Internet Memes as Drivers of Health Narratives and Infodemics: Integrative Review.
Background: Digital media memes have emerged as influential tools in health communication, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they offer opportunities for emotional engagement and community resilience, they also act as vectors for health misinformation, contributing to the global infod...
| Publicado en: | JMIR Infodemiology Vol. 5; pp. 1 - 15 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
JMIR Publications Inc.
2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191613547&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191613547 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 25641891 N1MT jtl: JMIR Infodemiology issn: 25641891 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2025 vid: 5 pid: 21567 pub: JMIR Publications Inc. place: Toronto, Ontario artinfo: ui: 191613547 191613547 191613547 10.2196/77029 191613547 ppf: 1 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Internet Memes as Drivers of Health Narratives and Infodemics: Integrative Review. aug: au: Carmona Pestaña, Alvaro Herrera-Peco, Iván Jiménez-Gómez, Beatriz Suárez-Llevat, Carolina affil: Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud y Biomedicina, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Loyola Andalucía, Avda de las Universidades s/n, Dos Hermanas, Spain sug: subj: Internet Trends Narratives Communication Social Media Emotions Behavior Consumer Attitudes Misinformation Prevention and Control Public Health Health Education Social Marketing Human Systematic Review Medline Communications Media Culture Educational Technology Algorithms ab: Background: Digital media memes have emerged as influential tools in health communication, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. While they offer opportunities for emotional engagement and community resilience, they also act as vectors for health misinformation, contributing to the global infodemic. Despite growing interest in their communicative power, the role of memes in shaping public perception and misinformation diffusion remains underexplored in infodemiology. Objective: This integrative review aims to analyze how memes influence emotional, behavioral, and ideological responses to health crises, and to examine their dual role as both contributors to and potential mitigators of infodemics. The paper also explores strategies for integrating memes into public health campaigns and infodemic management. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted across 3 major databases (MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science), identifying a total of 386 records. Following duplicate removal and eligibility screening, 14 peer-reviewed studies published between 2020 and 2025 were included. An integrative narrative approach was used to synthesize evidence on social media behavior, misinformation dynamics, and digital health campaigns. The analysis was grounded in infodemiological and infoveillance frameworks as established by Eysenbach, incorporating insights from psychology, media studies, and public health. Results: Memes function as emotionally salient and visually potent carriers of health-related narratives. While they can simplify complex messages and foster adaptive humor during crises, they are also susceptible to distortion, particularly in echo chambers and conspiracy communities. Findings reveal that misinformation-laden memes often leverage humor and disgust to bypass critical thinking, and their viral potential is linked to emotional intensity. However, memes have also been successfully integrated into prebunking strategies, increasing engagement and reducing susceptibility to false claims when culturally tailored. The review identifies key mechanisms that enhance or hinder the infodemiological value of memes, including political orientation, digital literacy, and narrative framing. Conclusions: Memes are a double-edged sword in the context of infodemics. Their integration into infodemic surveillance and digital health campaigns requires a nuanced understanding of their emotional, cultural, and epistemic effects. Public health institutions should incorporate meme analysis into real-time infoveillance systems, apply evidence-based meme formats in prebunking efforts, and foster digital literacy that enables critical meme consumption. Future infodemiology research should further explore the long-term behavioral impacts of memetic misinformation and the scalability of meme-based interventions. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research systematic review tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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