Scotti Requena Simone, Pirkis Jane, Currier Dianne, Conway Mike, Lee Simon, Turnure Jackie, Cummins Jennifer, Nicholas Angela
Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Centre for Digital Transformation of Health, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Sep 7;7:e49325. doi: 10.2196/49325.
BACKGROUND: In most countries, men are more likely to die by suicide than women. Adherence to dominant masculine norms, such as being self-reliant, is linked to suicide in men in Western cultures. We created a suicide prevention media campaign, "Boys Do Cry," designed to challenge the "self-reliance" norm and encourage help-seeking in men. A music video was at the core of the campaign, which was an adapted version of the "Boys Don't Cry" song from "The Cure." There is evidence that suicide prevention media campaigns can encourage help-seeking for mental health difficulties. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the reach, engagement, and themes of discussion prompted by the Boys Do Cry campaign on Twitter. METHODS: We used Twitter analytics data to investigate the reach and engagement of the Boys Do Cry campaign, including analyzing the characteristics of tweets posted by the campaign's hosts. Throughout the campaign and immediately after, we also used Twitter data derived from the Twitter Application Programming Interface to analyze the tweeting patterns of users related to the campaign. In addition, we qualitatively analyzed the content of Boys Do Cry-related tweets during the campaign period. RESULTS: During the campaign, Twitter users saw the tweets posted by the hosts of the campaign a total of 140,650 times and engaged with its content a total of 4477 times. The 10 highest-performing tweets by the campaign hosts involved either a video or an image. Among the 10 highest-performing tweets, the first was one that included the campaign's core video; the second was a screenshot of the tweet posted by Robert Smith, the lead singer of The Cure, sharing the Boys Do Cry campaign's video and tagging the campaign's hosts. In addition, the pattern of Twitter activity for the campaign-related tweets was considerably higher during the campaign than in the immediate postcampaign period, with half of the activity occurring during the first week of the campaign when Robert Smith promoted the campaign. Some of the key topics of discussions prompted by the Boys Do Cry campaign on Twitter involved users supporting the campaign; referencing the original song, band, or lead singer; reiterating the campaign's messages; and having emotional responses to the campaign. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that a brief media campaign such as Boys Do Cry can achieve good reach and engagement and can prompt discussions on Twitter about masculinity and suicide. Such discussions may lead to greater awareness about the importance of seeking help and providing support to those with mental health difficulties. However, this study suggests that longer, more intensive campaigns may be needed in order to amplify and sustain these results.
背景:在大多数国家,男性自杀的可能性高于女性。在西方文化中,坚持诸如自力更生等占主导地位的男性规范与男性自杀有关。我们开展了一项自杀预防媒体宣传活动“男孩也会哭”,旨在挑战“自力更生”的规范,并鼓励男性寻求帮助。一支音乐视频是该活动的核心,它是对乐队“治疗”(The Cure)的歌曲《男孩别哭》(Boys Don't Cry)的改编版本。有证据表明,自杀预防媒体宣传活动可以鼓励人们针对心理健康问题寻求帮助。 目的:我们旨在探究“男孩也会哭”活动在推特上的传播范围、参与度以及引发的讨论主题。 方法:我们使用推特分析数据来调查“男孩也会哭”活动的传播范围和参与度,包括分析活动主办方发布的推文的特征。在整个活动期间及活动结束后,我们还使用从推特应用程序编程接口获取的推特数据来分析与该活动相关的用户的推文模式。此外,我们对活动期间与“男孩也会哭”相关的推文内容进行了定性分析。 结果:在活动期间,推特用户总共看到活动主办方发布的推文140650次,与推文内容互动了4477次。活动主办方表现最佳的10条推文中,要么包含视频,要么包含图片。在表现最佳的10条推文中,第一条是包含活动核心视频的推文;第二条是“治疗”乐队主唱罗伯特·史密斯(Robert Smith)发布的推文的截图,他分享了“男孩也会哭”活动的视频并@了活动主办方。此外,与活动相关的推文在活动期间的推特活动模式比活动刚结束后的时期要高得多,一半的活动发生在活动的第一周,当时罗伯特·史密斯宣传了该活动。“男孩也会哭”活动在推特上引发的一些关键讨论主题包括用户支持该活动;提及原歌曲、乐队或主唱;重申活动信息;以及对活动产生情感反应。 结论:本研究表明,像“男孩也会哭”这样的简短媒体宣传活动可以获得良好的传播范围和参与度,并能在推特上引发关于男性气质和自杀的讨论。此类讨论可能会提高人们对寻求帮助以及为有心理健康问题的人提供支持的重要性的认识。然而,本研究表明,可能需要开展更长时间、更密集的活动,以扩大并维持这些成果。
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