TY - JOUR
T1 - “My People Already Know That”
T2 - The Imagined Audience and COVID-19 Health Information Sharing Practices on Social Media
AU - Hodson, Jaigris
AU - O’Meara, Victoria
AU - Thompson, Christiani
AU - Houlden, Shandell
AU - Gosse, Chandell
AU - Veletsianos, George
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
PY - 2022/7
Y1 - 2022/7
N2 - This article examines how imagined audiences and impression management strategies shape COVID-19 health information sharing practices on social media and considers the implications of this for combatting the spread of misinformation online. In an interview study with 27 Canadian adults, participants were shown two infographics about masks and vaccines produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and asked whether or not they would share these on social media. We find that interviewees’ willingness to share the WHO infographics is negotiated against their mental perception of the online audience, which is conceptualized in three distinct ways. First, interviewees who would not share the infographics frequently describe a self-similar audience of peers that are “in the know” about COVID-19; second, those who might share the infographics conjure a specific and contextual audience who “needs” the information; and finally, those who said they would share the infographics most frequently conjure an abstract audience of “the public” or “my community” to explain that decision. Implications of these sharing behaviors for combatting the spread of misinformation are discussed.
AB - This article examines how imagined audiences and impression management strategies shape COVID-19 health information sharing practices on social media and considers the implications of this for combatting the spread of misinformation online. In an interview study with 27 Canadian adults, participants were shown two infographics about masks and vaccines produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) and asked whether or not they would share these on social media. We find that interviewees’ willingness to share the WHO infographics is negotiated against their mental perception of the online audience, which is conceptualized in three distinct ways. First, interviewees who would not share the infographics frequently describe a self-similar audience of peers that are “in the know” about COVID-19; second, those who might share the infographics conjure a specific and contextual audience who “needs” the information; and finally, those who said they would share the infographics most frequently conjure an abstract audience of “the public” or “my community” to explain that decision. Implications of these sharing behaviors for combatting the spread of misinformation are discussed.
KW - health science communication
KW - Imagined audience
KW - Keywords
KW - misinformation
KW - social media sharing practices
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138723718&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85138723718&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/20563051221122463
DO - 10.1177/20563051221122463
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85138723718
SN - 2056-3051
VL - 8
JO - Social Media and Society
JF - Social Media and Society
IS - 3
ER -