Misinformation about nutrition during cancer is a prominent form of online health misinformation. As more cancer patients turn to the internet for information about their diagnosis, they may encounter content that promotes exaggerated claims about diets, supplements, or “superfoods” that supposedly cure cancer or improve outcomes. Commercial social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube play an important role in the spread of such claims, as their engagement-driven infrastructures often amplify misleading information over evidence-based guidance. This thesis investigates how online patient platforms can contribute to mitigating nutrition-related misinformation within this digital information environment, by applying the value-sensitive design methodology to analyse the personal, cultural and infrastructural values shaping online cancer nutrition communication. Empirical data from user discussions on commercial social media platforms and a Dutch online patient platfrom are systematically compared through qualitative content analysis. The study identifies five personal values guiding user engagement: community, safety, freedom, health, and knowledge. These values reveal how users navigate cancer-related nutrition information across different online environments.

Based on these insights, the thesis formulates recommendations for policy, organisation, and platform design aimed at strengthening the role of online patient platforms in addressing nutrition-related misinformation. ... Read more

The widespread use of social networks has created new pathways for sharing and engaging with mental health information, particularly in contexts where access to care is limited and stigma remains high. Platforms like Instagram have become informal spaces for support, especially among young people. However, these same platforms also amplify misinformation, often through algorithmic systems that shape user perceptions and behavior in harmful ways.

This thesis investigates how to mitigate the risks of mental health misinformation on Instagram, using the Brazilian context as a case study. Integrating System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and Value Sensitive Design (VSD) to develop socio-technical interventions that are both system-aware and ethically grounded. The research unfolds in three phases: a conceptual phase to identify hazards and system dynamics; an empirical phase based on semi-structured interviews with Brazilian young adults; and a technical phase that synthesizes system risks and user values into actionable design recommendations.

The findings emphasize the importance of four core values: Knowledge, Autonomy, Safety and Integrity in shaping how users interpret and respond to mental health content. Participants described how Instagram’s algorithm reinforces emotionally charged echo chambers, increasing exposure to harmful misinformation while weakening trust in credible sources. Based on this, four interventions are proposed: (1) echo chamber disruption mechanisms, (2) content trigger warnings, (3) verified institutional accounts, and (4) user-controlled filters for validated content.

By framing misinformation as a socio-technical problem rooted in both platform architecture and user experience, this study offers a novel methodological contribution. It demonstrates how combining system-level safety analysis with value-centered design can support the development of interventions that are not only effective but also aligned with user priorities and sociocultural context. ... Read more

Introduction and Research Approach
In the current era, there is a prevailing trend of improper dietary intake and a growing trend of social media usage. Given this growth in social media usage, the concern about misinformation, mainly health-related misinformation, is increasing. Social media plays an essential role in the prevalence and impact of health-related misinformation. More specifically, the concern of nutritional supplement misinformation and its effect on adolescents and young adults is growing and under-researched. Adolescents and young adults have unknown preferences, and current policies fail to address the problems associated with nutritional supplement misinformation. Understanding the specific preferences of adolescents and young adults and the socio-technical system is crucial to address the issue. Therefore, as the Dutch context has not been researched, this research explicitly addresses the problem of nutritional supplement misinformation among Dutch adolescents and young adults and aims to improve public health outcomes. This thesis aims to develop interventions and design requirements within the system of nutritional supplements, social media, and public health outcomes to maximize public health. The research deploys the Value-Sensitive Design (VSD) framework to address the issue.

Results
To fully address the socio-technical system, structured literature reviews were conducted to assess the influences in the system and investigate the institutional environment. The comprehensive, structured analysis of the literature and the assessment of the institutional environment pointed out the complex nature of the system and its associated stakeholders, where social media algorithms also play a significant role. Interviews and a focus group identified the values, risks, value tensions, and possible interventions at stake in the system. This extensive value analysis identified the main values to design for. In designing, the value of public health is paramount.

