Introduction

This chapter situates the study by covering what human papillomavirus (HPV) is, the development of a vaccine for HPV, and the history of HPV vaccination. It discusses the political and policy debates influencing policy and decision making on the HPV vaccine and introduces how such policy debates can also influence public debates, which are often conducted on social media. A summary of public debates surrounding the HPV vaccination is provided, and previous research exploring discussions and sentiment surrounding the HPV vaccine are reviewed. The review of existing literature points to a need to investigate public discussions of HPV vaccination over time quantitatively and qualitatively, which we position as our main objective. We conclude this chapter with an outline of the rest of the book.