Friday Futures: Social Media and Global Health

by Alanna Shaikh · 2009-07-10 02:11:00 UTC
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(photo credit: James Cridland)

I said a few weeks ago that social media is no magic bullet for global health. That's true, but social media does have a role in global health - a role I think will expand in the future.

1. Communities of practice Social media is an ideal way to build community among global health practitioners. It can keep project staff connected across, or between countries and allow sharing of ideas. It's an informal, real-time way to share successes and learn from failures. It has the potential to be a very effective way to support constant learning and improvement in global health projects.

2.       Better Storytelling Global health is complicated. You may have noticed this. Social media gives us the opportunity to convey a lot of information about global health in a way that engages people. This can increase global engagement on health issues, encourage donor support, and give the people working on different aspects of global health a clearer sense of why it matters.

3. Removing stigma Social media can help remove the shame of stigmatized illnesses like HIV and Tuberculosis. People respond to personal connections. When people with TB and HIV tell their own stories, it reduces stigma in their communities. Social media can broaden the impact of those stories.

4. Crowdsourcing We've seen the power of crowd-sourcing in other environments; I think that it will soon be applied to global health. In a field as broad and interconnected as global health, there's a lot of knowledge going unused that could have a major impact on improving global health work. Crowdsourcing will unlock that.

Alanna Shaikh
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