OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the extent and key characteristics of academic researc... more OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the extent and key characteristics of academic research and scholarship on the public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes. This will enable an evaluation of extant research and provide insight into directions for future research. STUDY DESIGN This study was a scoping review of academic literature. METHODS A scoping review of academic literature published between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020 was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. Boolean searches were conducted using a university library platform, which included databases, such as EBSCO host, Informit, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. Data were extracted using an a priori code frame, and publication, content, and disciplinary characteristics were analysed. The results of coding and screening comparison checks were within acceptable limits. RESULTS In total, 2672 works from around the world were identified and screened for inclusion. Twenty-two English language articles were included in the final analysis. The public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes has largely been approached from a health perspective, despite research and scholarship about social media in communication and policy disciplines (among others). Reported research aims or questions emphasised functional rather than theoretical contributions. Most analysed works used empirical or case study-based methods and were produced by authors in Western geographies. Among the health issues discussed, tobacco and tobacco control were discussed most frequently. While recognising issues with social media, most publications framed social media as more of an opportunity than a problem. CONCLUSIONS The public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes is an emerging field. There is considerable potential to expand scholarship and research in this field internationally, especially by integrating transdisciplinary knowledge and perspectives and by applying social media to foster policy change around identified global health challenges. Greater representation of authors from institutions in the Global South is also encouraged, as are applied and theoretical contributions.
Motorcyclists account for 71% of road crash fatalities in Cambodia. Use of mobile phones while dr... more Motorcyclists account for 71% of road crash fatalities in Cambodia. Use of mobile phones while driving increases the risk of road crash four times higher than those not using a phone. Young motorcycle drivers are a high-risk group of road users because they commonly use mobile phones while driving and are inexperienced drivers. AIP Foundation’s Safety Delivered program, with both communication and education components, aims to reduce distracted driving among young and inexperienced motorcycle drivers aged 15 to 29 years old in Cambodia. The public awareness communication component targets this audience directly with media and messages tailored to them. Four university campuses were chosen as the main focus for the education component, because 99% of students surveyed had driven a motorcycle in the previous three months, of which 21% had been involved in a in a traffic crash in the previous 12 months. The component includes the establishment a sustainable network of influential and social media-connected young ‘road safety’ ambassadors at each campus and supports them in designing and delivering innovative activities to raise awareness about avoidable risky behaviors as well as road safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at their campus, primary schools and the communities. In the baseline survey 60% of students reported using their mobile phone while driving. These figures are likely to be conservative given the social desirability bias inherent in self-reported data. The majority of students recognised that mobile phone usage while driving a motorcycle was unsafe, but only 42% were aware of laws against mobile phone usage while driving and only 4% had been caught by police for this behaviour. The subsequent program has been successfully running since April 2017 and will continue with the innovative road safety ambassadors initiative throughout 2018. Post intervention results will be available at the end of 2018.
Purpose This paper aims to examine motorcycle driving norms and their implications for social mar... more Purpose This paper aims to examine motorcycle driving norms and their implications for social marketing practice. It investigates whether misperceptions of descriptive norms related to motorcycle speeding behaviour are prevalent among young motorcyclists, and whether there is an association between these misperceptions with their speeding behaviour. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of 541 young motorcyclists was carried out as the second phase of a larger project, which examined the role of social norms related to road safety attitudes and behaviours. Findings The results showed misperceptions of perceived speeding norms among both male and female young motorcyclists. There was an association between normative misperceptions and speeding behaviour, and between speeding behaviour and approval to speeding behaviour by young motorcyclists. In addition, peer presence was found to moderate the relationship between misperceptions of speeding norms and speeding behaviour. Originality/value The study contributes to addressing the call for study of social norms marketing and health risks in non-Western contexts. Further, the results provide support for social marketers to consider the use of social norms approach in designing social marketing campaigns to promote safe motorcycle driving behaviours.
There are on-going debates about what is and is not ‘mindfulness’. These debates are stifling rig... more There are on-going debates about what is and is not ‘mindfulness’. These debates are stifling rigorous academic research as scientific precision is a precursor to shared meaning. While mindfulness is a growing field of research, these divergent and conflated meanings are limiting deeper interdisciplinary research. Interventions designed in one practice context may not be useful in other contexts because meaning is not transferred between settings. This review clarifies the various research domains that study mindfulness and the conceptual and operational definitions in each domain. This two-stage study comprises a scoping review of mindfulness classifications and a comparative content mapping of mindfulness studies from 2015 to 2021. The initial comprehensive search strategy followed the preferred reporting items for scoping reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) method. The comparative analysis was conducted using Leximancer. Findings illustrate a complex growing research corpus on min...
