| dc.description.abstract | The thesis title: Blogs in a physical active everyday life. By Mariann Opdal, mail: mariann18_opdal@hotmail.com How can the use of training blogs by physically active women in their twenties be understood in a public health perspective? Background/aim: Blogs are a relatively new everyday technology building on the ideological and technological foundation of Web 2.0, which means that individuals can create websites and share information with each other. The blogosphere represent both actual and potential opportunities. The aim of my research is to gain insight in how the use of training blogs appears in physically active women’s everyday life Theoretical foundation: The research project is written based on a community work perspective. Community work is a strategy of change that focuses on conditions for social participation. The core concepts of the approach are participation, community, critical awareness, social capital and dialogue. My research will shed light on these concepts. Method: The empirical foundation for the research project is mainly produced by multi-stage online focus groups where five women between the age of 20 and 30 years participated. In addition I studied four training blogs. Knowledge contribution/findings: Participation in the blogosphere is varying. Somebody participate with comments and a sense of community appears, while others understand the participation in the blogosphere as relaxation and a place of freedom. Regardless of the form of participation, the blogosphere has potential for reflection, new knowledge, critical awareness and participation in communities - all of which are important contributions in a public health perspective. My empirical material shows few differences in how the participants behave in the blogosphere versus the physical world. Further research: Further public health research in the blogosphere is important. The arena has great potential that should be uncovered, in general and in a public health perspective. Participants who read and look should also get more attention in research on social media. In addition, it would be interesting to investigate how the commercial forces in the blogosphere works on the blogger and the users. | en_US |
