The proposed research will advance scientific knowledge about health information dissemination and the design of appropriate social media tools for the African American female college student community. The goal of this project is to broaden access to and utilization of HIV prevention information, thereby strengthening African American organization and individual capacity to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in these communities. The project will achieve this goal the following aims: 1) Describe the ways in which African American female college students construct their cultural/racial identities; 2) Identify the relationship between these identities and the use of smart health information technology and social networking systems by the target user group.
The research project will provide empirical evidence on the design and implementation of HIV/AIDS preventive education, as well as the culturally-specific challenges related to the use of Information Computer Technology (ICT) for HIV/AIDS preventive education. It will contribute to understanding how social networks targeting African American female college students for HIV/AIDS prevention are received by the target community and how to improve the design of such tools for optimal effectiveness. This research will have very far-reaching implications for science and health education within and beyond the target research study community. These intellectual contributions will be of interest to scholars in communication and information studies, software engineering, pervasive mobile devices, and smart health information systems and trustworthy computing.
The project will engage college students in the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority as both users and participatory designers of social media tools intended to disseminate HIV information. The National Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, an organization with national and international programs for outreach and networking African American women in institutes of higher education, will offer a mechanism to reach additional college students beyond the physical locale of North Carolina State University - thereby providing a network penetration to other North Carolina chapters and beyond for future direction and interdisciplinary, inter-institutional collaborations. More specifically, this research is to broaden access to and utilization of HIV prevention information, thereby strengthening African American organization and individual capacity to address the epidemic in these communities using innovative smart health information technologies.
This research explores how Black collegiate women perceive and seek online HIV information. This research focuses on heightening HIV awareness, rather than intervention, and does not focus on any single social, professional, service, etc. affiliated organization. In addition, online content should include relevant cultural messages, be absent of bias about any demographic group and permit the voices of college matriculating and young adults to reframe the HIV and health discourse. As a result, myHealthImpactNetwork.org was developed to capture the online content needs as articulated by Black female college students. The findings indicate that these women perceive several communication barriers including lack of trust and unfamiliarity with information sources, stigma ascribed to HIV, as well as misconceptions and traditional values held by the broader society and institutions. HIV prevention messages are perceived as relevant if they exhibit qualities including interactive features, practical advice using non-technical vocabulary, content authored and disseminated by familiar and trustworthy individuals/institutions, and risk related to individual behaviors rather than the demographic group. Although collegiate Black women are increasingly searching for health information online, these women continue to use print media and television. Black women magazines were also looked upon favorably as health communication channels. Television emerged as a passive channel for health information seeking where women were exposed to health information resources primarily through commercials and advertisements. Television offers a multi-modal way of telling stories with rich images and voices of Black women. Findings also suggest that online information aiming to inform Black female college students should be inclusive of holistic health conditions. Health information can include, but not limited to HIV, as to provide a richer perspective of health awareness. This helps to de-stigmatize perceptions of users and followers of the user experience (myHealthImpactNetwork.org) and in social media. This user experience work holds implications for design. The "build it and they will come" paradigm is not longer the accepted norm among social engaged, digitally connected millennials. The broader impacts include interactions with undergraduate and graduate students as both users and designers of the myHealthImpactNetwork experience. Several of these students have enrolled in and/or been accepted to graduate programs in fields, such as computer science, information systems, law, health policy, education and divinity. Other impacts have involved student and faculty conference presentations as well as dissemination to health, policy and technology professional organizations. Broader impacts have included community events to inform and engage society of the project initiative.