Summary Community sport organizations promote beneficial health outcomes such as social connectio... more Summary Community sport organizations promote beneficial health outcomes such as social connection and physical activity, yet they can also facilitate the consumption of unhealthy food and beverages. To provide a foundation for future research and to inform intervention efforts in this context, this scoping review summarizes existing knowledge of the factors that contribute to unhealthy food and beverage consumption in the community sport setting and explores the interventions to promote healthier choices. Using a qualitative process aligned with the nature of our aims, 228 articles were initially identified and subjected to a systemized appraisal, resulting in 45 articles pertinent to the review. The findings identify that the two key factors contributing to unhealthy food choices are the limited availability of healthy options within the sport setting and the presence of unhealthy food and beverage sponsorship. These factors contribute to the normalization of unhealthy eating in t...
This paper discusses findings from a commissioned evaluation of an Australian government COVID-19... more This paper discusses findings from a commissioned evaluation of an Australian government COVID-19 health campaign that utilised third-party influencers to increase the reach of health communication messages among culturally and linguistically diverse young people. Although the campaign was successful, interviews with select influencers and target audience members indicated that the ‘serious’ tone of the health messaging was less effective and less likely to be shared and that messages should be more ‘entertaining’. Analyses of data indicated three themes providing insights into how future campaigns may benefit from a focus that draws together health information and entertainment using models already constructed in the entertainment–education field: (1) Entertaining health messages have a stronger fit with influencers who are known for their entertainment value; (2) Entertaining messages are more memorable and more likely to be shared; (3) A balance between entertainment and the signifiers of trust and credibility such as government health authority logos overcomes trust issues in the context of current health disinformation and misinformation.
Consumers are vital stakeholders in creating and reducing food waste. However, limited research i... more Consumers are vital stakeholders in creating and reducing food waste. However, limited research into consumers’ perceptions of food waste and food packaging is available to inform research, packaging design or policy so that sustainable consumption practices among consumers might be better encouraged and enabled. By applying multivariate linear modelling to a sample of 965 Australian consumers, this study investigated consumers’ perceptions of packaging and packaging’s relationship to food waste. Overall, consumers perceived packaging waste as a more serious environmental issue than food waste. Most consumers did not consider food waste as an extreme environmental issue. Consumers’ perceptions of the seriousness of food waste also influenced their perceptions of packaging designed to reduce food waste. Significant differences between men and women and older and younger consumers were found regarding the relationship between packaging and food waste as well as food waste as an enviro...
OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the extent and key characteristics of academic researc... more OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the extent and key characteristics of academic research and scholarship on the public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes. This will enable an evaluation of extant research and provide insight into directions for future research. STUDY DESIGN This study was a scoping review of academic literature. METHODS A scoping review of academic literature published between 1 January 2011 and 31 December 2020 was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. Boolean searches were conducted using a university library platform, which included databases, such as EBSCO host, Informit, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. Data were extracted using an a priori code frame, and publication, content, and disciplinary characteristics were analysed. The results of coding and screening comparison checks were within acceptable limits. RESULTS In total, 2672 works from around the world were identified and screened for inclusion. Twenty-two English language articles were included in the final analysis. The public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes has largely been approached from a health perspective, despite research and scholarship about social media in communication and policy disciplines (among others). Reported research aims or questions emphasised functional rather than theoretical contributions. Most analysed works used empirical or case study-based methods and were produced by authors in Western geographies. Among the health issues discussed, tobacco and tobacco control were discussed most frequently. While recognising issues with social media, most publications framed social media as more of an opportunity than a problem. CONCLUSIONS The public health community's use of social media for policy advocacy purposes is an emerging field. There is considerable potential to expand scholarship and research in this field internationally, especially by integrating transdisciplinary knowledge and perspectives and by applying social media to foster policy change around identified global health challenges. Greater representation of authors from institutions in the Global South is also encouraged, as are applied and theoretical contributions.
Motorcyclists account for 71% of road crash fatalities in Cambodia. Use of mobile phones while dr... more Motorcyclists account for 71% of road crash fatalities in Cambodia. Use of mobile phones while driving increases the risk of road crash four times higher than those not using a phone. Young motorcycle drivers are a high-risk group of road users because they commonly use mobile phones while driving and are inexperienced drivers. AIP Foundation’s Safety Delivered program, with both communication and education components, aims to reduce distracted driving among young and inexperienced motorcycle drivers aged 15 to 29 years old in Cambodia. The public awareness communication component targets this audience directly with media and messages tailored to them. Four university campuses were chosen as the main focus for the education component, because 99% of students surveyed had driven a motorcycle in the previous three months, of which 21% had been involved in a in a traffic crash in the previous 12 months. The component includes the establishment a sustainable network of influential and social media-connected young ‘road safety’ ambassadors at each campus and supports them in designing and delivering innovative activities to raise awareness about avoidable risky behaviors as well as road safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors at their campus, primary schools and the communities. In the baseline survey 60% of students reported using their mobile phone while driving. These figures are likely to be conservative given the social desirability bias inherent in self-reported data. The majority of students recognised that mobile phone usage while driving a motorcycle was unsafe, but only 42% were aware of laws against mobile phone usage while driving and only 4% had been caught by police for this behaviour. The subsequent program has been successfully running since April 2017 and will continue with the innovative road safety ambassadors initiative throughout 2018. Post intervention results will be available at the end of 2018.
