How Today's Digital Media Ecosystem Impacts Evidence- based Health Communication Efforts for Policy and Practice

Abstract

Messages Messengers Experts OH MY How does health information and misinformation spread so widely online Does the messenger matter as much as the message In an evolving political landscape answers to these questions play an essential role in establishing evidence based health policies and practices Grounded in communication theory and network science this session uncovers how the online media ecosystem is either supporting or obstructing a culture of health We demonstrate a novel analytical platform developed by MIT s Center for Civic Media and Harvard s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Media Cloud is an open access suite of tools leveraging big data for health informatics research Previous research initiatives have explored how information propagates through social media networks Through examples in practice with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation we illustrate how our approach analyzes the overall digital media ecosystem and its intersection with evidence based health communication efforts Through our practical examples this session explores how today s media ecosystem is influencing an evidence based health dialogue both online and offline Presented by Brittany Seymour DDS MPHAssistant Professor Harvard School of Dental MedicinePublic Health Consultant MIT Center for Civic MediaFaculty Associate Harvard BerkmanKlein Center for Internet and Society Natalie Gyenes MPHResearcher and Community LeadMIT Center for Civic Media Media Cloud Project Matthew Trujillo PhDResearch AssociateRobert Wood Johnson Foundation