While a significant amount of research has been produced in Canada on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs in general, very little work has been undertaken specifically with regard to the role of social media and emerging Internet technologies. While Health Canada has reaffirmed that existing DTCA regulations apply to new Internet and social media technologies, there are several unique features of these technologies that make the application of existing regulations an uncertain process. Further, given the difficulties Health Canada has faced in directly regulating DTCA in traditional media, there is significant skepticism around whether government regulators have the resources or political will to effectively monitor new digital media. Consequently, independent third party oversight and industry self-regulation may play an important role in regulating digital channels. Finally, regulators should not simply be limited to regulating online DTCA; social media is equally available to government for use in health promotion.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/33218 |
| Date | 20 November 2012 |
| Creators | Gibson, Shannon |
| Contributors | Flood, Colleen M. |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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