My new refereed journal article has been published online by Health Promotion International. It identifies opportunities and challenges when using social media and digital video for health promotion with communities from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in Australia, including migrants and refugees.
The piece focuses on:
the concept of ‘participation’
the relationship between ‘old school’ forms of community driven digital video production and the online, re-mixed world of YouTube
the ways in which language, literacy, educational level, age, gender and other factors shape experiences with the internet
how social media risk becoming exclusive forms of heath and wellbeing communication.
From this perspective, it provides evidence-based recommendations for practice and future research.
What I like most about this article is the sense of history it creates. It proposes integrating ‘online’ modes of communication with previous ‘offline’ techniques for encouraging participation.
The abstract is available or if you’d like to know more feel free to contact me. Other relevant work:
In June this year ABC’s The Drum published Once upon a time loving books was easy, my op ed that explored the social experience of books, literacy development and technology. This week Screen Education ran Cutting With Rhythm, my new profile about Ben Joss (pictured), a film and television editor I’ve worked with on short film productions, and the ‘rhythmic programming’ that shapes the way he cuts footage. I’m pleased with how both stories turned out. Since finishing my Post Doctoral Research Fellowship I’m building on my interest in how people use technology for communication, but in media spaces beyond health promotion.
My short term teaching duties in the Arts Industries unit at Victoria University left me with little time and made writing, blogging and participating in social media more difficult. Now that classes and marking have finished, I’ve been able to reflect on these non-fiction pieces. What stands out for me from a writing and research perspective is that the articles consider the factors shaping how technology is used and applied – including where they limit engagement with storytelling, and where they facilitate creativity. Although they are quite different stories, and I did not plan to write them together, this work continues my exploration of the relationship between people and technology, and the context that influences the production of text and audio+visual content across a range of digital media platforms.
Jessica Au wrote a great post about short films at Spike, Meanjin’s blog. It explored some of the implications for short filmmakers who screen their movies at festivals and online. This inspired me to create a short video about writing and producing short films. I used a radio interview broadcast on Triple J featuring Zan Rowe and myself during the 2005 St Kilda Film Festival. I had heaps of fun cutting this together. It was great to revisit the interview and learn how to use iMovie, which I found to be both easy and frustrating at the same time – I’m used to using Premiere on the PC.
‘Primal Urges’ has been profiled in an article at HorrorSquad, a popular website dedicated to horror films. It’s accompanied by another indie short, ‘Tell Tale Heart’, based on Poe’s short story. You can see them both here and check out HorrorSquad for other gory goodies.
My new refereed journal article has been published online by Health Promotion International. It identifies opportunities and challenges when using social media and digital video for health promotion with communities from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in Australia, including migrants and refugees.
Refugee and Migrant, digital technology, health and wellbeing, short film | benomara | 
April 2, 2012 1:15 pm | 
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