Vaccine Assemblages on Three HPV Vaccine-Critical Facebook Pages in Denmark from 2012 to 2019

Misinformation about vaccines on social media is a growing concern among healthcare professionals, medical experts, and researchers. Although such concerns often relate to the total sum of information flows generated online by many groups of stakeholders, vaccination controversies tend to vary acros...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMedia and communication (Lisboa) Vol. 8; no. 2S3; pp. 339 - 352
Main Authors Agergaard, Torben E, Smith, Mairi E, Nielsen, Kristian H
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Lisbon Cogitatio Press 30.04.2020
Cogitatio
Subjects
Analysis
controversy
Critical incidents
denmark
Digital media
facebook
False information
Health care
Health care industry
Human papillomavirus
Immunization
Information flow
Information management
Mass media
Medical personnel
Medical research
Misinformation
Narratives
News media
Papillomavirus infections
Qualitative analysis
qualitative content analysis
Social media
Social networks
Vaccination
Vaccines
Denmark
United Kingdom
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Summary:Misinformation about vaccines on social media is a growing concern among healthcare professionals, medical experts, and researchers. Although such concerns often relate to the total sum of information flows generated online by many groups of stakeholders, vaccination controversies tend to vary across time, place, and the vaccine at issue. We studied content generated by administrators on three Facebook pages in Denmark established to promote critical debate about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. We developed a qualitative coding frame allowing us to analyze administrators’ posts in terms of prevalent topics and intertextual material incorporated by linking and sharing. We coded more than a third of the posts (n = 699) occurring in the period from November 2012, when the first page was founded, to May 2019. We found that the pages mainly addressed the reports of adverse events following HPV vaccination and the (perceived) inadequate response of healthcare systems. To construct their central message, the pages assembled different sources, mostly reporting from Danish news media, but also personal narratives, scientific information, political assertions, and more. We conclude that HPV vaccination assemblages such as these pages are heterogeneous and contextual. They are not uniform sites of vaccine criticism, but rather seem to respond to and exchange information and misinformation within the communication environment in which they are embedded.
ISSN:2183-2439
2183-2439
DOI:10.17645/mac.v8i2.2858