| Description |
Marketing exposure through social media is an identified risk factor for nicotine and cannabis use. The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze the exposure-selected hashtags found on Instagram to understand the potential reach of nicotine and cannabis marketing on this social media platform. An Instagram account was used to identify the top 20 pictures and Reels for ten key word hashtags: #Vape, #Vapelife, #Ecig, #Cigar, #Backwoods, #Cigarette, #Marlboro, #Tobacco, #420, and #High. We content analyzed 391 posts (201 photos/videos and 190 reels) to determine (1) Post Reach, (2) Post Content, (3) Post Characteristics, and (4) Sociodemographics. Descriptive statistics were then compared across keyword hashtags. The significant differences in post characteristics by hashtag were examined using chi-square analysis. Hashtags targeting vaping posts were the most liked; in Reels this averaged at 6,669 likes for #vapelife and 1,651 in Top posts for #vape. The #cigarette and #vape had the largest amounts of influencers (40%). A majority (76%) of the posts were edited in some capacity. Warnings were found in only 26% of posts. The majority (69%) of posts had people in them, most commonly young adults, White adults, and males. It is recommended that future studies continue to evaluate how hashtags are being used to monitor public exposure to potentially harmful substances such as nicotine and tobacco. |