Purpose This paper aims to examine motorcycle driving norms and their implications for social mar... more Purpose This paper aims to examine motorcycle driving norms and their implications for social marketing practice. It investigates whether misperceptions of descriptive norms related to motorcycle speeding behaviour are prevalent among young motorcyclists, and whether there is an association between these misperceptions with their speeding behaviour. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of 541 young motorcyclists was carried out as the second phase of a larger project, which examined the role of social norms related to road safety attitudes and behaviours. Findings The results showed misperceptions of perceived speeding norms among both male and female young motorcyclists. There was an association between normative misperceptions and speeding behaviour, and between speeding behaviour and approval to speeding behaviour by young motorcyclists. In addition, peer presence was found to moderate the relationship between misperceptions of speeding norms and speeding behaviour. Originality/value The study contributes to addressing the call for study of social norms marketing and health risks in non-Western contexts. Further, the results provide support for social marketers to consider the use of social norms approach in designing social marketing campaigns to promote safe motorcycle driving behaviours.
There are on-going debates about what is and is not ‘mindfulness’. These debates are stifling rig... more There are on-going debates about what is and is not ‘mindfulness’. These debates are stifling rigorous academic research as scientific precision is a precursor to shared meaning. While mindfulness is a growing field of research, these divergent and conflated meanings are limiting deeper interdisciplinary research. Interventions designed in one practice context may not be useful in other contexts because meaning is not transferred between settings. This review clarifies the various research domains that study mindfulness and the conceptual and operational definitions in each domain. This two-stage study comprises a scoping review of mindfulness classifications and a comparative content mapping of mindfulness studies from 2015 to 2021. The initial comprehensive search strategy followed the preferred reporting items for scoping reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) method. The comparative analysis was conducted using Leximancer. Findings illustrate a complex growing research corpus on min...
Summary Community sport organizations promote beneficial health outcomes such as social connectio... more Summary Community sport organizations promote beneficial health outcomes such as social connection and physical activity, yet they can also facilitate the consumption of unhealthy food and beverages. To provide a foundation for future research and to inform intervention efforts in this context, this scoping review summarizes existing knowledge of the factors that contribute to unhealthy food and beverage consumption in the community sport setting and explores the interventions to promote healthier choices. Using a qualitative process aligned with the nature of our aims, 228 articles were initially identified and subjected to a systemized appraisal, resulting in 45 articles pertinent to the review. The findings identify that the two key factors contributing to unhealthy food choices are the limited availability of healthy options within the sport setting and the presence of unhealthy food and beverage sponsorship. These factors contribute to the normalization of unhealthy eating in t...
This paper discusses findings from a commissioned evaluation of an Australian government COVID-19... more This paper discusses findings from a commissioned evaluation of an Australian government COVID-19 health campaign that utilised third-party influencers to increase the reach of health communication messages among culturally and linguistically diverse young people. Although the campaign was successful, interviews with select influencers and target audience members indicated that the ‘serious’ tone of the health messaging was less effective and less likely to be shared and that messages should be more ‘entertaining’. Analyses of data indicated three themes providing insights into how future campaigns may benefit from a focus that draws together health information and entertainment using models already constructed in the entertainment–education field: (1) Entertaining health messages have a stronger fit with influencers who are known for their entertainment value; (2) Entertaining messages are more memorable and more likely to be shared; (3) A balance between entertainment and the signifiers of trust and credibility such as government health authority logos overcomes trust issues in the context of current health disinformation and misinformation.
Consumers are vital stakeholders in creating and reducing food waste. However, limited research i... more Consumers are vital stakeholders in creating and reducing food waste. However, limited research into consumers’ perceptions of food waste and food packaging is available to inform research, packaging design or policy so that sustainable consumption practices among consumers might be better encouraged and enabled. By applying multivariate linear modelling to a sample of 965 Australian consumers, this study investigated consumers’ perceptions of packaging and packaging’s relationship to food waste. Overall, consumers perceived packaging waste as a more serious environmental issue than food waste. Most consumers did not consider food waste as an extreme environmental issue. Consumers’ perceptions of the seriousness of food waste also influenced their perceptions of packaging designed to reduce food waste. Significant differences between men and women and older and younger consumers were found regarding the relationship between packaging and food waste as well as food waste as an enviro...
Uploads
Papers by Lukas Parker