Portrayal of waterpipe (shisha, hookah, nargile) smoking on Twitter: a qualitative exploration

Grant, Aimee ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7205-5869 and O'Mahoney, Hannah 2016. Portrayal of waterpipe (shisha, hookah, nargile) smoking on Twitter: a qualitative exploration. Public Health 140 , pp. 128-135. 10.1016/j.puhe.2016.07.007

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Abstract

Objectives To describe and characterize social media content in relation to waterpipe smoking using qualitative methods. Study design Exploratory qualitative design. Methods A representative sample of pre-existing social media content from Twitter relating to waterpipe smoking and written in the English language was collected during a 1 week period in July 2014. A total of 9671 tweets were collected; duplicates and retweets were removed leaving 4439 unique tweets. Data were analyzed semiotically (positive, negative, positive and negative, no sentiment, unclassifiable) and thematically. Photographs attached to tweets written by individual users indexed using #hookah (n = 299) were subjected to content analysis. Results Over half of all tweets were positive about waterpipe smoking (59%), with 3% negative, 21% lacking sentiment and 17% unclassifiable. However, there were variations by likely author of tweet, with 91% of tweets from individual users classified as positive. Twitter users focused on their emotional experience, location, other products they were consuming alongside waterpipe smoking, and who they were with. Analysis of photographs highlighted a high degree of synergy between text and visual representations of waterpipe smoking, and two thirds of photographs contained at least part of a waterpipe. Objectives To describe and characterize social media content in relation to waterpipe smoking using qualitative methods. Study design Exploratory qualitative design. Methods A representative sample of pre-existing social media content from Twitter relating to waterpipe smoking and written in the English language was collected during a 1 week period in July 2014. A total of 9671 tweets were collected; duplicates and retweets were removed leaving 4439 unique tweets. Data were analyzed semiotically (positive, negative, positive and negative, no sentiment, unclassifiable) and thematically. Photographs attached to tweets written by individual users indexed using #hookah (n = 299) were subjected to content analysis. Results Over half of all tweets were positive about waterpipe smoking (59%), with 3% negative, 21% lacking sentiment and 17% unclassifiable. However, there were variations by likely author of tweet, with 91% of tweets from individual users classified as positive. Twitter users focused on their emotional experience, location, other products they were consuming alongside waterpipe smoking, and who they were with. Analysis of photographs highlighted a high degree of synergy between text and visual representations of waterpipe smoking, and two thirds of photographs contained at least part of a waterpipe.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Twitter; Social media; Social media analytics; Waterpipe; Tobacco; Smoking; Youth smoking
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0033-3506
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 July 2016
Date of Acceptance:	10 July 2016
Last Modified:	09 Nov 2024 09:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/93188

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