The role of Social Media in health crisis management and health promotion activities: Is there such thing as a code of conduct? Evika Karamagioli

Social media is an interactive online communication method that offers the ability to provide immediate information, create dynamic relationships with the community, and disseminate information to media outlets.

Social media are nowadays recognized as a strong tool for advocacy, communication, and education in the health sector. They are also proven to be an important resource for public health preparedness and response to disease outbreaks, emergencies, and other disasters. The proposed presentation has as an objective to discuss a) How can online social networking play an important role in health crisis management and health promotion activities (i.e. policy advocacy and support of healthy behaviour change)? and b) In an environment of user-generated media and blogs, how can public health authorities ensure having the “control” of public health information and messages that they are diffusing while respecting the transparency and accuracy of information, the privacy of personal data and the freedom of expression.

Key message

• Social media have the potential to play an important role in public health and health promotion. However attention is needed in public health information and messages diffusion in order to ensure the respect of transparency and accuracy of information.