Managing Influenza Outbreaks Through Social Interaction on Social Media: Research Transformation Through an Engaged Scholarship Approach.

This research project seeks to develop our understanding of the spread of influenza through social interactions, individual and group activities as well as through public attitudes towards official health responses as they occur on social media platforms. We propose to conduct a series of workshops to: 1) develop a deep understanding of current social media crisis communications practices during influenza outbreaks; and 2) to assist public health agencies and health professionals to manage these outbreaks by exploring new strategies, frameworks and approaches to the potential role and use of social media platforms. The research proposal and methods outlined in this paper describe a transformational approach that bridges the divide between academics, practitioners and the general public through engaged scholarship which involves all constituent groups equally in the design, execution and co-creation of the research themes, problem focus and proposed solutions.