A Content Analysis Of Cancer Patients' Use Of Weibo

Cancer patients have different experience and mental state from other people.Existing research mostly concentrate on medical technology while few attentions have been paid to their physical and psychological state,which may affect cancer treatment.As a popular social media,Weibo has been an important platform where cancer patients can communicate.Weibo plays roles of recorder and a means of treatment.It can also be a sphere to communicate and get social support.Therefore,we can get more real information and status of cancer patients from Weibo.The study is to get in-depth understanding of the physical and psychological status of cancer patients through Weibo,which is of great significance for cancer patients,their families,medical staff and researchers from different areas.As a platform of emotion venting,Weibo provides opportunities for cancer patients to share with others.'Do cancer patients' Weibo contents present more positive attitude or more negative attitude?'-that's the first research question.Moreover,Weibo can not only be sort of the diary,but also can make it possible to interact with others.The existing research on cancer patients' Weibo are limited,so the second research question focuses on the discovery of cancer patients using Weibo to satisfy what kind of needs.In addition,the need to discover hidden social networks is essential to spread ideas,beliefs and trends.So the third question is:how do cancer patients interact with others in Weibo?This study extracts 30 Weibo users with snowball sampling and content-analyzes their 300 posts.Statistics include gender,age,attitudes,Weibo content type,content length,number of comments,patient type and interaction which are related variables to the study.The results imply that cancer patients' Weibo content show more positive attitude;the main content of their Weibo-emotional expression,treatment are what the cancer patients exactly need;Cancer patients' Weibo contents are in the prevalence of interaction,which reflects the social support among cancer patients.The significance of this study is to explore the use of Weibo of cancer patients.The purpose is to provide a reference to scholars and medical staff in order to help and treat cancer patients better.From the theoretical level,cancer patients Weibo is a kind of media of health communication,which is very valuable,but have got less concerned.So we're looking forward to making a breakthrough in the future study.