Research On The Influencing Factors Of Social Media Users’ Help-seeking Information Forwarding Behaviors Under Public Health Emergencies

When public health emergencies break out,the suddenness of the outbreak and the seriousness of the danger make it impossible to reach everyone in a short period of time with the relevant resources,so the people concerned will have a demand for help.In addition,with the development and advancement of technology,social media has become more and more important in people’s daily life along with the development of the Internet,and social media has become a major forum for information dissemination.More and more people who do not get help offline in public health emergencies are trying to get help by posting help information online.However,in social media,whether the needs of these helpers are addressed in a timely manner is inextricably linked to whether the information is adequately forwarded.The more people participate in the forwarding of help information in social media during public health emergencies,the wider the spread of help information,the more attention the information receives,and the higher the probability that the need for help will be addressed.Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the factors influencing the forwarding behavior of social media users in public health emergencies in order to propose strategies to improve the effective dissemination of online help information in public health emergencies and to help the publishers of help information in public health emergencies to efficiently solve their needs for help.This study is centered on exploring the factors influencing the forwarding behavior of social media users’ help-seeking messages under public health emergencies,and the main research process is as follows.After researching the relevant literature,this study used semi-structured interviews to obtain information and coding analysis of rooting theory to obtain performance expectations,effort expectations,community influence,information quality,source credibility,self-efficacy,and convenience as important factors influencing social media users’ help-seeking information forwarding under public health emergencies.Subsequently,this study constructed a model of factors influencing social media users’ help-seeking information forwarding behavior under sudden public health events based on the results of previous coding,combined with the integrated technology acceptance model,fine processing possibility model and self-efficacy theory,and proposed relevant hypotheses after the model construction.Then,this study designed questionnaires based on the results of rooted coding analysis and related literature,and distributed formal questionnaires through a combination of online and offline methods after pre-research to determine formal questionnaires.After collecting the questionnaire data,descriptive statistical analysis was conducted,and the partial least squares structural equation model was constructed using Smart PLS 4.0 to conduct measurement model reliability analysis and structural model analysis to verify the conceptual model and hypotheses of this study.The results of the study showed that the model of factors influencing the forwarding behavior of social media users’ help-seeking information in public health emergencies consisted of nine variables: performance expectation,effort expectation,community influence,information quality,source credibility,self-efficacy,convenience,willingness to forward,and forwarding behavior.Performance expectation,effort expectation,community influence,information quality,source credibility,and self-efficacy positively influence forwarding intention,and convenience and forwarding intention positively influence forwarding behavior.At the end of the study,based on the empirically validated model of the factors influencing the forwarding behavior of social media users’ help-seeking information in public health emergencies,this study proposes strategies to promote the effective dissemination of online help-seeking information in public health emergencies from four levels: efficient dissemination by help-seeking information publishers,rational forwarding by help-seeking information forwarders,optimization of platform functions by social media platform operators,and reasonable government regulation and guidance.