Social media and public perception as core aspect of public health: The cautionary case of @realdonaldtrump and COVID-19

Fuentes, Agustín; Peterson, Jeffrey V.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0251179

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…Social media platforms such as Instagram have altered the way, in which people receive and engage with health information (Chen & Wang, 2021; Goodyear et al, 2019). Moreover, health information shared social media can impact public beliefs, perceptions and attitudes toward health issues (Fuentes & Peterson, 2021; Ugarte et al, 2021; Zou et al, 2021), with patient influencers additionally providing valuable insights on specific health issues (Heiss & Rudolph, 2022). Thus, we were specifically interested in the way, in which patient influencers frame health responsibilities—verbally and visually.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there are potential benefits, too, as social media enable users to share their personal health-related experiences, thoughts, and feelings with others and receive social support from them (Chen & Wang, 2021; Smailhodzic et al, 2016; Zhao & Zhang, 2017). Moreover, health information on social media can impact public beliefs, perceptions and attitudes toward health issues (Fuentes & Peterson, 2021; Ugarte et al, 2021) as well as mobilize social resources (Chen & Wang, 2021).…”

Section: Patient Influencers On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Verbal and Visual Framing of Responsibility for Type 1 Diabetes by Patient Influencers on Instagram

Wiedicke

Reifegerste

Temmann³

et al. 2022

Social Media + Society

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Visuals remain understudied in health-related framing research. On Instagram, users who have been patients of long-term health conditions, such as type 1 diabetes (T1D), and who regularly share their experiences with a wider audience, that is, patient influencers, have become an increasingly important source of health information. Both their verbal and visual portrayal of health issues and how they frame causal and treatment responsibility for them matters for the public perception of health and illness. We aimed at determining how patient influencers verbally and visually portray T1D on Instagram, thus incorporating verbal and visual frame analysis by conducting a multimethod study. Combining insights from a qualitative image sorting study ( N = 168 images) and a quantitative content analysis of N = 280 posts by German patient influencers on Instagram, we show that these influencers frequently share how they feel about their illness and verbally emphasize individual treatment responsibilities. Visually, they mostly share images of their diabetes devices, such as insulin pumps. Overall, the visuals used on Instagram tend to enhance the verbal responsibility frames in the captions, with one specific visual frame attributing individual treatment responsibility.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Patient Influencers On Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Verbal and Visual Framing of Responsibility for Type 1 Diabetes by Patient Influencers on Instagram

Wiedicke

Reifegerste

Temmann³

et al. 2022

Social Media + Society

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“…Researchers have previously examined the role public figures on social media have in shaping the public’s health beliefs. Prior studies have found that only a handful of individual accounts can be responsible for disseminating information and misinformation that is then shared or retweeted thousands of times, reaching potentially millions of social media users [ 11 ]. Furthermore, a 2013 meta-analysis found that individuals are conditioned to react positively to the advice of celebrities, and that celebrity medical advice can be a contagion that diffuses throughout social networks [ 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Figure Vaccination Rhetoric and Vaccine Hesitancy: Retrospective Twitter Analysis

