Cover not available
Article published In:
The interpersonal functions of public signs during the Covid-19 pandemic
Edited by Eva Ogiermann
[Pragmatics and Society 14:2] 2023
► pp. 281–305

Fear appeals in Chinese public signs of COVID-19 prevention in local communities

ORCID logo | The University of Texas at Austin
ORCID logo | Tsinghua University

Guided by the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), this paper explicates the messaging strategies in Chinese public signs of COVID-19 prevention in local communities. 162 signs were collected from Internet posts. Our results show that the EPPM is a viable fear appeal framework to explain the communication of public health risks. Most signs communicated the threat of the virus to the public, whereas fewer signs emphasized the efficacy to effectively control the threat. In addition to communicating individual threat and efficacy, quite a few signs also highlighted collective threat and efficacy. Moreover, the language used in these signs is tailored to local cultural and social conventions. These findings not only contribute to the growing body of research on the interpersonal function of public signage from a Chinese perspective, but also demonstrate the utility of combining pragmatic research with messaging strategies in health communication research.

Keywords: EPPM, COVID-19, public signs, health communication, localization, Chinese language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Research on public signs in pragmatics and persuasive health messaging strategies
    • 2.1Pragmatic investigations of public signs
    • 2.2Fear appeal in health communication campaigns
    • 2.3Research questions
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Data analysis
  • 4.Fear appeal strategies in Chinese COVID-19 signs
    • 4.1Overall fear message design
    • 4.2Threat appeal strategies
    • 4.3Efficacy appeal strategies
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 6 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22009.jia
References
Chen, Meng and Robert A. Bell
2022 A Meta-Analysis of the Impact of Point of View on Narrative Processing and Persuasion in Health Messaging. Psychology & Health 37 (5): 545–562.Google Scholar
Chen, Xinren
2019 ‘Family-Culture’ and Chinese Politeness: An Emancipatory Pragmatic Account. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 66 (2): 251–270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 Critical Pragmatic Studies on Chinese Public Discourse. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dai, Xinyue
2020 Society, Cognition and Discourse: Risk Communication During 2019-NCoV Early Outbreak by Henan Local Government. Journal of Henan University (Social Science) 60 (3): 26–38.Google Scholar
Dillard, James Price, Ruobing Li, and Yan Huang
2017 Threat Appeals: The Fear–Persuasion Relationship Is Linear and Curvilinear. Health Communication 32 (11): 1358–1367. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dillard, James Price, and Shu Scott Li
2020 How Scary Are Threat Appeals? Evaluating the Intensity of Fear in Experimental Research. Human Communication Research 46 (1): 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dong, Hongjie, Minli Zhou, Dewei Che, and Adams Bodomo
2020 If the Coronavirus Doesn’t Scare You, the Banners Will – A Case Study of Early COVID-19 Banners. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (24): 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ferenčík, Milan
2018 Im/Politeness on the Move: A Study of Regulatory Discourse Practices in Slovakia’s Centre of Tourism. Journal of Pragmatics 1341: 183–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finset, Arnstein, Hayden Bosworth, Phyllis Butow, Pål Gulbrandsen, Robert L. Hulsman, Arwen H. Pieterse, Richard Street, Robin Tschoetschel, and Julia van Weert
2020 Effective Health Communication – A Key Factor in Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic. Patient Education and Counseling 103 (5): 873–876. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gorter, Durk
2013 Linguistic Landscapes in a Multilingual World. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 331: 190–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Han, Yanmei
2021 Situated Impoliteness Revisited: Blunt Anti-Epidemic Slogans and Conflicting Comments during the Coronavirus Outbreak in China. Journal of Pragmatics 1781: 31–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harrington, Nancy
2020 On Changing Beliefs in the Closed Human Mind. Health Communication 35 (14): 1715–1717. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, Hsiu Fang, and Sarah E. Shannon
2005 Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis. Qualitative Health Research 15 (9): 1277–1288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, Adam, and Crispin Thurlow
2010 Introducing Semiotic Landscapes. In Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space, A. Jaworski and C. Thurlow (eds), 1–40. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Jia, Mian
2022 Toward an Integrated Understanding of Language and Health Communication: Discourse-Analytic and Message Design Approaches. Applied Linguistics 43 (6): 1217–1221. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jia, Mian, and Guoping Yang
2021 Emancipating Chinese (Im)Politeness Research: Looking Back and Looking Forward. Lingua 2511: 103028. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kádár, Daniel Z.
