CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of human communication continues to develop as man seeks for ways to make life easy.According to Robinson, Patrick and Gustafson (1998:280), the first generation of internet search engines was referred to as Web 1.0, a one-way flow of information, or the read only web. Information was searched and accessed unilaterally as interaction by users was limited. Nauert (2013:23), indicated that in the wake of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, communication strategies are also changing to match the increasingly influential and rapidly evolving social media revolution.
Eysenbach, Powell, Englesakis, Rizo and Stern (2004:1166) noted that over the past few years, there has been a dramatic transformation in the way people communicate with one another through electronic media, with the continued development of Web 2.0 technologies. Drentea and Moren-Cross (2005) added thus;
The Web 2.0 marks a shift from a one-way conversation to a multi-way conversation, in which users participate as both creators and consumers of web contents. Social media structures include size, reciprocity, complexity, density, homogeneity, reachability and geographic dispersion (p.923).
Rice and Katz (2002:14) asserted that among the variety of places one could find health information is the internet, with as many as four-fifths of users looking for such content online. For instance, a study by Pew Research Centre Internet & American Life Project in 2011 shows that 80% of internet users have looked online for information about health topics such as disease and treatment.
Barker (2008:20) indicated that the social media appears to offer many benefits not available through other means as users see digital media as a means to overcome health disparities. In support of the latter, Hardey (1999:820) noted that the sheer volume and variety of information available online is likely much more than most people have available offline.
Berkman and Glass (2000:5) in their study show the linkages among social networks, social support and health. Through this study, Berkman and Glass indicated how social networks provide opportunities for psychosocial mechanisms, such as social support and social influence, which in turn affect health through health behavioural, psychological, and physiologic pathways.
Access to online information has created an opportunity for non-clinicians and patients to take a more active role in healthcare. To buttress the above assertion, Phelan and colleagues (2004) stated;
Being embedded in a social context where neighbours, friends, family members, and co-workers can generally look forward to a long and healthy life surely contributes to an individual’s motivation to engage in health-enhancing behaviours (p. 267).
According to Cohen and Syme (1985:23), the adoption of social media by health organizations reflects a widespread sense that these tools are increasingly necessary to reach demographics who are abandoning traditional broadcast technologies (e.g., telephones, television) such as teens or a significant portion of the public who are rapidly transforming the manner in which they interact with experts.
Pereira and Bruera (1998:62) noted that social media platforms form an important continuum in terms of how people privately seek health-related information, as well as publicly share such information, respectively. A study by Berger, Wagner and Baker (2005: 1821) shows that the sense of anonymity and privacy that the internet offers leads some internet users to seek sensitive and potentially stigmatizing information through this means.
Ellery and Perlmutter (2001:41) enumerated that a majority of health educators are fast adopting social media. They further emphasised that social media provides an outlet for the publication of health information to consumers, while allowing consumers to respond and contribute to advice that was traditionally only issued by providers.
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