| Summary: | Interest in social media and its wide use in Sweden awaken the need toexamine how social media are used by public organisations. This thesisdescribes the use and perceptions of social media as a researchcommunication channel in the public sector focussed on health care,health, and social care.Nine communications officers with professional experience usingsocial media for research communication within these fields wereinterviewed; the interviews were qualitatively analysed.Three research questions guided the study: How are social mediaused in research communication? Why does communications officersselect social media as communications channels for researchcommunication? What opportunities and challenges are linked to theuse of social media for research communication?The theoretical framework is primarily based theories from theTechnology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation(DOI) about factors influencing use of new technologies as well as ontheories about social media's potential as a tool for more symmetricalcommunication.Results provide insight into how social media are used for researchcommunication by communications officers of public organisations inhealth care, health, and social care related to how social media and itsresponses are valued in comparison to other channels.Opportunities in using social media for research communicationseem to exceed challenges; organisations' seeming lack of interactionbetween research and communications officers related to social mediais one challenge. A wider range of professions needs the opportunity towork actively with research content for it to truly become social, givingrise to more symmetrical research communication.
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