Creating educational videos on skin cancer and sun safety for the Singapore public

• Main Author: Putu Agung Wija Putera
• Other Authors: Melissa Jane Fullwood
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/72785
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Skin cancer is among the ten most prevalent types of cancer in Singapore. Since Singapore lies in the tropical region, where solar radiation is high year-round, skin cancer should be treated as a significant health risk. However, there is a dearth of public campaigns to raise awareness about skin cancer risk and sun safety habits in Singapore. Recognizing how video and social media can be used to disseminate information to a wide audience, we created videos that could be used in a social media-based awareness campaign about these issues. The videos are less than 2 minutes long, avoid explicit imagery and scripted with plain English, making them easy to understand and fit for all audiences. We also conducted a survey for Singapore residents aged 18-35 to investigate the possible link between video length and engagement with the likelihood of viewers sharing videos, which would help expand the reach of a social media campaign. Due to deficiencies in experiment design, however, we were unable to confirm if video length and engagement affects sharing. More work is required to determine how we can design an effective social media-based video campaign on skin cancer, and perhaps other health issues as well.