How Do New Media Influence Youths’ Health Literacy? Exploring the Effects of Media Channel and Content on Safer Sex Literacy

This study examines whether youths’ safer sex literacy and their intentions to share health-related information are affected by channel (websites vs. social networking sites) and content (fact-based vs. feeling-based content). A 2 x 2 factorial experiment with repeated measures was implemented in a large public university in Hong Kong. The results showed that website-based content facilitated respondents’ safer sex literacy and information sharing intentions more effectively than content based on social networking sites. The interaction effect suggests that feeling-based content yielded a stronger effect on information sharing intentions on the website than on the social networking site.