Performing health identities on social media: An online observation of Facebook profiles

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Performing health identities on social media: An online observation of Facebook profiles journaltitle: Discourse, Context & Media articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2015.11.003 content_type: article copyright: © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.This study was supported by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (Grant number: ES/K005103/1)

Discourse of 'transformational leadership' in infection control

The article explores the impact of the 'transformational leadership' style in the role of modern matron with regards to infection control practices. Policy and guidance on the modern matron role suggest that it is distinctive in its combination of management and clinical components, and in its reliance on transformational leadership. Senior nurses are therefore expected to motivate staff by creating high expectations, modelling appropriate behaviour, and providing personal attention to followers by giving respect and responsibility. In this article, we draw on policy documents and interview data to explore the potential impact of this new management style on infection control practices. Combining the techniques of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, we identify examples where matrons appear to disassociate themselves from the role of `an empowered manager' who has control over human and financial resources to resolve problems in infection control efficiently

Modern matrons and infection control practices: aspirations and realities

Modern matrons were introduced in 2001 by the Department of Health to lead clinical teams in the prevention of healthcare associated infection. The facilitative role of modern matron requires both managerial and entrepreneurial skills and senior nurses are expected to lead by example, inspire, motivate and empower others, and thus conform to the `transformational leadership' style that foregrounds the importance of interpersonal and influencing skills. In this paper we identify problems that challenge this model of the modern matron and link them to possible problems in infection control. The study describes cases of difficulty in fulfilling leadership requirements because of organisational barriers to empowerment despite arguments to the contrary. Unless a significant budgetary responsibility is made part of the modern matron's role, personal skills (communication, problem solving) alone may not be sufficient to sustain it and may not lead to achieving control over infection, which was the initial trigger for instituting this role

Climate change and ‘climategate’ in online reader comments: a mixed methods study

Climate change has rarely been out of the public spotlight in the first decade of this century. The high-profile international meetings and controversies such as ‘climategate’ have highlighted the fact that it is as much a political issue as it is a scientific one, while also drawing our attention to the role of social media in reflecting, promoting or resisting such politicisation. In this article, we propose a framework for analysing one type of social media venue that so far has received little attention from social scientists – online reader comments. Like media reporting on climate change, reader comments on this reporting contribute to the diverse, complex and contested discourses on climate change, and can reveal the meanings and discursive resources brought to the ongoing debate by laypeople rather than political elites. The proposed framework draws on research in computer- mediated communication, corpus linguistics and discourse analysis and takes into account both the content of such ‘lay talk’ and its linguistic characteristics within the specific parameters of the web-based context. Using word frequencies, qualitative study of co-text and user ratings, we analyse a large volume of comments published on the UK tabloid newspaper website at two different points in time – before and after the East Anglia controversy. The results reveal how stereotypes of science and politics are appropriated in this type of discourse, how readers’ constructions of climate science have changed after ‘climategate’, and how climate-sceptic arguments are adopted and contested in computer-mediated peer-to-peer interaction

Expectations in the field of the Internet and health: an analysis of claims about social networking sites in clinical literature

This article adopts a critical sociological perspective to examine the expectations surrounding the uses of social networking sites (SNSs) articulated in the domain of clinical literature. This emerging body of articles and commentaries responds to the recent significant growth in SNS use, and constitutes a venue in which the meanings of SNSs and their relation to health are negotiated. Our analysis indicates how clinical writing configures the role of SNSs in health care through a range of metaphorical constructions that frame SNSs as a tool, a conduit for information and a traversable space. The use of such metaphors serves not only to describe the new affordances offered by SNSs but also posits distinct lay and professional practices, while reviving a range of celebratory claims about the Internet and health critiqued in sociological literature. These metaphorical descriptions characterise SNS content as essentially controllable by autonomous users while reiterating existing arguments that e-health is both inherently empowering and risky. Our analysis calls for a close attention to these understandings of SNSs as they have the potential to shape future online initiatives, most notably by anticipating successful professional interventions while marginalising the factors that influence users’ online and offline practices and contexts

