Mapping The Characteristics of Medical Influencer on Social Media: A Study from Indonesia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21111/ettisal.v9i1.74Keywords:
social media, medical influencers, health discourse, credibility, expertiseAbstract
Social media have a crucial role in health discourse and have become a health information source in Indonesia. Health professionals have actively shared information, updated the situation and regulations, explained the cases by answering users’ questions, and combated the hoax through their accounts during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health professionals are still perceived as credible and trusted sources to provide health information and messages to the public. This study aims to describe the credibility and expertise aspect of a medical doctor on social media, particularly Instagram (n=73), TikTok (n=60), and Twitter (n=49). The research uses a quantitative approach capturing the bio and content from the accounts of medical influencers. The research findings reveal that health professionals on social media have transformed into microcelebrities, where some receive pay to promote and self-promote themselves.
References
Abidin, C. (2018). Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame Online. Emerald.
Abidin, C. (2020). Mapping internet celebrity on TikTok: Exploring attention economies and visibility labours. Cultural Science Journal, 12(1), 77–103. https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.140
Abidin, C., & Brown, M. L. (2019). Introduction. In C. Abidin & M. L. Brown (Eds.), Microcelebrity Around The Globe: Approaches to Cultures of Internet Fame (1st ed., Vol. 1). Emerald.
Akbar, P., Nurmandi, A., Irawan, B., Qodir, Z., & Juba, H. (2022). Public trust on policy for mobility restrictions policy in Indonesia: An analysis from social media Twitter. Communications in Computer and Information Science, 1582, 340–348. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06391-6_44
Al Khaja, K. A. J., AlKhaja, A. K., & Sequeira, R. P. (2018). Drug information, misinformation, and disinformation on social media: A content analysis study. Journal of Public Health Policy, 39(3), 343–357. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41271-018-0131-2
Albalawi, Y., & Sixsmith, J. (2017). Identifying Twitter influencer profiles for health promotion in Saudi Arabia. Health Promotion International, 32(3), 456–463. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dav103
Alduraywish, S. A., Altamimi, L. A., Aldhuwayhi, R. A., AlZamil, L. R., Alzeghayer, L. Y., Alsaleh, F. S., Aldakheel, F. M., & Tharkar, S. (2020). Sources of health information and their impacts on medical knowledge perception among the Saudi Arabian population: Cross-sectional study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(3). https://doi.org/10.2196/14414
Assiroj, P., Meyliana, M., Prabowo, H., Hidayanto, A., & Warnars, H. (2018). Hoax news detection on social media: A survey. The 1st 2018 INAPR International Conference, 186–191.
Bakshy, E., Hofman, J. M., Mason, W. A., & Watts, D. J. (2011). Everyone’s an influencer: Quantifying influence on Twitter. International Conference on Web Search and Data Mining, 65–74.
Bozzola, E., Staiano, A. M., Spina, G., Zamperini, N., Marino, F., Roversi, M., Corsello, G., Villani, A., Agostiniani, R., Memo, L., Peroni, D., Banderali, G., Turra, R., Romeo, N., Chiara, A., Antonio, D. V., Indinnimeo, L., & Ferrara, P. (2021). Social media use to improve communication on children and adolescent’s health: The role of the Italian Paediatric Society influencers. Italian Journal of Pediatrics, 47(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-021-01111-7
Brynolf, A., Johansson, S., Appelgren, E., Lynoe, N., & Bonamy, A.-K. E. (2013). Virtual colleagues, virtually colleagues-physicians’ use of Twitter: A population-based observational study. BMJ Open, 3, 2988. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2013
Duncombe, C. (2019). The politics of Twitter: Emotions and the power of social media. International Political Sociology, 13(4), 409–429. https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olz013
Fan, K. L., Economides, J. M., & Song, D. H. (2019). To bot or not? Challenging the top social media influencers in #plasticsurgery. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 143(1), 337–343. https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0000000000005103
Griffin, E. M., Ledbetter, A., & Sparks, G. (2019). A First Look at Communication Theory (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.
Gupta, N., Dorfman, R., Saadat, S., & Roostaeian, J. (2020). The plastic surgery social media influencer: Ethical considerations and a literature review. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, 40(6), 691–699. https://doi.org/10.1093/ASJ/SJZ329
Hu, Y., & Sundar, S. S. (2010). Effects of online health sources on credibility and behavioral intentions. Communication Research, 37(1), 105–132. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650209351512
Irwansyah, I., Rusfian, E. Z., & Ernungtyas, N. F. (2016). Credibility of health site based on design and information content. MIMBAR, 32(1), 107–115.
