ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Improving the Communication of Uncertainty in Food Safety on Social Media: A Content Analysis of Aspartame Risk Messages
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Humanities and Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
- 2Media art research center, Jiangxi Institute of Fashion Technology, Nanchang, China
- 3School of Humanities, JiangXi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang, China
- 4Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
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Background: Although social media has become a primary platform for the public to access and disseminate risk information, research on how to effectively communicate food safety uncertainty on these platforms remains limited. Objective: To explore the impact of uncertainty frames, information sources, and persuasive strategies on public engagement, we conducted a case study of aspartame risk communication on Weibo. Methods: Content analysis was conducted on 1,863 Weibo posts related to aspartame. Uncertainty frames, information sources, and persuasive strategies were manually coded. Public engagement was measured by retweets and likes, and descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and negative binomial regression were conducted. Results: Results revealed a lack of professional voices, with only 23.0% of posts originating from professionals and medical institutions. Messages predominantly relied on the technical uncertainty frame (37.6%), which significantly diminished engagement (p < 0.001). However, when combined with persuasive strategies such as anecdotal evidence (p < 0.001) or cues to action (p < 0.001), this frame enhanced engagement. Moreover, appeals to authority generally reduced engagement (p < 0.001), whereas cues to action tended to enhance engagement across various uncertainty frames (p < 0.001). Hard science contributed to higher engagement only in the context of consensus uncertainty (p < 0.001). Anecdotal evidence and fear appeals exhibited more complex effects on engagement. Conclusions: The findings suggested that food safety risk communication on Weibo requires greater involvement of expert voices. When framing aspartame risks under different types of uncertainty, communicators should carefully select appropriate persuasive strategies to improve communication effectiveness.
Keywords: risk society, Health Communication, uncertainty frames, Persuasive strategies, Foodsafety, Social Media
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chen, Luo, Xu and Tan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shujun Luo
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.