Contesting science by appealing to its norms: readers discuss climate science in the Daily Mail

This study examines the rhetorical aspects of social contestation of climate change in reader comments published in the Daily Mail, subsequent to climategate. The following themes are reported: (1) denigration of climate scientists to contest hegemonic representations, (2) delegitimization of pro–climate change individuals by disassociation from science, and (3) outright denial: rejecting hegemonic social representations of climate change. The study outlines the discursive strategies employed in order to construct social representations of climate change, to contest alternative representations, and to convince others of the validity of these representations. It examines how social representations of science are formed, maintained, and disseminated

The dynamics of professions and development of new roles in public services organizations: the case of modern matrons in the English NHS

This study contributes to research examining how professional autonomy and hierarchy impacts upon the implementation of policy designed to improve the quality of public services delivery through the introduction of new managerial roles. It is based on an empirical examination of a new role for nurses – modern matrons – who are expected by policy-makers to drive organizational change aimed at tackling health care acquired infections (HCAI) in the National Health Service (NHS) within England. First, we show that the changing role of nurses associated with their ongoing professionalization limits the influence of modern matrons over their own ranks in tackling HCAI. Second, the influence of modern matrons over doctors is limited. Third, government policy itself appears inconsistent in its support for the role of modern matrons. The attempts of modern matrons to tackle HCAI appear more effective where infection control activity is situated in professional practice and where modern matrons integrate aspirations for improved infection control within mainstream audit mechanisms in a health care organization

Communicating climate change: conduits, content, and consensus

Climate change has been the subject of increasing efforts by scientists to understand its causes and implications; it has been of growing interest to policymakers, international bodies, and a variety of nongovernment organizations; and it has attracted varied amounts of attention from traditional and, increasingly, online media. These developments have been aligned with shifts in the nature of climate change communication, with changes in how researchers study it and how a variety of actors try to influence it. This article situates the theory and practice of climate change communication within developments that have taken place since we first reviewed the field in 2009. These include the rise of new social media conduits for communication, research, and practice aimed at fine tuning communication content, and the rise to prominence of scientific consensus as part of that content. We focus in particular on continuing tensions between a focus on the part of communicators to inform the public and more dialogic strategies of public engagement. We also consider the tension between efforts to promote consensus and certainty in climate science and approaches that attempt to engage with uncertainty more fully. We explore the lessons to be learnt from climate communication since 2009, highlighting how the field remains haunted by the deficit model of science communication. Finally, we point to more fruitful future directions for climate change communication, including more participatory models that acknowledge, rather than ignore, residual uncertainties in climate science in order to stimulate debate and deliberation

Adapting digital networks and resources for autistic users:A toolkit for the third and public sector

Welcome to Adapting digital networks and resources for autistic users: a toolkit for the third and public sector.WHO IS THIS TOOLKIT FOR?This toolkit offers practical support to any third and public sector professional who wants to adapt their use of digital platforms. You don’t need to have design or programming skills to be able to use this toolkit. The recommendations offered in this toolkit don’t ask you to re-design digital platforms from scratch, but rather provide support on how to manage the content which populates your online platforms, and to provide appropriate level of guidance to users. For those who do have the skills to design digital platforms or have a team of designers at disposition, we offer a separate toolkit specific to these needs, which you can find at www.autisticadultsonline.com/toolkits. The tips offered in this guide are not just for platforms that are meant to be used exclusively with autistic users, but are applicable to any website, social media, and online group which may include autistic users.Autism is largely underdiagnosed, and if you are using digital platforms with a public audience, chances are there will be neurodivergent people accessing your platforms. The adjustments recommended in this toolkit will improve the user experience of your audience as a whole. Digital platforms are in constant evolution. Providing platform-specific instructions, for instance how to set up a Facebook group, would have condemned this toolkit to a short lifespan. Instead, we focused on concepts and approaches that can be applied to any platform you are working with (websites, social media platforms, online groups, forums, online courses).<br/