Using Social Media for Health Communication to Youth

What is this project about?

This project aims to improve the health communication young people receive from health authorities on social media, especially during public health emergencies like COVID-19.

In this project we are aiming to bring together the perspectives of young people and professional health communicators to develop best practice recommendations for social media health communication to youth.

What will we be doing?

This project consists of:

1. A survey of young people’s information sources during the COVID-19 pandemic

2. A content analysis of social media posts shared by health authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic

3. Interviews with young people about their experience with COVID-19 communications on social media, as well as general health communication on social media

4. Interviews with professional health communicators about their experience with COVID-19 communications on social media, as well as general health communication on social media

5. Co-design of a framework for communicating health messages to young people on social media, including during emergencies

Watch Melody explain this project in 60 seconds below ☺

What is the methodological aproach?

We want to ensure findings from this project are truly youth-centered so we have partnered with a number of youth advisors to engage in participatory research.

Youth advisors are aged 18-24 and bring their diverse lived experiences as young people to the project.

Youth involvement ranges across the studies, but we strive to involve young people as co-researchers where possible.