What health-related information flows through you every day? A content analysis of microblog messages on air pollution

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the information about haze, a term used in China to describe the air pollution problem, is portrayed on Chinese social media by different types of organizations using the theoretical framework of the health belief model (HBM). Design/methodology/approach – A content analysis was conducted based on the 756 posts retrieved from Sina Weibo, the top microbloging platform in China, following the simple random sampling method. χ2 analysis was conducted to examine the relationships across the three types of organizations (governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and corporations) and the use of the HBM concepts (perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, self-efficacy, and cues to action) in terms of haze and its threat to health. Findings – The results of this study indicated that corporations posted more Weibo messages categorized as perceived benefit and most of these posts are related to their products, while governmental organizations posted fewer Weibo messages categorized as perceived severity. Social implications – This study provides health decision makers and media consumers with knowledge about how to use social media more effectively in terms of haze-related issues. Originality/value – Given the severity of air pollution and the influential role microblogging takes, the study aims to fill the gap in the limited literature on haze information dissemination on social media in China. In addition, this study aims to shed theoretical light on HBM as applied to a non-westernized context.

Role of Affective Mediators in the Effects of Media Use on Proenvironmental Behavior

“…By contrast, new media use only showed a significant association with negative emotions but failed to predict positive emotions. This is largely due to the fact that content on the Internet and social media inclines more toward a negative treatment of the environmental issue, emphasizing the severity and magnitude of the pollution, the threats to public health and quality of life, and the government’s failure to address the problem (Q. C. Yang et al, 2015; Zhao, 2016).…”

“…When it comes to haze news in China, strict censorship imposed on the press leads newspapers, radios, and magazines to cast the government in a positive light, focusing on less critical and more legitimizing themes (Duan & Takahashi, 2017). Meanwhile, more critical topics and negative stories tend to spread quickly and widely on the Internet and social media (Q. C. Yang et al, 2015).…”

Can the adoption of health information on social media be predicted by information characteristics?

“…Public health information disseminated through social media has covered more than 23% of the population of Northern Ireland (Gough et al , 2017). In China, both government and public organizations use Sina Weibo to disseminate health information (Yang et al , 2015). Consequently, in the past decade, seeking health information has been an ongoing popular activity on social media (Chen et al , 2016).…”

Exploring Environmental Health on Weibo: A Textual Analysis of Framing Haze-Related Stories on Chinese Social Media

“…Globally, the usage of social media has grown at exponential rates, with China being one of the countries with the most users. Even despite the lack of access to platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, China usage rates remain high due to local social media sites specifically tailored for the Chinese market [17].…”