Toward New Models of Public Health Engagement: Leveraging...
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ICLAC Meeting March 21, 2019 Toward New Models of Public Health Engagement: Leveraging Social Media for Immunization Promotion Heather Jane Hether, Ph.D. Department of Communication
Transcript of Toward New Models of Public Health Engagement: Leveraging...
ICLAC Meeting March 21, 2019
Toward New Models of Public Health Engagement: Leveraging Social Media
for Immunization Promotion
Heather Jane Hether, Ph.D.Department of Communication
https://compassionandchoices.org/stories/brittany-maynard/
Overview • Old media vs. new media• Social media for health promotion• Best practices of social media outreach• Social media for immunization promotion
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Image by maciej326 on Pixabay
Social media are a gift
Photo: Louis Abate, Flickr.com
Old Media New Media
Mass Media• Wide reach • Controlled• Message dissemination• Hands-off• Expensive
Social Media• Wide & niche reach• Uncontrolled• Participation• Hands-on• No cost*
Web 2.0
Social Media for Health Promotion:Challenges
• Lack of message control• Message distortion• Blurred boundaries• Time/expertise needed
Social Media for Health Promotion:Opportunities
• Affordability• Reach• Narrowcasting• Engagement
• Benefits of peer-to-peer communication
• Community building
Opportunity Challenge
Model of Public coMMunication
Non-profits and Social Media Engagement
(Lovejoy & Saxton 2012; Guo & Saxton 2014)
Information Dissemination
Dialogic Communication
Mobilization& Action Most non-profits
(including health) focus here
Social Media for Health Promotion
• Public health is not leveraging social media as much as it could for engagement / dialogue
• Most messaging focuses on one-way information dissemination
• Engagement is important for health promotion
Best Practices of Social Media
1. Cultivate engagement • Social and content interactions
2. Facilitate two-way / multi-way communication 3. Build relationships and community 4. Mobilize action
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Trends among Highly Engaging Campaigns
• Community building• Positive affect• Entertaining • Celebrity involvement• Self-expression
Image attribution: Jason Cayabyab vimeo.com
(Hether & Calabrese, in press)
Immunization Promotion• No strong evidence to
recommend any one specific intervention to address vaccine hesitancy/refusal (e.g. Dube, 2015)
• Social media is recommended, but cautiously
• Must establish active presence amidst vocal anti-vaccination community
Vaccination by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images
Anti-vaccination Community
• Active on social media • Confident messaging • Use of:
• Emotional appeals• Personal narrative / anecdotes• Non-expert “expertise”
• “University of Google,” “Dr. Mom”
• Frame science as opinion
(Faaze et al., 2016; Kata et al., 2012; Nicholson & Leask, 2012)
Social Media for Immunization Promotion
1. Participate on social media• Interact and promote dialogue
2. Address an audience of undecided/unsure/uncertain
3. Don’t over-promote4. Expand support base & build community5. Consider a mixture of proven and innovative
messaging strategies
(Faaze et al., 2016; Kata et al., 2012; Nicholson & Leask, 2012)
Messaging Strategies
1. Social norms (Dube 2015; Goldstein et al., 2015)2. Narrative /storytelling (Nicholson & Leask, 2012)3. Engage in discussions and build relationships
Final Thoughts
• Social media have tremendous potential to facilitate engagement in public health issues in an unprecedented way
• Social media are not an instant remedy: using them well takes time and an investment of human resources
• Finding new ways forward will require thoughtful planning and hands-on implementation
References and Further Reading Chou, W. Y. S., Prestin, A., Lyons, C., & Wen, K. Y. (2013). Web 2.0 for health promotion: reviewing the current evidence. American journal of public health, 103(1), e9-e18.Dredze, M., Broniatowski, D. A., Smith, M. C., & Hilyard, K. M. (2016). Understanding vaccine refusal: why we need social media now. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 50(4), 550-552.Dubé, E., Gagnon, D., & MacDonald, N. E. (2015). Strategies intended to address vaccine hesitancy: Review of published reviews. Vaccine, 33(34), 4191-4203.Goldstein, S., MacDonald, N. E., & Guirguis, S. (2015). Health communication and vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine, 33(34), 4212-4214.Guo, C., & Saxton, G. D. (2014). Tweeting social change: How social media are changing nonprofit advocacy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 43(1), 57-79.
Kata, A. (2012). Anti-vaccine activists, Web 2.0, and the postmodern paradigm–An overview of tactics and tropes used online by the anti-vaccination movement. Vaccine, 30(25), 3778-3789.Lovejoy, K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 337-353.
Nicholson, M. S., & Leask, J. (2012). Lessons from an online debate about measles–mumps–rubella (MMR) immunization. Vaccine, 30(25), 3806-3812.Park, H., Reber, B.H., & Chon, M. (2016). Tweeting as health communication: Health organizations’ use of twitter for health promotion and public engagement. Journal of Health Communication, 21(2), 188-198. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2015.1058435Ramanadhan, S., Mendez, S. R., Rao, M., & Viswanath, K. (2013). Social media use by community-based organizations conducting health promotion: a content analysis. BMC Public Health, 13(1), 1129.Wilson, K., & Keelan, J. (2013). Social media and the empowering of opponents of medical technologies: the case of anti-vaccinationism. Journal of medical Internet research, 15(5).