Januraga, P. P., Izwardi, D., Crosita, Y., Indrayathi, P. A., Kurniasari, E., Sutrisna, A., & Tumilowicz, A. (2020). Qualitative evaluation of a social media campaign to improve healthy food habits among urban adolescent females in Indonesia. Public Health Nutrition. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980020002992
Karolina, C. M., & Zarkasi, I. R. (2022). Pros and cons of vaccine refusal in social media. Jurnal ASPIKOM, 7(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.24329/aspikom.v7i1.1062
Laagu, M. A., & Arifin, A. S. (2020). Analysis the issue of increasing national health insurance (BPJS Kesehatan) rates through community perspectives on social media: A case study of Drone Emprit. Proceeding - ICoSTA 2020: 2020 International Conference on Smart Technology and Applications. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICoSTA48221.2020.1570615599
Laor, T. (2022). My social network: Group differences in frequency of use, active use, and interactive use on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Technology in Society, 68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.101922
Lin, M., Thoma, B., Trueger, N. S., Ankel, F., Sherbino, J., & Chan, T. (2015). Quality indicators for blogs and podcasts used in medical education: Modified Delphi consensus recommendations by an international cohort of health professions educators. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 91(1080), 546–550. https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2014-133230
Maddox, J. (2022). Micro-celebrities of information: Mapping calibrated expertise and knowledge influencers among social media veterinarians. Information Communication and Society, 26(2), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2109980
Majid, M. N. (2020). Analisis resepsi mahasiswa terhadap pemberitaan hoax di media sosial. ETTISAL: Journal of Communication, 5(2), 227–237. https://doi.org/10.21111/ejoc.v5i2.4655
Milana, R., & Swarnawati, A. (2022). Fenomena hoaks Covid-19 di media sosial pada era post-truth. ETTISAL: Journal of Communication, 7(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.21111/ejoc.v7i1.7139
Neely, S., Eldredge, C., & Sanders, R. (2021). Health information seeking behaviors on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic among American social networking site users: Survey study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(6). https://doi.org/10.2196/29802
Ohanian, R. (1990). Construction and validation of a scale to measure celebrity endorsers’ perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness. Journal of Advertising, 19(3), 39–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1990.10673191
Purwaningtyas, M. P. F. (2020). Ketidakpercayaan dan eskapisme kaum muda menghadapi paparan informasi Covid-19. ETTISAL: Journal of Communication, 5(2), 161–182. https://doi.org/10.21111/ejoc.v5i2.5068
Redaksi Metropolis. (2020, August 22). Sejumlah dokter dan perawat di Subulussalam terus di bully netizen, IDI ancam melapor ke polisi. Metropolis.id.
Robins, D., Holmes, J., & Stansbury, M. (2010). Consumer health information on the web: The relationship of visual design and perceptions of credibility. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(1), 13–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21224
Sabbagh, C., Boyland, E., Hankey, C., & Parrett, A. (2020). Analysing credibility of UK social media influencers’ weight-management blogs: A pilot study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(23), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17239022
Saud, M., Mashud, M., & Ida, R. (2020). Usage of social media during the pandemic: Seeking support and awareness about COVID-19 through social media platforms. Journal of Public Affairs, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2417
Sbaffi, L., & Rowley, J. (2017). Trust and credibility in web-based health information: A review and agenda for future research. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 19(6). https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.7579
Song, S., Zhang, Y., & Yu, B. (2021). Interventions to support consumer evaluation of online health information credibility: A scoping review. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 145, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104321
Spencer-Jolliffe, N. (2023, February 28). Why social media is important for beauty businesses. Lion Spirit Media.
Valentine, O. (2019, July 11). How social media is reshaping the beauty industry. We Are Social.
Väliverronen, E., Laaksonen, S. M., Jauho, M., & Jallinoja, P. (2020). Liberalists and data-solutionists: Redefining expertise in Twitter debates on coronavirus in Finland. Journal of Science Communication, 19(5), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19050210
Viviani, M., & Pasi, G. (2017). Credibility in social media: Opinions, news, and health information—a survey. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 7(5). https://doi.org/10.1002/widm.1209
Wang, Z., Walther, J. B., Pingree, S., & Hawkins, R. P. (2008). Health information, credibility, homophily, and influence via the internet: Web sites versus discussion groups. Health Communication, 23(4), 358–368. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410230802229738
Williams, D. E., & Greenhalgh, S. P. (2022). Pseudonymous academics: Authentic tales from the Twitter trenches. Internet and Higher Education, 55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2022.100870
Zhang, D., Zhan, W., Zheng, C., Zhang, J., Huang, A., Hu, S., & Ba-Thein, W. (2021). Online health information-seeking behaviors and skills of Chinese college students. BMC Public Health, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10801-0
Zou, W., Zhang, W. J., & Tang, L. (2021). What do social media influencers say about health? A theory-driven content analysis of top ten health influencers’ posts on Sina Weibo. Journal of Health Communication, 26(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2020.1865486
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Niken Febrina Ernungtyas, Rino Febrianno Boer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ettisal: Journal of Communication is committed to the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.
All articles published in Ettisal are open access and freely available online immediately upon publication, without any subscription or access fees. Readers are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, provided that the use is non-commercial and the original source is properly cited.
All works published in Ettisal: Journal of Communication are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
This means:
-
Users may share (copy and redistribute) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon) the material in any medium or format for non-commercial purposes.
-
Appropriate credit must be given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license must be provided, and any derivative works must be distributed under the same license.
-
Commercial use of the published material is not permitted without prior written consent from the author(s) and the journal.
Authors retain full copyright to their work and grant Ettisal: Journal of Communication the right of first publication. Authors may also deposit their published articles in institutional repositories or personal websites, acknowledging the journal as the original place of publication.
Through this open access policy, Ettisal: Journal of Communication aims to promote ethical scholarship, knowledge dissemination, and public engagement with communication studies worldwide.
