The rise and fall of 鈥榞irlsdrinkdiaries.com鈥? Dilemmas and opportunities when creating online forums to investigate health behaviour

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• 作者：Melissa Stepney ; ^{m.stepney@worc.ac.uk" class="auth_mail}
• 关键词：Alcohol ; Women ; Online ; Internet ; Health
• 刊名：Health and Place
• 出版年：May 2014
• 年：2014
• 卷：27
• 期：Complete
• 页码：51-58
• 全文大小：1423 K

文摘

This paper explores the potential dilemmas and opportunities for setting up online discussion forums when undertaking research on health-related behaviour. It draws on the setting up of a website called ‘girlsdrinkdiaries.com’ which sought to understand young women's relationship(s) with alcohol and their feelings about drinking and drunkenness. I reflect on how the use of virtual space may allow for more liberated and ‘free’ talk about sensitive topics in health, yet at the same time may create a voyeuristic and potentially abusive environment. In doing so, I explore the ultimate demise of the website and therefore the potential problems of utilising online methods. I suggest that researchers need to carefully mitigate and negotiate harm when considering such methods, whilst also acknowledging how participants themselves resist and negotiate risk in virtual places.