Here Be Dragons Public Health Communication in the Age of Social Media Cameron D. Norman PhD MDes CE CENSE Research + Design Dalla Lana School of Public Health
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.