Social Listening and its Issues: What can the Precautionary Principle Advice?

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Information Science
• Policy Studies

Background:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced "social listening" initiatives.
• Current WHO descriptions of social listening lack clarity and consistency.
• Social listening involves monitoring, understanding, and engaging with public discourse.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically analyze the conceptual underpinnings of the WHO's social listening approach.
• To identify and examine various challenges and risks associated with social listening practices.
• To propose the precautionary principle as a framework for governing social listening in public health.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of WHO's social listening framework.
• Identification and discussion of ethical and practical issues in social listening.
• Application of the precautionary principle to public health social listening.

Main Results:

• WHO's social listening framework is conceptually vague and inconsistent.
• Key issues include bad faith usage, misinformation, echo chambers, and resource management.
• The precautionary principle offers a viable regulatory approach for social listening.

Conclusions:

• Social listening requires clear guidelines and regulatory oversight.
• The precautionary principle can effectively mitigate risks and enhance the responsible use of social listening in public health.
• Further research should explore the practical implementation of the precautionary principle in social listening contexts.