Sanitary surveillance on Facebook: strong and weak points of sanitary surveillance communication in the internet

Abstract

This article presents the results of a master´s program study on sanitary surveillance communication through Facebook, the most popular social platform in Brazil that offers a new communication configuration for health promotion. It verifies the strong and weak points of digital communication processes that evoke sanitary risk mediatization in order to evaluate whether such strategies can be considered tools for social protection and the consolidation of the right to health. Firstly, public organizations in Brazil identified as Sanitary Surveillance Services (SSS) that hold a fanpage on Facebook are listed. We thendescribewhatis being communicated andhow. The application software Netvizz was used for data mining. Social Network Analysis and Content Analysis wereusedasguidestoconstructananalyticalmodel.Both theAnvisaOficialandVigilânciaSanitáriaRiofanpages wereselectedtocontentanalysisoftheir30mostengaged posts,publishedin2017betweenJune1standDecember1st. Those fanpages represent the Federal Brazilian SSS (AgênciaNacionaldeVigilânciaSanitária)andtheRiode Janeiromunicipality´sSSS,respectively.Thetopicsrelated to the highest engagement (highest sum of reactions, commentsandshares)were:medicinefromAnvisaOficial posts and zoonosis control from Vigilância Sanitária Rioposts.Eachtopic canbe associatedtomany sanitary risks and reveal various tensions and conflicts between interconnected society and public health services. We believe in digital communication as a contemporary alternative to increment social protection,reinforce the rightto information and, consequently, consolidate the rightto health.