Location
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii
Event Website
https://hicss.hawaii.edu/
Start Date
3-1-2024 12:00 AM
End Date
6-1-2024 12:00 AM
Description
In recent years, researchers have been discussing various strategies for public health communication to support individuals, populations, and communities in making healthier choices. In this context, the employment of social media influencers (SMI) is considered especially effective. Although we have seen extensive practical application during the COVID-19 pandemic, we possess little theoretical knowledge about the characteristics and narratives conveyed by SMI that engage in public health communication. This study takes a first step toward solving this issue by developing a taxonomy of SMI in public health communication. For the taxonomy development, qualitative content analyses of Twitter and YouTube data from the case of the German COVID-19 vaccination were conducted. The taxonomy emphasizes that SMI in public health communication can show major variations across different characteristics, thereby representing many facets of society. Moreover, conveyed narratives are not limited to health but also extend to political and social issues. This study contributes to the literature on broader SMI frameworks with a taxonomy of SMI in public health communication. The taxonomy offers a basis for further theory development and practical evaluations for context-specific employment of SMI.
Recommended Citation
Marx, Julian; Blanco, Beatriz; and Bollmann, Hannah, "Toward a Taxonomy of Social Media Influencers in Public Health Communication" (2024). Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2024 (HICSS-57). 4.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-57/dsm/influencers/4
Toward a Taxonomy of Social Media Influencers in Public Health Communication
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii
In recent years, researchers have been discussing various strategies for public health communication to support individuals, populations, and communities in making healthier choices. In this context, the employment of social media influencers (SMI) is considered especially effective. Although we have seen extensive practical application during the COVID-19 pandemic, we possess little theoretical knowledge about the characteristics and narratives conveyed by SMI that engage in public health communication. This study takes a first step toward solving this issue by developing a taxonomy of SMI in public health communication. For the taxonomy development, qualitative content analyses of Twitter and YouTube data from the case of the German COVID-19 vaccination were conducted. The taxonomy emphasizes that SMI in public health communication can show major variations across different characteristics, thereby representing many facets of society. Moreover, conveyed narratives are not limited to health but also extend to political and social issues. This study contributes to the literature on broader SMI frameworks with a taxonomy of SMI in public health communication. The taxonomy offers a basis for further theory development and practical evaluations for context-specific employment of SMI.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/hicss-57/dsm/influencers/4