Citation

Dadich A, Khan A. Health Promot. Int. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

School of Business, Western Sydney University, 169 Macquarie Street, Parramatta, New South Wales 2150, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/heapro/daaa016

PMID

32380522

Abstract

Agenda-setting theory suggests the media shapes public perceptions. Guided by this theory, this study examines the effects of organizational Twitter accounts on public discourse in the Twittersphere. The tweets that mention one of three youth mental health organizations were theorized to emanate the particular focus of the organization mentioned. This was investigated by analysing: randomly selected tweets that mentioned one of three national mental health organizations-ReachOut, headspace or the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre but not authored by these organizations (n = 600); and the population of tweets that mentioned one of these three organizations and authored by either of the two counterparts of the mentioned organization (n = 115).

FINDINGS supported anticipated patterns, whereby the tweets reflected the remit of the three organizations. These findings reveal the influential role of social media in setting a youth mental health agenda. The implications for practitioners and researchers are discussed.

© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Language: en

Keywords

health literacy; health service settings; mental health; social media; youth