–The following story was written by Taia Goguen-Garner
E-cigarettes are becoming increasingly popular among youth and adults who want to quit smoking or are looking for tobacco alternatives. In 2017, 15.4% of Canadians aged 15 and older reported having ever tried an e-cigarette. Not surprisingly, the rise in e-cigarette use has been accompanied by a proliferation of e-cigarette and vaping imagery on social media. Today, we are faced with the question of how these social media trends may be affecting public health.
Stephanie Ritter, a PhD student in the School of Journalism and Communication, is looking at public health communication relating to vaping and e-cigarettes.
“My interest in vaping research stemmed from a dining experience in a downtown Toronto restaurant in 2013,” explains Ritter. “I was having dinner with a friend when a strong smell of cherries overwhelmed my senses. I turned around and noticed that the person behind me was engulfed in a huge vapour cloud. What I remember most from that first contact was how shocked I was that someone was allowed to use such a device indoors and wondered how the vapour affected my breathing.”
Ritter was diagnosed with asthma at an early age, which helps explain why she got involved in her current research.
“My parents were hyper-aware of the air quality in the places I frequented. Now, as an adult, it continues to be top-of-mind.”
As e-cigarettes became more popular in the media and retail stores, Ritter started to pay more attention. Eventually she began to notice more people posting vaping photos on Instagram and after some preliminary research found herself immersed in the many hashtags on this topic.
“I clicked on ‘e-cigarette’ and the related hashtag, #ecig, which had the most number of posts. From there, my MA research unfolded and inspired my current PhD research interest.”
With her PhD research, Ritter hopes to spread awareness of e-cigarette advertising and marketing techniques, to encourage young people to be as vigilant about e-cigarettes as they have become about tobacco, and to help public health organizations better communicate risks about e-cigarette use online.
Ritter is in the process of developing a survey that has been accepted for the Mauril Bélanger Memorial Youth Addictions Research Grant, administered through MITACS. The survey will provide a foundation for a national study to better understand motivations of Canadian youth who use e-cigarettes and the influence of vaping discourse and images on their decisions.
Dr. Josh Greenberg has been supervising Ritter throughout her research. He describes Ritter’s project as, “a timely intervention into an important public health issue that addresses longstanding questions about the influence of advertising and visual imagery on youth identity formation.”
“My supervisor has been instrumental to my research endeavours at the PhD level,” says Ritter. “Dr. Greenberg is a leading public health communication scholar and has a great network of colleagues and collaborators which includes other health communication researchers as well as practitioners. He has supported me through multiple granting and scholarship application processes and has been a consistent source of encouragement.”
Ritter is currently completing her doctoral examinations and will be developing a dissertation project in the next year as she completes some of this foundational research.
Learn more about graduate studies in communication at Carleton.
Follow the Communication and Media Studies program on Twitter @COMMStudies_CU
