Locked down apps versus the social media ecology: Why do young people and educators disagree on the best delivery platform for digital sexual health entertainment education?

Abstract

This article reports on focus groups exploring the best way to reach young men with vulgar comedy videos that provide sexual health information. Young people reported that they found the means by which the material was presented -as a locked down app -to be problematic, and that it would better be delivered through social media platform such as YouTube. This would make it more 'spreadable'. By contrast, adult sex education stakeholders thought the material should be contained within a locked own, stand-alone app -otherwise it might be seen by children who are too young, and/or young people might misunderstand the messages. We argue that the difference in approach represented by these two sets of opinions represents a fundamental stumbling block for attempts to reach young people with digital sexual health materials, which can be understood through the prism of different cultural forms -education versus entertainment.

Young People’s Experiences and Perceptions of YouTuber-Produced Health Content: Implications for Health Promotion

“…This study suggests YouTubers could have a promising role in young people’s health improvement. However, we acknowledge that health professionals may be cautious about using YouTubers for health improvement, as the easy sharing and spreading of this content could lead them to lose control of how their health messages are received ( McKee et al, 2018 ) In addition, media-based health improvement efforts enter a crowded environment and compete with multiple factors including commercial marketing, social norms, entrenched behaviors, and wider structural and environmental factors impacting upon young people’s health. YouTuber interventions are therefore most likely to be effective as part of wider interventions that link young people to other components such as service provision or product distribution (Michie et al, 2011; Randolph & Viswanath, 2004 ; Wakefield et al, 2010 ).…”

‘Recognition of competition’ versus Will to App: rethinking digital engagement in Australian youth sexual health promotion policy and practice

“…These observations inform a reflection on the increasing policy incentives to 'go digital', which have, in some cases, resulted in a tendency towards the 'Will to App' -that is, a drive to create a walled garden of content that is corralled away from broader social media ecosystems (Albury et al, 2019;McKee et al, 2018). This tendency can lead government and non-government organisations to invest considerable amounts of time and money in apps and platforms that may simply replicate 'legacy' forms of health promotion material (such as brochures and billboards), as opposed to fully engaging with the affordances offered by contemporary digital technologies and the cultures of use.…”

“…There is an inherent tension within 'authoritative' Australian digital sexual health promotion content -that is, content produced or commissioned by state and federal health organisations. While it is overtly 'youth focused', it has tended to avoid precisely the kinds of tone and content that young people prefer to access online (Byron, 2015a(Byron, , 2015bMcKee et al, 2018). In addition, many such sources of sexual health information have tended to ignore or actively dismiss the role that friendship networks play in young people's cultures of sexuality, sexual health and sexual learning (Byron, 2015a(Byron, , 2017McKee, 2017).…”

“…This tension is not exclusive to health communication but has much in common with the challenges facing digital news publishers and political activist organisations that have struggled in recent years to tread the line between signalling seriousness and authoritativeness via factual content, and producing clickbait in a quest to engage younger audiences. In this article, I build on the findings of a series of interrelated qualitative research projects conducted in Australia since 2012, in which approximately 100 key informants from the fields of sexuality education, sexual health promotion and public health were invited to reflect on the ways that young people's digital cultures and practices are (or are not) understood within their organisational contexts (Albury, 2014;Albury andByron, 2015, 2018). In doing so, I consider the ways that health educators and service providers producing digital sexual health promotion campaigns targeting young people might extend their practice through critical interdisciplinary engagement with popular social media content producers seeking to promote political or personal action.…”

Young people learning about health: the role of apps and wearable devices

“…The narratives around young people's engagement with a whole range of digital technologies are dominated by risk (Third et al 2014(Third et al , 2017, the potential for negative impacts (Fullagar, Rich, and Francombe-Webb 2017;Rich and Miah 2017), and the large gaps that exist between the ways in which adults and young people understand, use and experience digital technologies (boyd 2014;McKee et al 2018). Digital health technologies are a particular concern for many adults because they disrupt the flow of traditional forms of health knowledge that adults are familiar with Miah 2014, 2017;Rettberg 2014).…”