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Influencers and health: the case of presenting vitamins for better sleep
Varabyova, Lizaveta ; Numerato, Dino (advisor) ; Hrůzová, Andrea (referee)
This thesis deals with understanding how the value of sleep is presented, and the effectiveness of vitamins and dietary supplements for better sleep is constructed, specifically how influencers on social networks define sleep as a medical problem and its dependence on pharmaceutical products, which leads to and constructs these vitamins products promoting better sleep as commodities. Considering the research objectives, the method of content analysis was used. The resulting research sample consisted of 124 contributions. As it turns out, influencers systematically use a similar structure in their posts, which looks like this: 1) Problematization and definition of "bad" sleep; 2) (optional) Construction of the ideal of "good" sleep; 3) Offering potential solutions for a variety of sleep problems. In their posts, influencers also construct perceptions of the positive (natural ingredients, promotion of overall health and "feel- good", individualized solutions, affordable solutions) and negative aspects (risk of developing addiction or tolerance, masking sleep disorders, limited scientific evidence) of vitamins in addressing problems with sleep. They also use certain communication strategies in their content on various social media platforms, namely personal stories and narratives, educational content,...
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