Social Media as an Effective Tool for Health Communication: Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

AbstractHealth communication efforts are crucial in improving the public’s well-being and quality of life. Consequently, health organizations are constantly seeking out more effective and interactive channels to deliver health communication messages to their intended audiences. One of such channels is social media, which has been noted to facilitate the interaction between health organizations and their consumers. Based on a study of the literature, this paper discusses the use of social media as an effective tool for spreading health communication messages. It further highlights the opportunities and challenges facing health organizations when using social media as a tool for health communication. The researchers present the COVID-19 pandemic as a case to illustrate the major role of social media in health communication, while shedding light on how fake news can impede such important efforts.KeywordsCOVID-19Fake newsHealth communicationSocial media