The Health-Related Uses and Gratifications of YouTube: Motive, Cognitive Involvement, Online Activity, and Sense of Empowerment

Abstract

AND SENSE OF EMPOWERMENTThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among motives for health-related YouTube use, cognitive involvement with health information on YouTube, post-exposure online activity, and sense of empowerment regarding health and health care. As a result of the analysis of data from 263 participants, social utility, convenient information-seeking, habit-passing time, and exciting entertainment motives were identified as four motives for health-related YouTube use. Social utility and convenient information-seeking motives were positively related to cognitive involvement and cognitive involvement was positively related to perceived control.Social utility motive was negatively related to perceived competence, whereas convenient information-seeking motive was positively related to perceived competence. Habit-passing time motive was negatively related to goal internalization, whereas convenient information-seeking and exciting entertainment motives were positively related to goal internalization. The findings from this study imply that YouTube could be a useful health communication media for health professionals and organizations to use for empowering users in coping with health-related concerns. With respect to this, YouTube, the online video-sharing website, can offer users a unique opportunity to be active and interactive in health communication with others. Specifically, YouTube enables users not only to conveniently search for or post health-related content (e.g., videos or comments) for free, but also to "reproduce, transport, and share stored information in ways that are quicker … than older analog media forms" (Warnick & Heineman, 2012, p. 70). Also, YouTube can serve as a health-related online forum and social network by "facilitating user interaction through comments, video responses, and email messages" (Kopacz & Lawton, 2013, p. 19).Existing research has indicated that YouTube serves as a health-related online forum for the discussion of health-related issues such as the human papillomavirus Uses and GratificationsThe social and psychological theory, uses and gratifications suggests:an audience-centered perspective that assumes (a) media behavior is purposive, goal-directed and motivated, (b) people select media content to satisfy their needs or desires, (c) social and psychological dispositions mediate that behavior, and (d) the "media compete with other forms of communication--or functional alternatives--such as interpersonal interaction for selection, attention, and use" (Rubin et al., 2003, p. 129).As Kim and Rubin (1997) stated, people "approach the media with variable expectations and goals and seek to gratify their needs and wants" (p. 112), and, indeed, uses and gratifications has been applied to examine why and how people satisfy their specific wants through the utilization of a wide variety of media, including newspaper (Elliott & Rosenberg, 1987), television (Godlewski & Perse, 2010;Perse, 1990b;Rubin, 1981Rubin, , 1983 MotiveGiven that the first assumpt...

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