Social Construction of Emerging Infectious Disease: Perceptions of Zika on the U.S. CDC Facebook Page

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 4. Cultural Authority of Medicine

Abstract

While social construction of illness research has examined how certain illnesses are constructed on the Internet, the literature is less developed about this process alongside emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) and pandemics. This paper examines how social media response posts by visitors to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Facebook page demedicalise Zika virus as nonhazardous while displaying a distrust in medical research and prevention. Using qualitative content analysis, we examine 801 posts on the CDC’s Facebook page to highlight the social construction of Zika virus and trust in medical authority, especially the CDC. Three themes are discussed, including Zika: (1) as a legitimate public health threat; (2) as a product of CDC corruption; and (3) used as a platform to question medical expertise. We discuss the danger of socially constructing EIDs as products of corrupt, ineffective expert authority, potentially endangering global understanding of EIDs as serious illnesses that may become (or already are) pandemic in nature.

Authors

• Andrea Laurent-Simpson, Southern Methodist University

• Celia C. Lo, Texas Woman's University