This study examines nutrition communication on X (formerly Twitter) during a health promotion campaign as a form of social media-mediated information behavior. Building on Wilson's (1997) model, it adapts the framework to a platform environment by analyzing how campaign context, participant roles, thematic focus and posting purpose shape the production, circulation and engagement of nutrition information.
A content analysis is conducted on 1,015 English-language tweets tagged with #nutrition and campaign-related hashtags during March 1–7, 2021. Tweets are coded by participant role, theme and communicative purpose and linked to engagement indicators including favorites, retweets, potential reach and impact. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and post hoc comparisons are used to examine how content characteristics and participant types relate to dissemination outcomes.
Nutrition communication on X is shaped by the interaction of campaign context, actor roles and message characteristics. Food- and medicine-related tweets dominate the discussion, and providing information is the most common posting purpose. Organizations are more likely to post promotional and research-oriented content, whereas individuals are more likely to share information and personal experience. Individuals generated slightly higher impact and greater following-based connectivity, while individuals and organizations achieved comparable reach on X. Audience engagement is highest for informational tweets, especially those focused on food and medicine.
This study contributes to information behavior theory by adapting Wilson's model to a social media campaign context during the post COVID-19 health crisis. It demonstrates how campaign conditions, participant roles, content characteristics and engagement outcomes shape nutrition communication on X.
