title: A medical profession in transition: exploring naturopathic physician blogging behaviors.
abstract: Naturopathic medicine is a holistic healing approach involving natural remedies, wellness, and disease prevention. A literature review shows the discipline is attempting to overcome several professional obstacles and expand into new areas. Amid this transition, the naturopathic community--like other groups--has adopted Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs. This article features interviews with one naturopathic medical student and 17 naturopathic physicians and reviews of interviewee blogs to understand this group's communication activities. Findings suggest blogs are venues for projecting both individual and group credibility to stakeholders. I conclude that blogs serve a "represent all of us" group function and are new examples of gray or alternative health literature.
authors.affiliation: College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University, 115 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA. just.walden@gmail.com
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Walden
mesh_terms: D057218:Blogging; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009324:Naturopathy / Q000379:methods*