EXAMINING SOCIAL MEDIA AND HEALTH COMMUNICATION: SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CRITICAL ILLNESS

Figures of social media users have been amplifying drastically in the past decade. The last two years have seen the additive role of social media particularly in the domain of health communication. This platform is being used by healthcare professionals, patients, and caregivers for fulfilling their diverse health-related needs. The option of instant penetration, overcoming shortcomings of time and distance enabled this channel of communication to gain fuel in the field of health care. Health communication along with social media sprouted as a multifaceted approach used to reach different audiences fulfilling their assorted needs and requirement, and percolate deeper creating behavioral changes. Social media crafted a path for innovation of terms such as e-health, digital health, etc. This paper is a secondary review paper understanding the reach and potential of the diverse changes being brought in by social media in the arena of health communication. The Paper further expounds on the role of social media in health communication particularly in the lives of critically ill, like cancer patients. It also draws inferences between social media and health communication concluding its importance in the domain of health care.