scholarly journals Social Media Use, Disbelief and (Mis)information During a Pandemic: An Examination of Young Adult Nigerians’ Interactions with COVID-19 Public Health Messaging

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Olutobi Akingbade
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government

This study contributes to transdisciplinary understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic through an examination of perceptions of public health messages as consumed primarily through social media by a purposively enlisted set of young adult Nigerians. The research used focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to elicit the views of 11 young adults, aged 21 to 24, resident in Ajegunle, a low-income community in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. The study identifies the centrality of social media platforms to the respondents’ processes of meaning-making, and draws on Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model in order to bring to the fore their oppositional interpretations of public health messages. The study also identifies respondents’ varying levels of disbelief about the realities of COVID-19, their mistrust of the government officials conveying and enforcing decisions to combat the pandemic, and the propensity for the social media messages they consume and propagate to serve as channels of misinformation.

scholarly journals Characterizing Social Media Messages Related to Underage JUUL E-Cigarette Buying and Selling: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Reddit Subreddits

10.2196/16962 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. e16962
Author(s):  
Hejing Liu ◽  
Qiudan Li ◽  
Yongcheng Zhan ◽  
Zhu Zhang ◽  
Daniel D Zeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Key Phrases ◽  
One Year

Background Stopping the epidemic of e-cigarette use among youth has become the common goal of both regulatory authorities and health departments. JUUL is currently the most popular e-cigarette brand on the market. Young people usually obtain and exchange information about JUUL with the help of social media platforms. Along with the rising prevalence of JUUL, posts about underage JUUL buying and selling have appeared on social media platforms such as Reddit, which sharply increase the risk of minors being exposed to JUUL. Objective This study aims to analyze Reddit messages about JUUL buying and selling among the users of the UnderageJuul subreddit, and to further summarize the characteristics of those messages. The findings and insights can contribute to a better understanding of the patterns of underage JUUL use, and help public health officials provide timely education and guidance to minors who have intentions of accessing JUUL. Methods We used a novel cross-subreddit method to analyze the Reddit messages on 2 subreddits. From July 9, 2017, to January 7, 2018, we collected data from the UnderageJuul subreddit, which was created for underage JUUL use discussion. The data set included 716 threads, 2935 comments, and 844 Reddit users (ie, Redditors). We collected our second data set, comprising 23,840 threads and 162,106 comments posted between July 9, 2017, and January 8, 2019, from the JUUL subreddit. We conducted analyses including the following: (1) annotation of users with buying/selling intention, (2) posting patterns discovery and topic comparison, and (3) posting activeness observation of discovered Redditors. Term frequency–inverse document frequency and regular expression-enhanced keyword search methods were applied during the content analysis to extract the posting patterns. The public posting records of the discovered users on the JUUL subreddit during the year after the UnderageJuul subreddit was shut down were analyzed to determine whether they were still active and interested in obtaining JUUL. Results Our study revealed the following: (1) Among the 716 threads on the UnderageJuul subreddit, there were 214 threads related to JUUL sale and 168 threads related to JUUL purchase, which accounted for 53.5% (382/714) of threads. (2) Among the 844 Redditors of the UnderageJuul subreddit, 23.82% (201/844) of users were annotated with buying intention, and 21.10% (178/844) of users were annotated with selling intention. There were 34 users with buying/selling intention that self-reported as being <21 years old. (3) The most common key phrases used in selling threads were “WTS,” “want to sell,” “for sale,” and “selling” (154/214, 72.0%). The most common key phrases used in buying threads were “look for/get JUUL/pods” (58/168, 34.5%) and “WTB” (53/168, 31.5%). (4) The most important concern that UnderageJuul Redditors had in obtaining JUULs was the price (311/1306, 23.81%), followed by the delivery service (68/1306, 5.21%). (5) The most popular flavors among the users with buying/selling intention were mango, cucumber, and mint. The flavor preferences remained consistent on both subreddits. Adverse symptoms related to the mango flavor were reported by 3 users on the JUUL subreddit. (6) In total, 24.4% (49/201) of users wanted to buy JUULs and 46.6% (83/178) of users wanted to sell JUULs, including 11 self-reported underage users, who also participated in the discussions on the JUUL subreddit. (7) Within one year of the UnderageJuul subreddit shutting down, there were 40 users who continued to post 186 threads on the JUUL subreddit, including 10 threads indicating buying/selling willingness that were posted shortly after the UnderageJuul subreddit was closed. Conclusions There were overlapping users active in the JUUL and UnderageJuul subreddits. The buying/selling-related content appeared in multiple venues with certain posting patterns from July 9, 2017, to January 7, 2018. Such content might lead to a high risk of health problems for minors, such as nicotine addiction. Based on these findings, this study provided some insights and suggestions that might contribute to the decision-making processes of regulators and public health officials.