Based on the identified values to design, constructing value hierarchies led to the design requirements. By including the stakeholder values, the interventions are theoretically sound. The most promising interventions identified in this thesis are certificating influencers, counter campaigns, educational campaigns, and an automated enforcement tool. This research sees all four interventions as suitable interventions to implement, where the extension to the certification of influencers and the counter campaigns are most suitable to deploy first. The research mainly showed the need for prevention interventions to boost awareness and consumer education concerning health and social media.

Contributions
This research has shown that VSD can aid design in addressing a societal and policy issue, where VSD originally stems from technology design (Friedman et al., 2006). In addition, this thesis provides grounded interventions to offer novel perspectives in addressing nutritional supplement misinformation. Furthermore, the policies implied by the study are within the context of the Netherlands but could also be considered internationally. This thesis can also fuel the broader problem of health misinformation and other problems with nutritional supplements, as well as the discussion of the responsibility of social media platforms and other industrial stakeholders within the identified socio-technical system. ... Read more

When discussing media, parasocial phenomena is mentioned. Audience members naturally partake in parasocial phenomena when consuming media and empathizing with media figures. Viewers who form relationships with a media figure despite never meeting them are said to be in a parasocial relationship. On YouTube, examples of parasocial interactions occur when content creators request likes, subscriptions, or thank viewers for watching.
While existing literature recognizes that viewers form parasocial relationships with YouTube content creators, there is not enough emphasis on understanding the content creators’ perspectives.
This thesis helps to understand how content creators experience being the target of parasocial relationships. Furthermore, the general feelings and emotions of content creators are probed in order to extract the values of content creators, such that content creators’ unique experiences can be analyzed and educated recommendations can be given to relevant stakeholders.
Eight interviews were held with content creators who are the face of their channel. Three main research questions were formulated: (RQ2) How and to what extent do content creators experience parasocial phenomena on the YouTube platform? (RQ3) What moral challenges do content creators experience when connecting with their audience or expressing themselves in their content? (RQ4) How does the YouTube platform influence the ways in which content creators are able to communicate their values to their audience?
To ensure these research questions were answered, a set of propositional statements were formulated from the existing literature. Each proposition consists of one specific element which may be supported by interview findings. When compounded, these propositions answer their relevant research question.
For RQ2, propositions include Interviewee holds influence over their audience, has met a viewer in person, has audience members similar to themselves, and does not have the same amount of knowledge about the viewer as the viewer has about them. For RQ3, propositions include Interviewee interprets their audience as a group rather than as individuals, communicates with their audience members outside of their video content, feels they need to be professional in their YouTube content, creates videos as a creative outlet, creates videos because it is fun for them, and feels connected to their audience. For RQ4, propositions include Interviewee is aware of the YouTube algorithm affecting the platform, receives financial benefits or a stream of income from YouTube, feels authentic on YouTube, is exposed to tools to grow their YouTube audience, and has confronted their values when making decisions on YouTube.
Interviewees’ anecdotal evidence directly support findings that YouTube content creators value at least one or more of the following: self-expression, creativity, loyalty, community, credibility, authenticity, entertainingness, education, fiscal opportunity, social justice, content quality, pride in self or work, appreciation for viewers, and filling a niche.
YouTube is a socio-technical system with an immeasurable number of users every single day. YouTube should be honest with their content creators and viewers, as the YouTube platform would not exist in its current state without them.
Calls for future research and explicit recommendations are given to relevant stakeholders about how to handle parasocial phenomena. ... Read more

Emotions and moral values have gained attention in recent researches in philosophy and ethics of engineering. This is due to its usefulness in assessing the technological risks imposed towards its user or society. Furthermore, moral emotions assist in reflection of moral values and research stress upon involving emotions in design practices. Moreover, researchers argue that engineers are the people who spend the most time with the development of technology. Thus, they must consider their emotions to influence moral values to mitigate risks that are associated with the technology. However, to what extent this prevails among engineers was not clear. Thus, through the use of semi-structured interviews with software engineers, this exploratory research shows the underwhelming role of moral emotions among engineers. The findings also showcase the perception of software engineers towards the involvement of moral values as something insignificant in the design practices. Lastly, this research recommends acknowledging the emotional responses of engineers by the management, training engineers as virtue ethicists and encouraging imaginative capacities and drawing attention to values for engineers during engineering design phases. ... Read more