Although the media has been proven powerful on influencing public intentions to overestimate or underestimate the risk of health issues, its effects on different age groups are distinct. The differences are further widened by the digital divide, which is partially caused by the development of information and communication technologies and particularly evident among youngsters and people over 45 years old. Compared with younger people, people over 45 years-old generally have less and lower access to online information and are less likely to learn health issues.
Previous studies have been aware of the significant role that media plays in providing social support on people and promoting better health results, but elder people have received less attention (Pettegrew, 1982; Leist, 2012). Social support, as a pattern of mutual assistance, can come from formal agencies and informal sources (Cantor, 1980). Previous discussions about the social support among them mainly shows that they can acquire more information through the individual and friendship informal support，while few studies focus on the influence of the formal information support from traditional and new media (Nussbaum & NetLibrary, 2000), especially when online social support is more prevailingly used (Oh et al. 2011).
In order to fill the gap, this research explores the use of formal social supports on health communication by applying the Communication Enhancement Model from Ryan et al., (1995), which promotes health on elderly people by adjustment of communication to satisfy their needs, highlighting acknowledgment of individualized cues, and empowerment of their social support and themselves.To specify, this study uses the case of COVID-19 outbreak in China to further elaborate how do the formal and informal social support on media influence middle-aged and elderly people.
The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a severe health crisis worldwide especially in China. According to the WHO-China Joint report, people aged over 60 are at the highest risk for severe disease and death. Despite their weak physical health conditions, their lack of health and proper messages cannot be ignored.
In the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, young audiences swiftly realized the severity of the virus and took active preventions by capturing the increasing virus-related messages online. In comparison, most middle-aged and elderly people disregarded the situation even though they received enough information from informal support of their family members. However, when the formal media agency started to announce the significance of the virus, their attitude did a dramatic U-turn and they even persuaded their family members to take serious prevention . This dramatic change highlights the importance of formal information support on health communication and invites us to reconsider whether formal support is more helpful for elderly people in the public health crisis for old people. After having in-depth interviews with middle-aged and elderly adults (N=50) in China, this study supports the significance of formal support and makes contributions to the media strategies on promoting health-related messages to middle-aged and elderly adults.