VACCINES AND SOCIAL MEDIA Dorit R. Reiss

Presentation Plan:

• Introduction: Social Media and Vaccines. •Voices for Vaccines. •The Blogosphere. •Commenting online. •Vaccines and Facebook. •Social media: opportunity and pitfalls.

Social Media and Vaccines

•Brunson: Social networks matter. •Social Media matters. •Facebook, 1.1. 2014: 1,310,000,000 users.

•Twitter, 1.1. 2014: 645,750,000 users. •Twitter study. •Easy to use, versatile.

Why the interest in Voices for Vaccines?

Turning ‘clicktivists’ into activists

Blogs: • Shotofprevention: http://shotofprevention.com • Science Based Medicine: http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org • Respectful Insolence: http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/ • Skeptical Raptor:

http://www.skepticalraptor.com/skepticalraptorblog.php/ • Liz Ditz: http://lizditz.typepad.com • Justthevax: http://justthevax.blogspot.com • Harpocrates Speaks: http://www.harpocratesspeaks.com • Left brain right brain:http: //leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk • Skewed Distribution: http://skeweddistribution.com • Red Wine and Apple Sauce: http://www.redwineandapplesauce.com • Moms who Vax: http://momswhovax.blogspot.com

Commenting online:

•Comments matter. •Tone matters. •Polarizing quickly, harsher tone than offline.

•Remember lurkers! •Good use of time? •Have a policy.

Facebook – the pro-vaccine scene:

Other Pages: • Parents of Kids with Infectious Diseases:

https://www.facebook.com/PKIDsOnline • National Meningitis Association: https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-

Meningitis-Association/61687069418?ref=br_tf • Nurses who Vaccinate: https://www.facebook.com/NursesWhoVaccinate • Informed Parents of Vaccinated Children:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Informed-Parents-of-Vaccinated-Children/236107336440146

• Chillin’ out, Vaxin’, Relaxin’, All Cool: https://www.facebook.com/COVRAC?ref=br_tf

• Immunization Action Coalition: https://www.facebook.com/VaccineInformation • Your Baby’s Best Shot:

https://www.facebook.com/YourBabysBestShot?ref=br_tf • Wear ‘em, Nurse ‘em, and Vax ‘em, too:

https://www.facebook.com/WENEVET?ref=hl

Facebook memes – informative:

Facebook memes – informative:

Facebook memes – informative:

Facebook meme – emotional:

Facebook meme – emotional:

Facebook meme – emotional:

Facebook memes: refutation

Facebook memes: refutation

Facebook memes: snarky

Facebook memes: snarky

Social Media: Opportunities and Pitfalls

Opportunities

• Disseminate information broadly.

• Mobilize quickly and efficiently.

• Variety of approaches for variety of audiences.

Pitfalls

• Get bogged down in commenting wars.

• Echo chambers. • Hard to act discreetly. • Harsher dialogue and

dynamic. • Long memory. • Short attention span. • Infoglut.