SOCIAL MEDIA PERCEPTION REGARDING SMOKE FREE GENERATION IN TÜRKİYE

Authors : Ejder Güven, Yavuz Selim Balcıoğlu
Pages : 1931-1952
Doi:10.35408/comuybd.1541236
View : 297 | Download : 517
Publication Date : 2025-10-24
Article Type : Research Paper
Abstract :The world is faced with a wide range of pollution and destruction. Humanity also gets its share of this pollution and destruction. The pollution that has the closest and most direct effect on human beings can be considered as tobacco and tobacco products. Tobacco and tobacco products are substances that are widely used worldwide, threaten public health and cause addiction. It can be said that the most effective way to reduce and eliminate the negative impact of tobacco and tobacco product use on public health is to raise a smoke-free generation. This study analyzes social media perceptions regarding the smoke-free generation initiative in Turkiye by examining public posts and comments in groups on Facebook. The analysis covers the two-year period from January 2022 to December 2023 and aims to understand the society\\\'s attitudes, concerns and support for smoke-free policies regarding the smoke-free generation phenomenon. Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) was used for topic modeling. The modelling revealed five main themes ‘‘regulatory measures and initiatives, public opinion and support, concerns for children and youth, government control and restrictive measures, and policy issues and implementation’’. Each of these themes reflects different aspects of the ongoing discourse around smoking and smoke-free policies, with sentiment analysis revealing generally positive feelings toward community-focused efforts and skepticism toward government policies. Temporal trends suggest that interest in these issues has varied over time. The findings therefore highlight the importance of community participation and balanced policies, particularly in promoting a smoke-free generation. In addition to providing insight into public awareness, this study contributes to the literature by shedding light on future research to improve policy effectiveness and public health strategies, and may contribute to raising a smoke-free generation in Türkiye.
Keywords : Dumansız nesil, Sosyal medya algısı, Tütün kontrolü

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