Digital narratives: Creating diabetes awareness through testimonials and communities of faith
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Date
2008-06
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The purpose of this project is to create a DVD of testimonial accounts that provide insights into “Living with Diabetes.” Using video testimonials (digital narratives) from members of peer groups and trusted sources, particularly individuals who belong to communities of faith in the Greater Columbus area, were recorded. Ten out of the 13 testimonials used an intergenerational approach in which a younger participant interviewed a grand-parent figure. This project was initiated because, historically, African Americans have developed distrust for the medical community, which has created a communication barrier. This barrier has prevented many African Americans from receiving vital information on healthy lifestyle maintenance. However, there is substantial involvement in communities of faith (i.e., churches) amongst members of the African American community. The concept of channeling health information through trusted sources gave way to the Digital Narratives project. Through the Digital Narratives project, two or more people who attend local churches were filmed while conversing about their personal experiences with or questions about diabetes. The videos were shown to an audience at a culminating event at a local church and at other events. Informal feedback to the video testimonials was positive. The study contributes to the literature by providing a unique approach for message design that might be of effective in African American communities of faith.
This is a creative project with the DVD as the final outcome. The document provides a rationale for the creative project, the process of creating the DVD, a brief overview of the contents of the DVD and some preliminary evaluation.
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Keywords
African American, church, living with diabetes, video testimonials, spirituality and health, religion and health, health information DVD, Columbus, Ohio, testimony, personal stories