The Quest for the Perfect ExerGame

Citizen Journalism has gone mainstream with a few recent high profile cases where individual’s on the spot have been ahead of professional reporters. The utility of mobile phones is such that is now easy to capture video, audio, photos and text as events are unfolding and immediately put them online.

In thinking about the use of social media in a health context, I would like to develop the concept of “Citizen Narration” as a narrative approach that makes use of social media to document and reflect on an individual’s or groups own particular health and/or social circumstances and experiences. Storytelling has long been an important part of human culture and is recognized as providing engaging learning experiences and reflective practice is increasingly being used in personal and professional development.

Obviously there are privacy concerns in terms of the degree and extent of personal disclosure, issues of ownership that need to be addressed and also the need to develop social media literacy. I have no doubt that these issues can be overcome and see “Citizen Narration” utilizing social media as have the potential to become a real grass-roots approach to health promotion and empowerment.