How Is Vaping Framed on Online Knowledge Dissemination Platforms?

Abstract

Studying how vaping is framed on various knowledge dissemination platforms (e.g., Quora, Reddit, Wikipedia) is central to understanding the process of knowledge dissemination around vaping. Such understanding can help us craft tools specific to each platform, to dispel vaping misperceptions and reinforce evidence-based information. We analyze 1,888 articles and 1,119,453 vaping posts to study how vaping is framed across multiple knowledge dissemination platforms (Wikipedia, Quora, Medium, Reddit, Stack Exchange, wikiHow). We use NLP techniques to understand these differences. As an example, regarding question answering results, for the question What is vaping for?, we note answers framing vaping as a smoking cessation tool in Quora, Medium, and Stack Exchange. Reddit tended to frame vaping as a hobby. Wikipedia had a mix of answers, some centered on EVALI, and others on vaping as harm reduction. Broadly, results indicate that Quora is an appropriate venue for those looking to transition from smoking to vaping. Other platforms (Reddit, wikiHow) are more for vaping hobbyists and may not sufficiently dissuade youth vaping. Conversely, Wikipedia may exaggerate vaping harms, dissuading smokers from transitioning. A strength of our work is how the different techniques we have applied validate each other. Stakeholders may utilize our findings to design vaping regulation that clarifies the role of vapes as a smoking cessation tool.