ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2014
Tweeting for and against public health policy: response to the Chicago Department of Public Health's electronic cigarette Twitter campaign.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 74 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Perceptions and Sentiments About Electronic Cigarettes on Social Media Platforms: Systematic Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2020Pooled it
- Systematic Literature Review on the Spread of Health-related Misinformation on Social Media.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2019Pooled it
- Methods for Coding Tobacco-Related Twitter Data: A Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Pooled it
- Overview of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: A Systematic Review.American journal of preventive medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Opposition to Youth e-Cigarette Prevention Campaigns on Twitter and TikTok: Cross-Platform Observational Mixed Methods Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Tobacco control policies discussed on social media: a scoping review.Tobacco control · 2026Article
- Assessing the effects of social media based anti-tobacco campaigns on tobacco use among youth in Virginia: an agent-based simulation approach.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Tweeted, Trolled, Twisted: Battling for Narrative Control in E-Cigarette Use Prevention Campaigns (2014-2020).Journal of health communication · 2025Article
- Discussion of Heated Tobacco Products on Twitter Following IQOS's Modified-Risk Tobacco Product Authorization and US Import Ban: Content Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Characterizing Anti-Vaping Posts for Effective Communication on Instagram Using Multimodal Deep Learning.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- How Facebook is used to promote ENDS products near four Big 10 universities: A qualitative analysis.Journal of American college health : J of ACH · 2024Article
- Miscommunication about the US federal Tobacco 21 law: a content analysis of Twitter discussions.Tobacco control · 2023Article
- Twitter Sentiment About the US Federal Tobacco 21 Law: Mixed Methods Analysis.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Exploring communication by public health leaders and organizations during the pandemic: a content analysis of COVID-related tweets.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2023Article
- An Analysis of Twitter Posts About the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Menthol Ban.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Social Media Data Mining of Antitobacco Campaign Messages: Machine Learning Analysis of Facebook Posts.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- An Analysis of Arguments Advanced via Twitter in an Advocacy Campaign to Promote Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), Marginalized Populations, and Tobacco Regulatory Policies.Journal of lung health and diseases · 2023Article
- Is #SDG13 Trending Online? Insights from Climate Change Discussions on Twitter.Information systems frontiers : a journal of research and innovation · 2023Article
- Examining the association between California tobacco licensed retail density and public support or opposition to state anti-tobacco legislation.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2023Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn January 2014, the Chicago City Council scheduled a vote on local regulation of electronic cigarettes as tobacco products. One week prior to the vote, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a series of messages about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) through its Twitter account. Shortly after the messages, or tweets, were released, the department's Twitter account became the target of a "Twitter bomb" by Twitter users sending more than 600 tweets in one week against the proposed regulation.
objectiveThe purpose of our study was to examine the messages and tweet patterns in the social media response to the CDPH e-cigarette campaign.
methodsWe collected all tweets mentioning the CDPH in the week between the e-cigarette campaign and the vote on the new local e-cigarette policy. We conducted a content analysis of the tweets, used descriptive statistics to examine characteristics of involved Twitter users, and used network visualization and descriptive statistics to identify Twitter users prominent in the conversation.
resultsOf the 683 tweets mentioning CDPH during the week, 609 (89.2%) were anti-policy. More than half of anti-policy tweets were about use of electronic cigarettes for cessation as a healthier alternative to combustible cigarettes (358/609, 58.8%). Just over one-third of anti-policy tweets asserted that the health department was lying or disseminating propaganda (224/609, 36.8%). Approximately 14% (96/683, 14.1%) of the tweets used an account or included elements consistent with "astroturfing"-a strategy employed to promote a false sense of consensus around an idea. Few Twitter users were from the Chicago area; Twitter users from Chicago were significantly more likely than expected to tweet in support of the policy.
conclusionsOur findings may assist public health organizations to anticipate, recognize, and respond to coordinated social media campaigns.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.