Comunicação de risco em saúde : a importância do eWOM

Os surtos de doenças infeciosas estão atualmente no topo das preocupações relacionadas com riscos de saúde, devido à grande capacidade de disseminação e difusão que as caracteriza e, não menos importante, por causa da eventual possibilidade de evolução dos surtos para o nível de pandemia. A nível global, os Governos e as organizações oficiais de saúde estão empenhados em criar planos para lidar com os riscos de saúde, de forma a mitigar e controlar os efeitos nefastos provocados pelas doenças infeciosas na população. O mundo mudou, devido às novas tecnologias, tornou-se globalmente digital. As pessoas, hoje, têm um novo estatuto, são atores sociais, unidos por laços sociais no seio das redes digitais, dentro das quais, têm acesso a uma vasta panóplia de informação - acerca de assuntos de saúde por exemplo, que flui livremente através da rede e diminui os limites entre o cidadão comum e os profissionais e os peritos acerca dos mais diversos temas. O utilizador atual de internet, é um "prosumer". A tecnologia permite-lhe pesquisar a informação que procura e, adicionalmente, compartilhar e comentar o resultado das suas pesquisas e da sua própria experiência pessoal. No contexto dos riscos de saúde, a comunicação é um elemento preponderante em qualquer estratégia de planeamento de risco. Por sua vez, a internet, os novos media digitais e as redes sociais online, são ferramentas postas à disposição dos consumidores, que lhes possibilitam a procura a partilha e o armazenamento de informação. Em virtude da importância que assume a comunicação nos cenários de crise, no âmbito deste trabalho, centraremos o foco da nossa atenção, nos fenómenos de comunicação, conhecidos por “passa-palavra” e “passa-palavra eletrónico” (WOM e WOM), revelando a sua influência na participação dos consumidores na dinâmica comportamental de partilha de eWOM, dentro do grupo restrito de cada indivíduo (eWOM dentro do grupo). Para produzir o nosso modelo concetual, usaram-se medidas adaptadas de outros construtos retirados da literatura, nomeadamente, “Credibilidade da fonte”; “Credibilidade de informação” e “eWOM Dentro do Grupo”.

Parental Adjustment to Disability, Stress Indicators and the Influence of Social Support

Research into families of children and young people with disability maintain that parents or caregivers seem to experience higher levels of global stress than parents of children without disabilities, thereby presenting a high risk of developing disorders in their health and quality of life. The aim of this study is to understand the differences in parental stress and social support among groups of parents whose children have different disabilities in the context of parental adjustment to disability. Considering that adjustment is related to the effectiveness with which the family uses its resources and the support of their social network, we intend to analyse the differences of stress and social support among groups of parents of children with different problems and to clarify the relationships between the variables under study in order to adapt family intervention strategies. For this purpose a comparative, descriptive-correlational study was undertaken. The convenience sample included 152 parents of children with different disabilities (82 with intellectual disability, 37 with motor problems and 33 with autism) supported by schools and institutions in Viseu. The instruments used were: a Portuguese version of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1995), the Social Support Questionnaire – short version (Pinheiro & Ferreira, 2001) and a Parental Questionnaire (demographic and family data). Data were collected in schools and institutions that support people with disabilities, located in the Municipality of Viseu (Portugal). The results revealed significant differences between groups of parents in the partial results of parental stress, specifically in the Hyperactivity/Distract (DI), Acceptability (AC) and Adaptability (AD), dimensions of the Child Domain subscale (CD stress) and the Role Restriction (RO), dimension of Parent Domain subscale (PD stress). With regard to social support dimensions, we found significant differences between parents in the extent and availability of the social support network (SSQN).

The presence of three Portuguese TV news channels (RTP3, SIC NOTÍCIAS, and TVI24) on facebook

The growing popularity of social networks, and their impact on the daily lives of consumers, contributed to news organizations marking their presence on different online platforms. In the case of Facebook, a social network that began as a personal space, it has gradually transformed into a content-sharing space (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015). Nowadays, Facebook is the second most viewed website in Portugal (Alexa, 2016), and therefore, it has become crucial for Portuguese news agencies to be present on this social network. Although television continues to be the main information source in Portugal, social networks, and specifically Facebook, are increasingly important in news consumption by users (ERC, 2015). This new way of news dissemination, as well as the proliferation that these contents reach in social networks, led to news agencies exploiting these new channels, both to attract new audiences, and to redirect users to their own websites (Castillo, El-Haddad, Pfeffer, & Stempeck, 2014). Thus, it is important to understand how, and what kind of content these agencies put on their Facebook channels, as well as the strategies they use to share these same contents. This study aims to understand how the main news channels of Portuguese TV (RTP3, SIC Notícias, and TVI24) manage and use the social network Facebook to share news contents. To this end, the authors collected quantitative data of all posts placed on Facebook between February 8 and February 14 2016. Approximately 1063 posts were collected and analysed from the three Facebook pages. The results indicate that two of the three channels extensively used their Facebook pages to share and target content to their official websites. Regarding the news sources and type of media used, the three Portuguese TV news channels use similar strategies. However, in what concerns the main themes and quantity of messages per day, as well as the level of redundancy of information, the three channels manage their pages differently.

The presence of three portuguese TV news channels (RTP3, SIC Notícias, and TVI24) on Facebook

The growing popularity of social networks, and their impact on the daily lives of consumers, contributed to news organizations marking their presence on different online platforms. In the case of Facebook, a social network that began as a personal space, it has gradually transformed into a content-sharing space (Oeldorf-Hirsch & Sundar, 2015). Nowadays, Facebook is the second most viewed website in Portugal (Alexa, 2016), and therefore, it has become crucial for Portuguese news agencies to be present on this social network. Although television continues to be the main information source in Portugal, social networks, and specifically Facebook, are increasingly important in news consumption by users (ERC, 2015). This new way of news dissemination, as well as the proliferation that these contents reach in social networks, led to news agencies exploiting these new channels, both to attract new audiences, and to redirect users to their own websites (Castillo, El-Haddad, Pfeffer, & Stempeck, 2014). Thus, it is important to understand how, and what kind of content these agencies put on their Facebook channels, as well as the strategies they use to share these same contents. This study aims to understand how the main news channels of Portuguese TV (RTP3, SIC Notícias, and TVI24) manage and use the social network Facebook to share news contents. To this end, the authors collected quantitative data of all posts placed on Facebook between February 8 and February 14 2016. Approximately 1063 posts were collected and analysed from the three Facebook pages. The results indicate that two of the three channels extensively used their Facebook pages to share and target content to their official websites. Regarding the news sources and type of media used, the three Portuguese TV news channels use similar strategies. However, in what concerns the main thematic and quantity of messages per day, as well as the level of redundancy of information, the three channels operate their pages differently.