This paper investigates the discussion about global health on the social media platform X under the hashtag #GlobalHealth. The researchers went into this, wondering if discussions are really representative of every corner of the world. They found that most of the posts originate from higher-income countries, including the United States and Europe, while large swaths of the world, including many countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, are strikingly underrepresented.
This means that though global health issues affect all, the online conversation is dominated by a small set of voices, often leaving out vital perspectives from less affluent countries. The study underlines a digital divide where experiences and ideas of people in the Global South are not given enough space in such global discussions.
The authors call for more research to understand why this imbalance exists and how to make global health talks online more inclusive. By ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, especially those in areas most affected by health crises, global health conversations can become more meaningful and truly global.
Full text: Zara Arshad, Pranav Sharma, Shweta Sharma, Mustafa Sajjad Cheema, Charu Agarwal, Tamara Tango, Farhan Bin Matin, Atanas G Atanasov, Bodrun Naher Siddiquea, Maima Matin, Olga Adamska, Artur Stolarczyk, Rahul Kashyap, Faisal A Nawaz, Is global health truly global? A hashtag analysis of #GlobalHealth disparities on X, Frontiers in Public Health, 2024 Nov 29;12:1413556, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1413556