2019 Introduction: Advancing Linguistic Politeness Theory by Using Chinese Data. Acta Linguistica Academica 661: 149–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Landry, Rodrigue, and Richard Y. Bourhis
1997 Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1): 23–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lauer, Stephen A., Kyra H. Grantz, Qifang Bi, Forrest K. Jones, Qulu Zheng, Hannah R. Meredith, Andrew S. Azman, Nicholas G. Reich, and Justin Lessler
2020 The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Annals of Internal Medicine 172 (9): 577–582. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Jiajie, Yanan Ren, Wanzhen Ma, and Tongtong Yu
2020 Food Safety and Rural Parents in China: Investigating an Effective Path for Risk Communication. Health Communication 35 (14): 1762–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Liu, Guoqiang, and Hunqin Su
2020 Consensus Mobilization: Discourse Frame and Design Logic in ‘Hardcore Slogans’ for Rural COVID-19 Campaign. Modern Communication (8): 69–74.Google Scholar
Liu, Lifen
2016 Development and Prospect of Public Sign Study in China. Foreign Languages in China 13 (6): 53–58.Google Scholar
Mensel, Luk van, Mieke Vandenbroucke, and Robert Blackwood
2017 Linguistic Landscapes. In The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society, Ofelia García, Nelson Flores, and Massimiliano Spotti (eds), 423–449. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Moeschler, Jacques
2021 Why Language? What Pragmatics Tells Us about Language and Communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ogiermann, Eva, and Spyridoula Bella
2021 On the Dual Role of Expressive Speech Acts: Relational Work on Signs Announcing Closures during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Journal of Pragmatics 1841: 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Keefe, Daniel J.
2015 Persuasion: Theory and Practice (3rd Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Roberto, Anthony J., Catherine E. Goodall, and Kim Witte
2009 Raising the Alarm and Calming Fears: Perceived Threat and Efficacy During Risk and Crisis. In Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication, R. L. Heath and H. D. O’Hair (eds), 285–301. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Scollon, Ron, and Suzie Wong Scollon
2003 Discourses in Place. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sheer, Vivian C., and Ling Chen
2008 Intrinsic Characteristics of Health-Related Fear Appeals from Chinese Print OTC Ads: Implications for Fear Message Construction. International Journal of Communication 21: 936–958.Google Scholar
Shi, Jingyuan, Xiaohui Wang, Taiquan Peng, and Liang Chen
2019 Cancer-Prevention Messages on Chinese Social Media: A Content Analysis Grounded in the Extended Parallel Process Model and Attribution Theory. International Journal of Communication 131: 1959–1976.Google Scholar
Shi, Rui, and Michael David Hazen
2012 Applying the Extended Parallel Process Model to Examine Posters in the 2008 Chinese Annual Anti-Drug Campaign. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 22 (1): 60–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sun, Xiaochun
2018 Politeness in Chinese Public Signs: A Rapport Management Account. Foreign Languages in China 15 (2): 42–47.Google Scholar
Sun, Xiaochun, and Ziran He
2019 A Study of the Appropriateness of Language Use in Public Sphere. Applied Linguistics (2): 71–75.Google Scholar
Svennevig, Jan
2021 How to Do Things with Signs. The Formulation of Directives on Signs in Public Spaces. Journal of Pragmatics 1751: 165–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tannenbaum, Melanie B., Justin Hepler, Rick S. Zimmerman, Lindsey Saul, Samantha Jacobs, Kristina Wilson, and Dolores Albarracín
2015 Appealing to Fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories. Psychological Bulletin 141 (6): 1178–1204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wen, Hong, and Fengshan Li
2020 Slogans in the Context of Public Crisis: Exploring the Communication Attributes and Discourse Construction. Journalism and Communication Review 73 (6): 53–60.Google Scholar
Witte, Kim
1992 Putting the Fear Back into Fear Appeals: The Extended Parallel Process Model. Communication Monographs 59 (4): 329–349. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 Fear Control and Danger Control: A Test of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM). Communication Monographs 61 (2): 113–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Witte, Kim, and Mike Allen
2000 A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns. Health Education and Behavior 27 (5): 591–615. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Yonghe
2009 Research into Public Signs in China: A Societal Pragmatics Perspective. Foreign Language Research (6): 113–16.Google Scholar
Yang, Yongshi, Fujun Peng, Runsheng Wang, Kai Guan, Taijiao Jiang, Guogang Xu, Jinlyu Sun, and Christopher Chang
2020 The Deadly Coronaviruses: The 2003 SARS Pandemic and the 2020 Novel Coronavirus Epidemic in China. Journal of Autoimmunity 1091: 102434. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yuan, Zhoumin, and Xinren Chen
2010 A Pragmatic Study of Public Signs on Environmental Protection. Foreign Language Research (1): 76–80.Google Scholar
Zhang, Desheng, and Chen Peng
2020 Construction and Communication of Public Slogans in Rural Area During COVID-19 Prevention. News and Writing (7): 92–94.Google Scholar