Beyond Numbers: Opportunities and Challenges Using Qualitative Methods in Social Media Studies of PrEP Discourse.

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Social Media Analysis
• Public Health

Background:

• Social media platforms are vital for health promotion and community discourse, especially for HIV prevention.
• Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) discourse on social media offers a case study for analyzing health communication methods.
• Understanding platform architecture's influence on health discourse quality is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine qualitative and multi-method approaches for analyzing health communication on social media platforms.
• To document the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative and multi-method analyses in the context of PrEP discourse.
• To identify needs for improved analytical frameworks for social media health data.

Main Methods:

• Review of 23 studies analyzing social media data focused on PrEP.
• Comparative analysis of qualitative and multi-method approaches.
• Examination of how platform architecture (e.g., Reddit, X, TikTok) influences discourse.

Main Results:

• Qualitative analyses effectively captured how platform architecture shapes discourse quality (e.g., Reddit's depth vs. X's brevity).
• Short-form video platforms like TikTok enable creative expression but limit discourse depth.
• Multi-method studies (n=15) often struggled to integrate quantitative data with qualitative insights.
• Challenges include data transience, context preservation, and post-authenticity validation.

Conclusions:

• Qualitative methods offer unique insights into platform-specific discourse dynamics in health communication.
• Existing multi-method approaches require enhanced frameworks to effectively integrate computational and qualitative analyses.
• Future research should focus on developing robust methodologies to address social media data's inherent challenges for public health insights.