Using Twitter to Explore (un)Healthy Housing: Learning from the #Characterbuildings Campaign in New Zealand

Elinor Chisholm and Kimberley O’Sullivan
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Elinor Chisholm: He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, P.O. Box 7343, Wellington 6242, New Zealand
Kimberley O’Sullivan: He Kainga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, P.O. Box 7343, Wellington 6242, New Zealand

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: While increasingly used for research, Twitter remains largely untapped as a source of data about housing. We explore the growth of social media and use of Twitter in health and social research, and question why housing researchers have avoided using Twitter to explore housing issues to date. We use the #characterbuildings campaign, initiated by an online media platform in New Zealand in 2014 to illustrate that Twitter can provide insights into housing as a public health and social problem. We find that Twitter users share details of problems with past and present homes on this public platform, and that this readily available data can contribute to the case for improving building quality as a means of promoting public health. Moreover, the way people responded to the request to share details about their housing experiences provides insight into how New Zealanders conceive of housing problems.

Keywords: twitter; housing; building quality; rental housing; building standards; public health; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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