UC Berkeley

New Media include a wide range of programs, Internet access tools, and wireless computer-mediated communication devices, which facilitate reciprocal interaction with the media consumer. Integrating traditional media with dynamic communication tools and interactive user feedback, New Media allows for user participation and community formation. Public health leaders, as they actively seek innovative and cost effective health solutions to positively impact individual and community level health, are starting to look towards New Media as a viable option for communication and interaction with the populations they wish to serve.

Using data from the field of youth sexual health promotion and HIV/STI prevention, my dissertation aimed to unearth the potential application of New Media in public health by: conducting an overview of relevant literature, constructing a new social ecological model that incorporates New Media, and developing an evaluation plan for a New Media-based sexual health intervention.

The first project, the literature review, explored studies and statistics on New Media, and paid particular attention to the potential use of Social Media in youth retention, data collection, information dissemination, and participant privacy and confidentiality. The literature review illuminated what is known about the application of New Media in public health practice and identified that which has yet to be explored. The second project, developing a new social ecological model, examined the various models currently in use and their value in providing a framework to contextualize the individual and his or her environment. An archival case study and interview data were used as exemplars to construct a new social ecological model. This model takes the dynamic nature and utility of New Media into full consideration and unearths the emergence of a second social ecology, the "Virtual."

Research and evaluation of public health programs and interventions is key to verifying efficacy and defining applicability. Evaluating health interventions is intrinsically tied to program success and successful outcomes. The third project therefore outlined an evaluation plan for a New Media-based sexual health intervention, InSPOT (an Internet-based sexual partner notification tool for those recently diagnosed with an STI). The evaluation plan was not only developed to evaluate the intervention tool's potential for promoting youth sexual health, but to also act as an example of the level of evaluation necessary to address questions of efficacy. Implications of these projects suggest that: 1) New Media can provide viable and potentially cost effective means of health intervention; 2) there is a New Media-based social ecology which the current public health social ecological model needs to fully take into consideration; and 3) further research and evaluation of New Media-based programs and interventions is imperative if we are to verify its potential applicability in public health practice.