Public's perception of celebrities with serious illness in Hong Kong and the impact of media stories of ill celebrities on health awareness and behaviour

Abstract

Celebrity diagnoses can strongly impact public awareness and behaviour. This study aims to examine the public's perception of celebrities with serious illness in Hong Kong and the impact of media stories of ill celebrities on health awareness and behaviour. A survey using purposive sampling was conducted in April 2014. Altogether, 297 completed questionnaires were received. The public's perception of celebrity diagnoses was generally favourable. Respondents showed sympathy and support towards celebrities with serious illnesses. They tended to believe stories revealed by the ill celebrities rather than news coverage in media. This is the first study to examine public perception towards celebrity diagnoses and the impact of media stories of ill celebrities on health awareness and behaviour in a Chinese context.

Keywords:

• Attitudes
• Celebrity diagnosis
• Health awareness
• Health behaviour
• Hong Kong

Disclaimer statements

Contributors Dr Vivienne S. Y. Leung is the first author and Dr Kimmy Cheng is the second author. Ms Sally Yip is the project assistant who helped research in the literature review. Ms Yip is not taken a full role in this task.

Funding None.

Conflicts of interest There is no potential conflict-of-interest.

Ethics approval Informed consent was provided by all participants in this research as per ethical guidelines in Hong Kong at the time of the study. All participants were aware that the survey was conducted on voluntary basis and they agreed to partake.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Project Assistant Ms Sally Ho for her help in the literature review and students from COMM 2320 in the academic year of 2013/14 for their help in data collection.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vivienne S. Y. Leung

Vivienne S. Y. Leung is the Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Advertising and Public Relations major at Hong Kong Baptist University. She received her Ph.D. in communication studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. Previously she held positions at Grey Advertising and Fallon Asia/Hong Kong as a strategic planner. Her clients include United Airlines, P&G, Wrigley, Audi, PCCW, McDonald's and Bank of China. Her research interests include advertising, celebrity effects, health communication, and social service marketing. Her work has been published in Service Marketing Quarterly, Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing, Intercultural Communication Studies, Asian Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Chinese Journal of Communications and International Journal of Health Promotion and Education.

Kimmy Cheng

Kimmy Cheng graduated from Western Michigan University with a BA degree in organizational communication. She holds a MA and a PhD degree in communication studies from Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU). Her primary research area of interest is health communication. Dr Cheng is currently a lecturer of School of Communication at HKBU.