Three speakers shared their expertise in health communication in the One Health Risk and Communication Seminar, organised by the One Health research cluster of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), on 9 November 2020.
Dr HUANG Guanxiong, Assistant Professor at the Department of Media and Communication (COM), shared on the theme Using Messaging Strategy to Reduce Optimistic Bias in Health and Risk Communication. She argued that optimistic bias–individuals’ cognitive tendency of perceiving the risks to a hazardous event or disease for themselves lower than for others–has been observed with various health and risk issues, such as H1N1 flu and climate change. Individuals tend to perceive serious issues as somebody else’s issue, and it may have a negative impact on people’s willingness to take preventive measures. In the seminar, she presented her research on a message design strategy that can effectively reduce optimistic bias and in turn, persuade people to take action against hazardous events or diseases.
The theme of sharing by Dr KIM Ji-won, Assistant Professor of COM, was From Risk Butterflies to Citizens Engaged in Risk Prevention in the Zika Virus Crisis. In the digital era, more and more people use social media for communicating information about health risks during public health crises. They receive and share information within their social networks, but little is known about how the bidirectional use of social media would influence their risk perceptions and subsequent health behaviours. This has prompted Dr Kim to study the topic, and the findings of which were discussed in the seminar. She also offered insights into communication strategies that motivate users to share accurate risk information during the pandemic.
Common mental disorders are a pressing global public health issue. However, Dr DAI Yue, Assistant Professor of COM, opines that online health support groups focused more on active posters in these groups while neglecting the lurkers. In her sharing on the theme Observing Interactions in Online Mental Health Support Groups: A Masspersonal Perspective to Social Support, she presented two studies on how observers of interactions in online support communities relate to the interactants in the conversations and experience the interactions vicariously. The results shed light on the passive use of online support groups and guide the design of online support communities.
Aligning with CityU’s strategy, which identifies One Health, Digital Society, Smart City, Matter and Brain as its overarching research themes to enhance its capacity to respond to the academic and societal challenges in our highly interconnected world, CLASS has established research clusters to integrate faculty members’ expertise in these areas, and support their research and knowledge transfer endeavours.
