Abstract
Individuals increasingly turn to the Internet to satisfy their information needs, including information on health-related issues like HIV/AIDS. Researchers agree that an important characteristic of this medium is interactivity. The concept can be viewed from either a user perspective, focusing on the user’s experience with the medium or a system perspective, analyzing the design of technology. The current study followed the system perspective to analyze the various features on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention websites. Although all websites were interactive, there was considerable variation in the types of features present. This study attempted to find a relationship, if any, between the degree of interactivity and the page rank of the websites on five of the most popular search engines.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
AIDS (Disease)--Computer network resources--Evaluation; HIV (Viruses)--Computer network resources--Evaluation; Interactive multimedia--Design; Interactive multimedia--Evaluation; Web sites--Design
Publication Date
11-8-2007
Document Type
Thesis
Department, Program, or Center
Department of Communication (CLA)
Advisor
Barnes, Susan
Advisor/Committee Member
Pugliese, Rudy
Advisor/Committee Member
Sorce, Patricia
Recommended Citation
John, Vikas, "Interactivity and health communication: content analysis of interactive elements on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention websites" (2007). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from
https://repository.rit.edu/theses/4591
Campus
RIT – Main Campus
Comments
Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: RC606.6 .J64 2008