Health virtual communities: is the Self lost in the Net?

Abstract

Health virtual communities have grown exponentially since the advent of the Internet. Their benefits, pitfalls and underlying mechanisms have been addressed by a variety of disciplines, from speech communication to health and psychology. The aim of this article is to review concepts and findings of previous research in this area and advance some propositions on the dynamics governing the relationship between individuals' identity and the network they belong to. Moving from a semiotic perspective on communities' formation, the relevance of communicative patterns and power relationships between members is stressed, alongside their impact on health communities' outcomes. A case in point concerning a content analysis of messages about the effects of non-ionizing radiations posted on a web community forum is brought into the discussion to illustrate our conclusions.

Keywords:

• virtual communities
• health communication
• semiosphere
• identity
• content analysis
• Internet