title: Deadly Choices empowering Indigenous Australians through social networking sites.
abstract: The potential for health promotion through social networking sites (SNSs) is widely recognized. However, while health promotion prides itself in focusing on the social determinants of health, its partiality for persuading individuals to comply with health behaviours dominates the way health promotion utilizes SNSs. This paper contributes to an understanding of collaborative ways SNSs can work for health promotion agendas of self-determination and empowerment in an Indigenous Australia context. An ethnographic study was undertaken with Deadly Choices, an Indigenous-led health promotion initiative. The study involved participant observation of interactions on Deadly Choices SNSs between Deadly Choices and its online community members. Deadly Choices provides an example of SNSs providing a powerful tool to create a safe, inclusive and positive space for Indigenous people and communities to profile their healthy choices, according to Indigenous notions of health and identity. The study found five principles that underpin Deadly Choices' use of SNSs for health promotion. These are: create a dialogue; build community online and offline; incentivise healthy online engagement; celebrate Indigenous identity and culture; and prioritize partnerships. Deadly Choices SNSs empowers Indigenous people and communities to be health promoters themselves, which represents a power shift from health promotion practitioner to Indigenous people and communities and more broadly, an enactment of Indigenous self-determination on SNSs. Mainstream health promotion can learn from Indigenous health promotion practice regarding the use of SNSs for health promotion agendas.
authors.affiliation: University Centre for Rural Health, Level 3, Edward Ford Building, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McPhail-Bell
authors.affiliation: Deadly Choices, Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, Bowen Hills, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Nathan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Appo
authors.affiliation: Deadly Choices, Institute for Urban Indigenous Health, Bowen Hills, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Alana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haymes
authors.affiliation: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit (ATSIS Unit), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Chelsea
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bond
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Social Work, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brough
authors.affiliation: Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) Chair in Indigenous Engagement and President of Academic Board, Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Bronwyn
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fredericks
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D001315:Australia; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006303:Health Services, Indigenous; D006801:Humans; D000077253:Online Social Networking; D044382:Population Groups; D011209:Power, Psychological