‘Blogging about Jogging’: Digital stories about physical activity from residents in a new urban environment with implications for future content and media choices in population health communication

Abstract

This paper contributes conceptually and empirically to the problem of constructing effective health promotion communication to lower socio-economic groups about increasing daily levels of physical activity. Epidemiological research has demonstrated that people living in lower socioeconomic neighbourhood contexts are less likely to engage in recommended levels of physical activity. However, the reasons for differences in uptake across contexts remain relatively unknown and poorly conceptualised, with poorer groups remaining less likely to respond to interventions and communication campaigns in a sustainable way. This paper firstly outlines a gap between our understanding of this domain from epidemiology, and the nature of the knowledge required to construct contextually sensitive messages in health communication around this problem. Secondly, we apply social constructionist theory to the development of a theoretical and methodological framework for investigating the issue, and thirdly, the paper reports on findings from an online qualitative study which uses a ‘blog’ to record digital stories from a lower socioeconomic group of resident living in a new urban village, Brisbane, Australia, about their daily patterns of physical activity. The findings are discussed with implications for media and content in future health communication efforts on this topic, and an analysis of the role of the ‘blog’ as both a tool for data collection and a medium for health promotion is provided.