Honcharov¹,

Li²,

Sierra³

et al. 2023

JMIR Infodemiology

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Background Social media has emerged as a critical mass communication tool, with both health information and misinformation now spread widely on the web. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, some public figures promulgated anti-vaccine attitudes, which spread widely on social media platforms. Although anti-vaccine sentiment has pervaded social media throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unclear to what extent interest in public figures is generating anti-vaccine discourse. Objective We examined Twitter messages that included anti-vaccination hashtags and mentions of public figures to assess the connection between interest in these individuals and the possible spread of anti-vaccine messages. Methods We used a data set of COVID-19–related Twitter posts collected from the public streaming application programming interface from March to October 2020 and filtered it for anti-vaccination hashtags “antivaxxing,” “antivaxx,” “antivaxxers,” “antivax,” “anti-vaxxer,” “discredit,” “undermine,” “confidence,” and “immune.” Next, we applied the Biterm Topic model (BTM) to output topic clusters associated with the entire corpus. Topic clusters were manually screened by examining the top 10 posts most highly correlated in each of the 20 clusters, from which we identified 5 clusters most relevant to public figures and vaccination attitudes. We extracted all messages from these clusters and conducted inductive content analysis to characterize the discourse. Results Our keyword search yielded 118,971 Twitter posts after duplicates were removed, and subsequently, we applied BTM to parse these data into 20 clusters. After removing retweets, we manually screened the top 10 tweets associated with each cluster (200 messages) to identify clusters associated with public figures. Extraction of these clusters yielded 768 posts for inductive analysis. Most messages were either pro-vaccination (n=329, 43%) or neutral about vaccination (n=425, 55%), with only 2% (14/768) including anti-vaccination messages. Three main themes emerged: (1) anti-vaccination accusation, in which the message accused the public figure of holding anti-vaccination beliefs; (2) using “anti-vax” as an epithet; and (3) stating or implying the negative public health impact of anti-vaccination discourse. Conclusions Most discussions surrounding public figures in common hashtags labelled as “anti-vax” did not reflect anti-vaccination beliefs. We observed that public figures with known anti-vaccination beliefs face scorn and ridicule on Twitter. Accusing public figures of anti-vaccination attitudes is a means of insulting and discrediting the public figure rather than discrediting vaccines. The majority of posts in our sample condemned public figures expressing anti-vax beliefs by undermining their influence, insulting them, or expressing concerns over public health ramifications. This points to a complex information ecosystem, where anti-vax sentiment may not reside in common anti-vax–related keywords or hashtags, necessitating further assessment of the influence that public figures have on this discourse.

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“…Social media represented an ideal platform to spread information quickly and has been used to rapidly disseminate information during previous public health emergencies and disease outbreaks, including Ebola, H1N1 (swine flu) and MERS-CoV outbreaks [10][11][12][13]. In addition, social media analytics have been used to better understand public perceptions and responses to emerging infectious diseases [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Tell us what’s going on”: Exploring the information needs of pregnant and post-partum women in Australia during the pandemic with ‘Tweets’, ‘Threads’, and women’s views

et al. 2023

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Introduction The provision of maternity services in Australia has been significantly disrupted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many changes were initiated quickly, often with rapid dissemination of information to women. The aim of this study was to better understand what information and messages were circulating regarding COVID-19 and pregnancy in Australia and potential information gaps. Methods This study adopted a qualitative approach using social media and interviews. A data analytics tool (TIGER-C19) was used to extract data from social media platforms Reddit and Twitter from June to July 2021 (in the middle of the third COVID-19 wave in Australia). A total of 21 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with those who were, or had been, pregnant in Australia since March 2020. Social media data were analysis via inductive content analysis and interview data were thematically analysed. Results Social media provided a critical platform for sharing and seeking information, as well as highlighting attitudes of the community towards COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy. Women interviewed described wanting further information on the risks COVID-19 posed to themselves and their babies, and greater familiarity with the health service during pregnancy, in which they would labour and give birth. Health providers were a trusted source of information. Communication strategies that allowed participants to engage in real-time interactive discussions were preferred. A real or perceived lack of information led participants to turn to informal sources, increasing the potential for exposure to misinformation. Conclusion It is vital that health services communicate effectively with pregnant women, early and often throughout public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. This was particularly important during periods of increased restrictions on accessing hospital services. Information and communication strategies need to be clear, consistent, timely and accessible to reduce reliance on informal and potentially inaccurate sources.

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Social media and public perception as core aspect of public health: The cautionary case of @realdonaldtrump and COVID-19

Cited by 31 publications

References 25 publications

Verbal and Visual Framing of Responsibility for Type 1 Diabetes by Patient Influencers on Instagram

Verbal and Visual Framing of Responsibility for Type 1 Diabetes by Patient Influencers on Instagram

Public Figure Vaccination Rhetoric and Vaccine Hesitancy: Retrospective Twitter Analysis

“Tell us what’s going on”: Exploring the information needs of pregnant and post-partum women in Australia during the pandemic with ‘Tweets’, ‘Threads’, and women’s views

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