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Upcoming Talk – Tuesday 20th May, 1-2pm. Zsófia Demjén: The problem with ‘side effects’ in vaccination discussions online
By Sinead Jackson, on 9 May 2025
Welcome back to the event in the UCL Health Communication Network Research Seminar Series.
Next Event: Tuesday 20th May, 1-2pm
Location: UCL’s IOE. 20 Bedford Way, Room C3.12
We are delighted to present our next speaker, Zsófia Demjén, who is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics here at UCL’s IOE, Faculty of Education and Society. Zsófia is one of the co-runners of the UCL Health Communication Network, is the lead in UCL’s membership of the International Consortium for Communication in Healthcare, and sits on the IOE Health Strategy Board. Zsófia conducts research at the intersection of language, mind, and health(care), exploring (experiences of) mental/physical illness and healthcare through linguistic analysis.
Talk title: The problem with ‘side effects’ in vaccination discussions online
‘Vaccinations are among the most effective public health tools at our disposal and annually save 2-3 million lives (WHO 2022). Yet, vaccination programmes in 90% of countries have been affected by ‘vaccine hesitancy’ (Lancet 2019) – ‘a state of indecision and uncertainty that precedes a decision to become (or not become) vaccinated’ (Larson et al. 2022: 59). While vaccine hesitancy is a complex phenomenon, concerns about the side effects of vaccines and vaccination are among the factors at play. In a previous study (Demjen et al. 2025), we found that concerns about side-effects were characteristic of vaccine indecision on Mumsnet and noted that when people described being worried about side effects, it mostly was not clear exactly what effects or symptoms were of concern. The present talk is motivated by this finding and asks the following questions:
- How are the term ‘side effect’ and its variants used in discussions of vaccinations on different online platforms?
- What implications do usage patterns have for vaccine hesitancy?
It will address these questions by examining usage patterns in just over 3,000 instances of the term ‘side effect’ across three digital platforms – Twitter, Reddit and Mumsnet Talk – between 2002 and 2022.’
Zoom Link for hybrid attendance: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93281768433?pwd=t930xwrlgVFfQ4y7Fzhsjrb34n82Hb.1
We look forward to seeing you there!
The UCL Health Communication Network Team
2 Responses to “Upcoming Talk – Tuesday 20th May, 1-2pm. Zsófia Demjén: The problem with ‘side effects’ in vaccination discussions online”
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Sinead Jackson wrote on 3 December 2025:
Dear Ysabel,
So, so sorry for the incredibly late reply! We do not check the messages function on here – which is something I must definitely rectify. I’m afraid we are not currently recording the talks, but perhaps that’s something we can think about in the future.
Hopefully see you at another talk.
Warm regards,
UCL HCN Team
I’m very sorry that I missed the talk, but I’m truly interested in the topic. I was wondering if it might be possible to access a recording of the session. Would there be a Zoom video link available? I would greatly appreciate it if you could share it with me. Thank you so much in advance!