The advent of social media influencer tourism: Travel health risks and opportunities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan M Mangan ◽  
Gerard T Flaherty
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Risks ◽  
Travel Medicine ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Travel Health ◽  
Public Health Messages

Abstract The authors assert that social media influencer tourism should be recognised as a novel entity in travel medicine, in order to protect this vulnerable group of travellers from harm to themselves and their host destinations, and to harness their potential as communicators of positive public health messages.

scholarly journals Tweet for Behavior Change: Using Social Media for the Dissemination of Public Health Messages

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. e14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aisling Gough ◽  
Ruth F Hunter ◽  
Oluwaseun Ajao ◽  
Anna Jurek ◽  
Gary McKeown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Behavior Change ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Public Health Messages

scholarly journals Correction: General Audience Engagement With Antismoking Public Health Messages Across Multiple Social Media Sites: Comparative Analysis

10.2196/28131 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. e28131
Author(s):  
Katja Reuter ◽  
Melissa L Wilson ◽  
Meghan Moran ◽  
NamQuyen Le ◽  
Praveen Angyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Audience Engagement ◽  
General Audience ◽  
Public Health Messages

Dynamic transactional model: a framework for communicating public health messages via social media

2020 ◽  
pp. 175791392093591 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Parackal ◽  
S Parackal ◽  
D Mather ◽  
S Eusebius
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Transactional Model ◽  
Childbearing Age ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Attractive Option ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Holding Back

Aims: Social media, because of its broad coverage, is an attractive option for communicating public health messages. However, the lack of a theoretical framework, supporting the two-way communication of social media, is holding back its development and use. This study investigated the suitability of a dynamic transactional model (DTM) of communication for explaining the use of social media for communicating public health messages. Methods: The study was carried out on ‘Don’t know? Don’t drink’, a Facebook campaign against drinking alcohol during pregnancy that targeted women of childbearing age in New Zealand. The comments generated were analysed for two features of DTM, namely inter- and intra-transaction, by examining the plurality of topics and polarity of sentiments, using text-mining techniques. Results: The analysis of the textual data revealed nine independent topics, confirming the plurality of topics. The conversation contained both positive and negative terms, establishing the polarity of sentiment. Conclusions: This study verified the two DTM features (inter- and intra-transaction) in the comments produced by the ‘Don’t know? Don’t drink’ campaign implemented on Facebook. DTM exhibited the potential to be a theoretical framework for recommending and evaluating social media sites like Facebook for communicating public health messages.

scholarly journals Role of Social Media in vaccination debate about HPV: the VAC Medi+Board study

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (Supplement_4) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Artus ◽  
H Larson ◽  
P Kostkova
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Hpv Vaccine ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Digital Networks ◽  
Rapid Responses ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government

Abstract Whilst it has long been known that anti-vaccination sentiment is widely disseminated through digital networks, 2019 has seen seismic shifts in the landscape. As viral videos originating on Youtube spread across social networks, HPV vaccine uptake tumbled in a number of countries. In Japan, the government came under sufficient pressure that they de-recommended HPV vaccine, seeing a 70% uptake rate in 2013 fall below 1%. However, there have been some reports of successful interventions - a recent campaign run by the HPV Alliance in Ireland has seen a rate back up to a national average of around 75%. A combination of hard-hitting personal testimonials, social media and traditional media looked to promote the HPV vaccine. Social media platforms such as Twitter enable near real-time understandings of vaccine sentiment and information flows at scale. VAC Medi+Board project developed an innovative approach for Twitter data collection, integration, analysis and visualisation to support rapid responses through identifying key influencers and flashpoints in articles about vaccination going viral. This pilot study evaluated the debate about HPV on Twitter in a period of several month and developed methods for analysis and visualisation of the content, key influencers, information diffusion throughout the network and size of audience. Through complex network analysis, VAC Medi+Board piloted identification of individuals for targeted public health interventions to combat misinformation. In this talk, we will present the VAC Medi+Board HPV study and explore the challenges and opportunities that social media can provide for public health policymakers.

scholarly journals Social Network Analysis of COVID-19 Public Discourse on Twitter: Implications for Risk Communication

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Paola Pascual-Ferrá ◽  
Neil Alperstein ◽  
Daniel J. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Social Network Analysis ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Public Health Messages ◽  
Public Health Officials

