Government Agency, Non-Governmental Organization and General User Twitter Accounts: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Dissemination of HPV Vaccine Information

In this experiment, public health information dissemination about the HPV vaccination is explored between two groups of Twitter accounts, government agencies and non-governmental organizations versus other interacting Twitter users. The usage of the rhetorical strategies personal narrative, word choice, and sentiment and post frequency was evaluated between the two groups, with the hypothesis in support of other interacting Twitter users having increased usage of rhetorical strategies and more frequent posting. To conclude, the two-week long experiment, it was found that the other interacting Twitter users demonstrated better rhetorical strategy usage in their posts, especially when it came to informational terms, and posted more frequently. At the end, government agencies and NGOs struggled with infrequent posting and lack of rhetorical strategies which could prevent accurate vaccine information from being disseminated on social media sites like Twitter and the ability of misinformation to be more easily spread by other users as well.