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Social media practices between health organizations and networked citizens: an empirical study
Journal Title: SOCIOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE  
Author/s: Elisabetta Cioni, Alessandro Lovari 
Year:  2014 Issue: 48 Language: Italian 
Pages:  13 Pg. 47-59 FullText PDF:  207 KB
DOI:  10.3280/SC2014-048005
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This paper highlights the challenging process involved in social media adoption by Italian local health authorities. After reviewing the relevant literature on the role of social media for health, we focus on how these platforms are modifying health communication in Italy and present the main results of an exploratory study. The authors report three different empirical results: a) a map of local health authorities’ presence on the social web, b) a content analysis of messages published on the Facebook timelines of Italian public health organizations, and c) data from interviews with healthcare communication managers highlighting the implementation issues, managerial implications and constraints that influence the use of social media by such organizations.
Keywords: Health communication, social media, public communication, digital practices, health organizations, innovation

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Elisabetta Cioni, Alessandro Lovari, Social media practices between health organizations and networked citizens: an empirical study in "SOCIOLOGIA DELLA COMUNICAZIONE " 48/2014, pp. 47-59, DOI:10.3280/SC2014-048005

   

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