Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health, School of Population Health, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia.
School of Management and Marketing, Curtin University, Kent Street, Perth, WA, 6102, Australia.
BMC Public Health. 2024 Mar 21;24(1):876. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18362-8.
The social media landscape is now ubiquitous in people's everyday lives. It is a space where culture, politics, economics and sociological and public health discourses occur. There is mounting evidence that e-cigarette products are being promoted and advertised on social media, a media platform particularly popular with young people. Our research aimed to understand industry professionals' perceptions of social media harms and potential management strategies using vaping as a case study.
A critical realist perspective guided reflexive thematic analysis of the qualitative in depth, semi structured interviews. Data collection occurred in January and February 2023 with 13 participants working in the areas of public health, digital media, law, governance, tobacco control and advocacy.
Two superordinate themes emerged from the data: (1) Fathoming a complex system (social media) that contained the subordinate themes of Traversing Boundaries (crossing borders, crossing sectors) and Ungovernable (global and local landscapes, vested interests, self-regulation and opacity). (2) Addressing complexity (social media)- that contained the subordinate themes of Strengthening Institutions (global to local, policy and legislation, individuals and organisations); Defanging Industry (responsibility and transparency, moderation and algorithms, complaints); and Engaging Citizens (raising awareness, framing messaging).
There was consensus among participants that e-cigarette related social media content can be harmful and government action is urgently needed. There was an identified need for the development of government led national-level regulatory frameworks, with government led appropriate legislation; identification of an organisation or organisations with suitable levels of regulatory power and resources to monitor, enforce and penalise noncompliant social media companies; accompanied by increased community awareness raising of harmful social media content and improved digital literacy.
社交媒体如今已无处不在，深入人们日常生活之中。它是一个文化、政治、经济以及社会学和公共卫生话语交汇的空间。越来越多的证据表明，电子烟产品正在社交媒体上被推广和宣传，而社交媒体是年轻人特别喜欢的一个平台。我们的研究旨在通过以电子烟为例，了解行业专业人士对社交媒体危害的看法以及潜在的管理策略。
批判性现实主义观点指导了对深度半结构化访谈的反思性主题分析。数据收集于 2023 年 1 月和 2 月进行，共有 13 名参与者从事公共卫生、数字媒体、法律、治理、烟草控制和宣传等领域的工作。
从数据中出现了两个上位主题：（1）理解一个复杂的系统（社交媒体），包含下属主题跨界（跨越边界、跨越部门）和不可治理（全球和地方景观、既得利益、自我监管和不透明）。（2）应对复杂性（社交媒体），包含下属主题加强机构（全球到地方、政策和立法、个人和组织）；削弱行业（责任和透明度、调解和算法、投诉）；以及吸引公民（提高认识、框架信息传递）。
参与者一致认为电子烟相关的社交媒体内容可能有害，迫切需要政府采取行动。人们认识到需要制定由政府主导的国家级监管框架，包括政府主导的适当立法；确定一个或多个具有适当监管权力和资源的组织，以监测、执行和惩罚不遵守社交媒体公司的行为；同时提高社区对有害社交媒体内容的认识，并提高数字素养。
