IRC Seminar, presented by Dr Roberta Bernardi: "Tell me how you feel, and I will tell you what you know? The role of emotions in the epistemic enquiry of users of an Online Health Community"

Abstract

This talk presents findings of a recent research on Online Health Communities. Online Health Communities can be a source of innovation by sharing latest medical research and practical advice on how to manage a chronic condition. Yet, they can also be a source of controversy by questioning conventional clinical advice. The objective of this research is to investigate how users of a diabetes online community deal with controversy and how this affects their search for ‘truth’ and learning. While learning in OHCs has often been viewed as an intellectual process, a major contribution of this research is to illuminate the role of emotions in OHC users’ epistemic enquiry. This research has implications for current debates on public discussions of science on social media fueling controversies about important issues of our time, such as vaccines hesitancy and global warming.

Short Bio on presenter: Roberta Bernardi is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Bristol. She has done research on ICT for healthcare including research on health information systems in Kenya and more recently telehealth and online health communities in the UK. The expected impact of her research is to guide academics, policy makers and practitioners in the formulation of IT policies and strategies to support healthcare integration and patient-centred care. Her research features in leading journals such as Management Information Systems Quarterly and the Journal of the Association for Information Systems. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of the Association for Information Systems and serves as Senior Editor of Information Technology and People.