Exploring Health Information in the Digital Era: Study of Adolescent Self-Diagnosis as a Media Audience

The internet as a new media has offered convenience in searching for health information online, which results in self-diagnosis behavior. This study aims to provide an overview of the experience of searching for health information online to the experience of self-diagnosis carried out by adolescents. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach. The data collection technique used in-depth interviews. This study involved four main informants who used the internet to search for health information and conduct self-diagnosis, as well as one supporting informant, a psychiatrist. The results of this study show that the topics of health information that informants often seek are mental health, minor illness, and disease - including symptoms, treatment, and types of drugs. Self-diagnosis experiences are conducted to find information about the symptoms of the disease to the decision to purchase medicine based on information available on the internet. Self-diagnosis behavior carried out by informants is a form of trust in online health information. Informants choose the website as a medium for health information because it is free of charge. However, if they need professional consultation, informants use health service applications such as Halodoc. The informants chose online-based media because it is easy to access, cheap, and fast. In addition, informants as audiences have their own way of assessing the available media content. The assessment is based on: (1) Completeness of information; (2) Sources referred to by the article author; (3) Solutions provided; (4) Comparison of content from several media; and (5) the ‘big’ name of the media. Keywords: online health information; self-diagnosis; adolescents; media audience