensation value messages to target high sensation seekers. This sensation-seeking targeting approach, SENTAR, however, has received mixed and limited support. The influence of MSV on message effectiveness might be very similar for the two groups. Recently, some scholars have attempted to situate AMIE in a broader context of persuasion. First, AMIE and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) offer competing predictions in terms of the role of MSV in persuasion, such that AMIE stresses a straightforward attention-getting effect, whereas ELM predicts a distracting effect of MSV interfering with message’s content. The very few studies conducted thus far reveal limited and mixed findings. Second, in the integration of MSV research with the appraisal theory and excitation-transfer theory, MSV may function as an arousal generator to amplify the influence of discrete emotions on perceived message effectiveness. Third, according to the psychological reactance theory, there are challenges with implementing high sensation value (HSV) messages, in that they potentially could backfire among the target audiences. Messages with HSV may garner better-perceived effectiveness when they tone down the controlling language. Future studies should investigate the relationships between specific MSV-enhancing features and message processing. They can expand the literature by studying the impact of MSV in a variety of media message contexts (e.g., broadcast journalism). Future experiments might also incorporate psychophysiological measures (e.g., skin response and heart-rate deceleration) to complement self-reported measures. Future studies should continue to explore other features (e.g., visual-verbal redundancy) that might affect attention and message processing jointly with MSV, and other individual difference variables, such as need for cognition, trait reactance, locus of control, and etc.

Sensation Seeking, Message Sensation Value, and Destinations

This study investigated whether advertisements with different (high or low) message sensation value (MSV) had different impacts on consumers with different (high or low) sensation-seeking (SS) trait with regard to their destination image perceptions and behavioral intentions through a cross-cultural comparison. The results indicated that for U.S. samples, matched MSV and SS trait (low–low) had stronger influence on consumers’ destination image perceptions than mismatched MSV and SS trait (low–high); while for Chinese samples, matched MSV and SS trait (high–high) had stronger influence on consumers’ behavioral intentions and destination image perceptions than mismatched MSV and SS trait (high–low). In addition, culture was found to moderate the effect of MSV and SS trait on consumers’ destination image and behavioral intentions. Finally, destination image was found to be a significant predictor of behavioral intentions.

Fear-Appeal Messages: Message Processing and Affective Attitudes

Theories of fear appeals suggest that fear-inducing messages can be effective, but public service announcements (PSAs) that emphasize fear do not always lead to desired change in behavior. To better understand how fear-inducing PSAs are processed, an experiment testing the effects of exposure to safe-driving messages is reported. College students ( N = 108) viewed PSAs of varying message sensation value (MSV). Results indicated that messages with medium MSV resulted in intentions to drive more slowly than messages with low or high MSV. Measures of affective attitudes indicated that medium MSV messages resulted in fast driving being rated as less fun and exciting than those of either high or low MSV. These affective evaluations mediated the effect of message exposure on driving intention. Message derogation was not related to message intensity. Production of message-related thoughts decreased, and emotional thoughts increased with message intensity. This decrease in processing of message content suggested a limited capacity explanation for the effect of highly intense fear appeals.