CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Due to technological improvements, the internet, and particularly websites on the World Wide Web, is always evolving. As a result, the way health information is communicated on social media has changed. One of these information transformations is the use of social media. A rising proportion of internet users now devote significant time to social networking sites (Pew Internet, 2012). Social media, which is defined as an internet-based technology that allows individuals to share ideas, opinions, and information through networks and communities, has exploded in popularity in recent years. Internet systems that allow users to publish their own content are known as social media. Facebook and Twitter are two popular social media platforms.
commonly used participatory platforms that allow users to consume and publish a variety of content. These advancements make the internet a more dynamic medium than static webpages or other kinds of mass communication. It also brings its users closer together (Chou, Hunt, Beckjord, Moser, & Hesse, 2009).
Previous research into the effects of social media use in healthcare discovered a wide range of effects of social media use in the healthcare system for health-related reasons. Patients can use social media for support and information, while healthy people can use it to learn about new things. It improves their autonomy by, for example, augmenting the knowledge of healthcare personnel.
as well as providing emotional support (Bennett, G., & Glasgow, R. 2009). The use of social media by healthy individuals and patients may assist healthcare staff by increasing the organization’s market position and inspiring debate for brand promotion and better service delivery.
As a result, social media may have an effect on patients as well as the healthcare system as a whole. It enables patients, in particular, to get help and supplement offline resources, potentially improving patient empowerment. Individuals’ usage of social media has both beneficial and bad implications for the environment, according to Schein, R., Wilson, K., and Keelan, J. (2011). Both individuals and healthcare providers face challenges as a result of the current healthcare system. Because everyone with access to social media can give “advice” on how to deal with a specific health condition, it’s vital to build reliable online communication channels to prevent health problems from getting worse. On Twitter, for example, one inaccurate thought encouraged Nigerians to consume big amounts of salt water to fight Ebola. However, there may have been two deaths and more than a dozen hospitalizations as a result of this. As a result, many healthcare professionals are worried that personal usage of social media for health-related purposes usually leads to patient misunderstanding.
Statement of the problem
With the broad use of social media, the conventional vertical system of sharing information from authoritative sources has been supplanted by rapid horizontal information sharing from a variety of sources, whether scientific or not. Social media allows anyone with an account to share information with the public, and it is largely used to connect prominent figures such as politicians, entertainers, and athletes with the general public. However, other uses of social media have emerged. According to Melvin L. and Chan T. (2014), appeals to change the alienating and inaccessible language of healthcare in order to promote patient–physician communication are not unique, and they continue to plague medicine.
As a result, boosting information transparency and accessibility in medicine is crucial. Because social media allows for the sharing of information, medical applications of social media have recently gotten a lot of interest, particularly on the Twitter platform. This is because, according to Kuehn B.M. (2015), Twitter is the most popular type of social media for healthcare communication.
The question of whether and how medical practitioners should use social media platforms in their job has sparked debate. Skeptics of social media in healthcare point to the risk of misinformation, contradicting advice, and other problems. as proof that social media is not an acceptable medium for sharing healthcare information; and unprofessionalism as evidence that social media is not an appropriate medium for sharing healthcare information (Pemmaraju N., Thompson M., Qazilbash M.2017). Some say that social media has no place in healthcare, while others contend that social media’s open sharing of knowledge will revolutionize medical access. However, due to some limitations, such as the lack of trustworthiness, confidentiality, and privacy of healthcare information on social media, misinformation shared through these platforms can lead to society adopting inaccurate views of health, with the impact varying between healthcare and non-healthcare related platforms. This study aims to assess the acceptance and uptake of health-care information on Twitter by university students in this context.
Objective of the study
The overall goal of this study is to give an assessment of university students’ acceptance and uptake of health-care information on Twitter. The study’s objectives are as follows:
1. Determine how widely Twitter is used to disseminate healthcare information.
2. Determine the advantages of using Twitter to share healthcare information.
3. Look into the potential dangers of using Twitter in the healthcare field.
4. Determine whether using the Twitter platform will have an impact on students’ acceptance and adoption of health-care information.
Research Hypothesis
HO1: There are no known risks connected with using Twitter as a platform for exchanging healthcare data.
HO2: Undergraduates’ acceptance and uptake of health-care information would not be influenced by using the Twitter platform.
Significance of the study
The study’s findings would be both empirical and practical in nature. Empirically, it will help to articulate the use of social media in exchanging healthcare information and shaping university students’ health beliefs. In practice, the study will serve as a resource for government and non-governmental groups, policymakers, and healthcare professionals, emphasizing the importance of regulating the trustworthiness of health information published on Twitter. Furthermore, the study’s findings will serve as a data base for mass communication academics interested in learning more about the global healthcare epidemic, as well as prospective researchers who may conduct similar studies in the future.
Scope of the study
The goal of this study is to assess university students’ acceptance and adoption of health-care information on Twitter. The goal of the project is to see how widely Twitter is utilized to disseminate healthcare information. It will determine the advantages of using Twitter to share health-related information. It will also look into the potential risks of using Twitter in the healthcare field. However, the research is limited to the University of Port Harcourt in Rivers State.
Limitation of the study
The researchers ran into some minor roadblocks while conducting the study, as with any human endeavor. Because there was a scarcity of literature on the subject due to the fact that no recent study had been conducted on the subject, the researcher had to spend more money and time sourcing for relevant materials, literature, or information, as well as in the data collection process, which is why the researcher chose a small sample size. In addition, the researcher will do this research while also working on other academic projects. Despite the constraints, the researcher downplayed them all while assuring that the best was delivered.
Definition of terms
The term “social media” refers to a set of websites and web-based platforms that enable large-scale contact, conversation, and sharing among network members. Its potency is in the real-time images communicated through video capturing of events as they happen. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms are examples.
Health behaviors are actions that people conduct that have an impact on their health. They include behaviors that promote health, such as eating healthily and staying active, as well as behaviors that raise disease risk, such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and dangerous sexual conduct. Health Communication: The study and practice of transmitting promotional health information, such as in public health campaigns, health education, and between doctor and patient, is known as health communication. The goal of sharing health information is to improve health literacy and hence affect personal health decisions.
REFERENCE
E.Ranney M. Chan T. Trueger Choo E.Ranney M. Chan T. Trueger Choo E.Ranney M. N. Walsh, A. Tegtmeyer, K. Tegtmeyer, S. McNamara Carroll, C. Carroll, R. Choi, R. Choi, R. Choi (2015). A handbook for skeptics and newbies to Twitter as a medium for communication and knowledge exchange in academic medicine. 411–416 in Med. Teach., 2015. The number to look for is 10.3109/0142159X.2014.993371.
Disease-specific hashtags and the establishment of Twitter medical communities in hematology and oncology, Pemmaraju N., Thompson M., Qazilbash M. doi: 10.1053/j.seminhematol.2017.08.004. Semin. Hematol.
Using Twitter in Clinical Education and Practice, L. Melvin and T. Chan. DOI: 10.4300/JGME-D-14-00342.1 J. Grad. Med. Educ. ;6:581–582.
B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kuehn, B.M. Kue
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