ABSTRACT Objectives: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the use of social network analysis to understand public discourse on Twitter around the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined different network properties that might affect the successful dissemination by and adoption of public health messages from public health officials and health agencies. Methods: We focused on conversations on Twitter during 3 key communication events from late January to early June of 2020. We used Netlytic, a Web-based software that collects publicly available data from social media sites such as Twitter. Results: We found that the network of conversations around COVID-19 is highly decentralized, fragmented, and loosely connected; these characteristics can hinder the successful dissemination of public health messages in a network. Competing conversations and misinformation can hamper risk communication efforts in a way that imperil public health. Conclusions: Looking at basic metrics might create a misleading picture of the effectiveness of risk communication efforts on social media if not analyzed within the context of the larger network. Social network analysis of conversations on social media should be an integral part of how public health officials and agencies plan, monitor, and evaluate risk communication efforts.

scholarly journals Characterizing Social Media Messages Related to Underage JUUL E-Cigarette Buying and Selling: Cross-Sectional Analysis of Reddit Subreddits (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hejing Liu ◽  
Qiudan Li ◽  
Yongcheng Zhan ◽  
Zhu Zhang ◽  
Daniel D Zeng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Keyword Search ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Public Health Officials ◽  
Key Phrases ◽  
One Year

BACKGROUND Stopping the epidemic of e-cigarette use among youth has become the common goal of both regulatory authorities and health departments. JUUL is currently the most popular e-cigarette brand on the market. Young people usually obtain and exchange information about JUUL with the help of social media platforms. Along with the rising prevalence of JUUL, posts about underage JUUL buying and selling have appeared on social media platforms such as Reddit, which sharply increase the risk of minors being exposed to JUUL. OBJECTIVE This study aims to analyze Reddit messages about JUUL buying and selling among the users of the UnderageJuul subreddit, and to further summarize the characteristics of those messages. The findings and insights can contribute to a better understanding of the patterns of underage JUUL use, and help public health officials provide timely education and guidance to minors who have intentions of accessing JUUL. METHODS We used a novel cross-subreddit method to analyze the Reddit messages on 2 subreddits. From July 9, 2017, to January 7, 2018, we collected data from the UnderageJuul subreddit, which was created for underage JUUL use discussion. The data set included 716 threads, 2935 comments, and 844 Reddit users (ie, Redditors). We collected our second data set, comprising 23,840 threads and 162,106 comments posted between July 9, 2017, and January 8, 2019, from the JUUL subreddit. We conducted analyses including the following: (1) annotation of users with buying/selling intention, (2) posting patterns discovery and topic comparison, and (3) posting activeness observation of discovered Redditors. Term frequency–inverse document frequency and regular expression-enhanced keyword search methods were applied during the content analysis to extract the posting patterns. The public posting records of the discovered users on the JUUL subreddit during the year after the UnderageJuul subreddit was shut down were analyzed to determine whether they were still active and interested in obtaining JUUL. RESULTS Our study revealed the following: (1) Among the 716 threads on the UnderageJuul subreddit, there were 214 threads related to JUUL sale and 168 threads related to JUUL purchase, which accounted for 53.5% (382/714) of threads. (2) Among the 844 Redditors of the UnderageJuul subreddit, 23.82% (201/844) of users were annotated with buying intention, and 21.10% (178/844) of users were annotated with selling intention. There were 34 users with buying/selling intention that self-reported as being &lt;21 years old. (3) The most common key phrases used in selling threads were “WTS,” “want to sell,” “for sale,” and “selling” (154/214, 72.0%). The most common key phrases used in buying threads were “look for/get JUUL/pods” (58/168, 34.5%) and “WTB” (53/168, 31.5%). (4) The most important concern that UnderageJuul Redditors had in obtaining JUULs was the price (311/1306, 23.81%), followed by the delivery service (68/1306, 5.21%). (5) The most popular flavors among the users with buying/selling intention were mango, cucumber, and mint. The flavor preferences remained consistent on both subreddits. Adverse symptoms related to the mango flavor were reported by 3 users on the JUUL subreddit. (6) In total, 24.4% (49/201) of users wanted to buy JUULs and 46.6% (83/178) of users wanted to sell JUULs, including 11 self-reported underage users, who also participated in the discussions on the JUUL subreddit. (7) Within one year of the UnderageJuul subreddit shutting down, there were 40 users who continued to post 186 threads on the JUUL subreddit, including 10 threads indicating buying/selling willingness that were posted shortly after the UnderageJuul subreddit was closed. CONCLUSIONS There were overlapping users active in the JUUL and UnderageJuul subreddits. The buying/selling-related content appeared in multiple venues with certain posting patterns from July 9, 2017, to January 7, 2018. Such content might lead to a high risk of health problems for minors, such as nicotine addiction. Based on these findings, this study provided some insights and suggestions that might contribute to the decision-making processes of regulators and public health officials.

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