Abstract
Information exchange via Twitter and other forms of social media make public health communication more complex as citizens play an increasingly influential role in shaping acceptable or desired health behaviors. Taking the case of the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic, we explore in detail the dissemination of H1N1-related advice in the UK through Twitter to see how it was used to discourage or encourage vaccine and antiviral uptake. In three stages we conducted (1) an analysis of general content, retweeting patterns, and URL sharing, (2) a discourse analysis of the public evaluation of press releases and (3) a template analysis of conversations around vaccine and antiviral uptake, using Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) as a way of understanding how the public weighed the costs and benefits. Network analysis of retweets showed that information from official sources predominated. Analysing the spread of significant messages through Twitter showed that most content was descriptive but there was some criticism of health authorities. A detailed analysis of responses to press releases revealed some scepticism over the economic beneficiaries of vaccination, that served to undermine public trust. Finally, the conversational analysis showed the influence of peers when weighing up the risks and benefits of medication. Most tweets linked to reliable sources, however Twitter was used to discuss both individual and health authority motivations to vaccinate. The PMT framework describes the ways individuals assessed the threat of the H1N1 pandemic, weighing this against the perceived cost of taking medication. These findings offer some valuable insights for social media communication practices in future pandemics.
Highlights
Pandemics pose a challenge to public health officials, who need to coordinate a swift and effective communication strategy so that the general public can be informed about the risks of the pandemic and the appropriate behavioral response to those risks
We suggested that the trends of the data tend to correspond, in some respects, to public health press releases
We observed that the main UK source to be retweeted was NHS Choices, which signaled that even in this new social media environment people were turning to the health authority for information
Summary
Pandemics pose a challenge to public health officials, who need to coordinate a swift and effective communication strategy so that the general public can be informed about the risks of the pandemic and the appropriate behavioral response to those risks. In April 2009, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that they had detected the rapid spread of this virus and public health bodies worldwide began to make preparations [2]. During this period, social media sites were used to communicate information and thoughts about the pandemic and how to deal with it, which meant that, for the first time, the pandemic could be explored through the analysis of social media networks in general, and the analysis of Twitter in particular [3]. Chew and Eysenbach [3] described the H1N1 pandemic as occurring in the “Age of Twitter.”
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
