| Author: | Ma, Xiumei |
| Title: | Studies on public’s first aid knowledge learning on social media : willingness to learn, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge adoption |
| Advisors: | Lai, Kee-hung (LMS) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Social media Learning Internet in education First aid in illness and injury -- Study and teaching Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies |
| Pages: | xiv, 175 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | In China, the low prevalence of first aid leads to low level of first aid knowledge among the public. With the advancement of information technology, people are growingly use social media to get information, which provides new opportunities for popularizing first aid knowledge. Although extant studies have richly investigated the application of social media in first aid popularization, gaps remain in exploring how to motivate individuals to actively learn first aid knowledge on social media. Noteworthy, active learning behavior determines whether using social media for first aid popularization is effective. This thesis explores the three stages of public first aid knowledge learning on social media: formation of willingness to learn -> knowledge acquisition -> knowledge adoption. Further, this thesis defines first aid knowledge learning behavior as health behavior and information behavior with theoretical grounds, aiming to explain the influencing factors and mechanisms of first aid knowledge learning at different stages. Drawing on health behavior theory, information behavior theory, protective motivation theory, stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model, and information adoption model, this thesis analyzes first aid knowledge learning behavior from perspectives of individual motivation, social media technical characteristics, and information characteristics, respectively. Firstly, from the perspective of individual motivation, the motivation for learning first aid knowledge and its influence on willingness to learn were explored. This thesis conceptualized first aid knowledge learning as a socialized health behavior with collective attributes. Through semi-structured interviews and combined with the protection motivation theory, this thesis identified the public’s self-related cognitive motivation, collective-related cognitive motivation, and emotional motivation to learn first aid knowledge. A theoretical model was constructed and empirically verified through qualitative interview and quantitative examination. The results showed that in the context of first aid knowledge learning, collective-related cognitive motivation plays a more critical role than self-related cognitive motivation and stimulates the public's willingness to learn by influencing emotional motivation. Secondly, from the perspective of technical characteristics, this thesis explored the impacts of social media interactivity on first aid knowledge acquisition behavior. Individuals acquire first aid knowledge during the interaction with social media, and interactivity is the most significant feature distinguishing social media from traditional media. This thesis specifically examined three aspects of social media interactivity: human-information interaction, human-system interaction, and human-human interaction. Moreover, two individual experiences of the public on social media: involvement and telepresence, were identified. Employing the S-O-R model, we constructed a theoretical model to investigate how social media interactivity (S) affects individual experience (O), which in turn influences knowledge acquisition behavior (R). This study found that interactions of different dimensions affect knowledge acquisition behavior by affecting different personal experiences. Human-information interaction and human-human interaction showed more potent effects on individual experience than human-system interaction. Finally, this thesis explored the influence of first aid knowledge information characteristics on the public’s adoption behavior. In accordance with information adoption model, informational cognitive characteristics (e.g., argument quality and source credibility) affect individuals' cognition (e.g., perceived information usefulness), and further influence behavior of information adoption. Combining with the characteristics of first aid knowledge, this thesis explored how the cognitive characteristics, affective characteristics, and social characteristics of first aid knowledge jointly affect knowledge adoption behavior. This thesis identified affective factors (i.e., emotional arousal) and social factors (i.e., descriptive norms) that influence knowledge adoption. The findings suggest that the affective characteristics of first aid knowledge could affect knowledge adoption through arousal; social characteristics could affect knowledge adoption through descriptive norms. Descriptive norms showed the strongest effect on first aid knowledge adoption, while arousal and perceived information usefulness could synergistically affect knowledge adoption. This thesis theoretically and practically contributes to promoting public's first aid knowledge learning on social media. Theoretically, this thesis, by subdividing the first aid knowledge learning process, explores the willingness to learn, knowledge acquisition behavior, and knowledge adoption behavior, gradually revealing the internal mechanism of how to motivate individuals to learn first aid knowledge on social media. Combined with health behavior theory and information behavior theory, this thesis explains antecedents and their influence mechanisms on first aid knowledge learning behavior from perspectives of individual motivation, social media characteristics, and information characteristics. Practically, this thesis provides guidance for the government and organizations to better stimulate motivation and willingness to learn first aid knowledge. This thesis also provides social media managers and first aid knowledge education practitioners with design optimization suggestions regarding function and content to promote knowledge acquisition and knowledge adoption through social media. Thus, this thesis can potentially upgrade first aid knowledge level of the public in China with the theoretically-grounded learning mechanisms identified and empirically validated. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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