Here Be DragonsPublic Health Communication in the Age of Social Media

Cameron D. Norman PhD MDes CECENSE Research + Design

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

In 1497 Vasco de Gama left Portugal with a 160-man crew for the Cape of Good Hope

…100 of those men died of scurvy

Capt. James Lancaster sailed from England to India in 1601 and conducted one of the earliest randomized trials of using citrus juice to control scurvy

Results? Halfway,100 of 278 sailors (40%) died of scurvy on the control ships

0 died on the experimental ship

Captain James Cook sailed around the Cape of Great Hope

3 times from 1768 - 1780 losing no men to scurvy

“To introduce any new article of food among seamen, let it ever so much be for their good, requires both examples and the authority of a commander”

- Captain James Cook

Social Media

Social media is any networked ICT tool or platform that derives its principal value from user engagement

(Norman, 2012)

Social Media Revolution• No centre of control

• Institution > person is now also: • person to person, people to

people, institution > institution, person > institution etc..

• Mobile

• Real time

• Visual

• Conversation

• Dynamic

The most important factor in controlling epidemics isn’t the quality of our medicine. It’s the quality of our

information.

• Maryn McKenna – Wired Online 13/08/21

The solution [to preventing pandemic outbreaks] lies in something public health has failed to accomplish despite centuries of trying: persuading governments that transparency needs to trump concerns about their own reputations.

Information can outrun our deadly new diseases, but only if it’s allowed to spread.

Become a Designer

Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.

- Herb Simon

E + Health Literacy

Connecting & Community

Attention & Focus

Leadership

Teamwork

Adaptive Strength

Lister, C., Royne, M., Payne, H. E., Cannon, B., Hanson, C., & Barnes, M. (2015). The Laugh Model: Reframing and Rebranding Public Health

Through Social Media. American Journal of Public Health, 105(11), 2245–2251.

Direction

Maloney, S., Tunnecliff, J., Morgan, P., Gaida, J. E., Clearihan, L., Sadasivan, S., et al. (2015). Translating Evidence Into Practice via Social Media: A Mixed-Methods Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research,

17(10), e242–10.

Channels

Armstrong, S. (2015). Which app should I use? BMJ, 351, h4597–3.