HEALTH RISK COMMUNICATION

IN THE DIGITAL ERA Myojung Chung

Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & InformationNanyang Technological University

Health Risk Communication

Effective Health Messages • Aim to alert people to the risk • Convince them to behave in a recommended way

• Discussed mainly in traditional media context

Social Media• Important channel for health risk communication • Speed• Affordance• Openness• Connectedness

Do people perceive health risk messages differently

depending on the message context?

EPPM (Extended Parallel Process Model)

Impersonal Impact Hypothesis • Risk information from various channels• Mass media sources Society at risk • Interpersonal sources I am at risk

• Identification with the source is the key factor• “Person like me” thinks it’s risky I am also at risk

Message Context• Social Media: Quasi-interpersonal nature

• Heightens social intimacies • Increases interpersonal level of communication • Two people on FB are distanced only by 3.74 friendship links

• Who’s sharing the information? • News organization’s FB vs. Friend’s FB • In-group vs. Out-group

Message Context

Identification with source

Perceived Threat

+Perceived Efficacy

Behavior Change

Experiment News

Website

News FB

In-group FB

Out-group FBN = 189

Findings • In-group member’s FB is the most effective • Greatest identification with the source • Increased identification greater severity & response efficacy

• Strongest intention to adopt recommended behavior

• No difference between news site/news organization FB/out-group member FB

Discussion • Strategic use of message contexts

• Identification with source can be an important component of health risk communication

• Social media can be an effective channel • Social media do not in and of itself enhance identification with source

THANK YOU

Any questions?