Abstract
Both healthcare professionals and scholars are recognizing the potential of the Internet as a valuable channel for health communication. Compared with traditional media channels, the Internet has expanded the range of an individual’s health information seeking behavior. Although some research has shed light on the trends, patterns, and directions in general health communication scholarship, research addressing Internet-focused topics has not yet been undertaken. This study explored the trends in discipline, topic, theory, and methodology of Internet-focused research in nine top-ranked journals over sixteen years. The findings identified some notable trends and potential future directions of the field. The authors found that Internet-focused research in health communication is highly interdisciplinary. For example, researchers from both communication- and medical-related fields have contributed to this field of research. Published research about the Internet and new communication technologies in the nine journals have increased greatly over sixteen years. For instance, the number of published studies about Internet-focused research increased from 0 in 1997 to 36 in 2012. A wide range of diverse topics have been investigated, such as health information seeking, online social support, and advancements in health care. In addition, a limited number of theories and methodologies have been employed across studies. The results showed only a small amount of Internet-focused health communication articles used explicit theoretical frameworks. Interdisciplinary research efforts, specifically between scholars from communication and health-related fields are strongly encouraged to investigate Internet health communication phenomena. In addition, health communication scholars are encouraged to develop and test theories that specifically deal with new media topics.
Highlights
The Internet has rapidly changed our economics, social structure and information consumption since its creation
Compared with prior research that focused on traditional topics in health communication scholarship [9,11,12], this study sheds light on the trend of published research of an increasingly important issue in health communication
Recognizing its interdisciplinary nature, this study examines articles published in key health communication journals, and considers articles of health-related topics in major communication and new communication technology journals, in the hope of shedding light on the interdisciplinary comparison across different scholarships
Summary
The Internet has rapidly changed our economics, social structure and information consumption since its creation. This change can be observed in the large number of individuals who seek and obtain health-related information from the Internet. Compared with traditional media channels, the Internet has expanded the range of an individual’s health information seeking behavior. A recent survey showed that health-related information is one of the most important topics in online searching [2]. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that 80% of American adult Internet users searched for health-related information regarding a wide range of topics, including disease identification, treatment, medicine, health insurance, doctor recommendations, and health tips [3]
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