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Article
Conversing or Diffusing Information? An Examination of Public Health Twitter Chats
Journal of Public Interest Communications
  • Lauren Bayliss, Georgia Southern University
  • Yuner Zhu, City University of Hong Kong
  • King-Wa Fu, University of Hong Kong
  • Lindsay Mullican, Georgia Southern University
  • Ferdous Ahmeda, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
  • Hai Liang, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Zion Tse, University of York
  • Nitin Saroha, University of Georgia
  • Jingjing Yin, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
  • Isaac Fung, Georgia Southern University, Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-29-2021
DOI
10.32473/jpic.v5.i2.p27
Disciplines
Abstract

This study examines the one-way information diffusion and two-way dialogic engagement present in public health Twitter chats. Network analysis assessed whether Twitter chats adhere to one of the key principles for online dialogic communication, the dialogic loop (Kent & Taylor, 1998) for four public health-related chats hosted by CDC Twitter accounts. The features of the most retweeted accounts and the most retweeted tweets also were examined. The results indicate that very little dialogic engagement took place. Moreover, the chats seemed to function as pseudoevents primarily used by organizations as opportunities for creating content. However, events such as #PublicHealthChat may serve as important opportunities for gaining attention for issues on social media. Implications for using social media in public interest communications are discussed.

Citation Information
Lauren Bayliss, Yuner Zhu, King-Wa Fu, Lindsay Mullican, et al.. "Conversing or Diffusing Information? An Examination of Public Health Twitter Chats" Journal of Public Interest Communications Vol. 5 Iss. 2 (2021) p. 27 - 47 ISSN: 2573-4342
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/isaac_fung1/184/