The Middle-Aged And Elderly’s Needs On Reposting WeChat Health Information-An Exploratory Research

Health is an issue of general concern for the middle-aged and elderly.In recent years,the use of Wechat by the middle-aged and elderly has increased gradually.Wechat provides a new platform for the middle-aged and elderly to exchange health information.Wechat not only provides rich health information for the middle-aged and elderly,but also challenges them to identify the effective health information."Repost"is the function of wechat,and reposting health information is one of the characteristics that middle-aged and elderly use Wechat to obtain health information.Paying attention to this reposting behavior helps to better understand the health needs of middle-aged and elderly people,so as to provide suggestions for the existing health information of Wechat,and create a better Internet environment for middle-aged and elderly to get access to health information.Based on the theory of "Use&Gratification" and the method of in-depth interview,this paper makes an exploratory study on the basic characteristics and needs of the middle-aged and elderly to repost wechat health information.This paper analyzes the wechat health information reposted by the middle-aged and elderly from the aspects of communication content,communication channels and communication sources,and finds that the communication content is close to daily life,mainly functional articles,showing the effect on health;the communication channel is the extension of offline relationship,and the sharing purpose of different channels is different;the communication source is mainly passive acceptance.Another study found that there are five main needs of middle-aged and elderly to repost Wechat health information:Information cognition,which mainly includes the need to transmit quality and valuable health information and meet the need of information Q&A;Relationship maintenance,which mainly includes the use of reposting to educate and accompany strong relationships for the purpose of altruism,and the maintenance of weak relationships for the purpose of self-interest;Identity,It is mainly reflected in the information transmitted in health information to promote the generation of self-identity or collective identity;Risk aversion is mainly reflected in avoiding the health risk of possible emotional or physical injury;Self presentation is mainly reflected in the use of health information to release different signals to different people,which can be divided into the real self reflecting health status,the ideal self reflecting ideal expectation of health status and display of positive energy.