8.1: Coding Social Support Messages

Group Members:
Anneliese Schrotenboer- Brown Blog
Ashley Downs- Yellow Blog
Jillian Moskovitz -Red Blog

For our blog assignment our group analyzed twenty different messages relating to fitness, health and weight loss. We coded the messages and sought to narrow in on features of the message that Braithwaite also looks at: information, network support, tangible assistance, esteem support, emotional support and humor. The following chart displays our results:

Inter-rater reliability 0.8416667

type of support: frequency/ %of messages

Information: 13 /0.65
Tangiable assistance: 6/ 0.3
Esteem Support: 7 /0.35
Network support: 12/ 0.6
Emotional support: 5/ 0.25
Humor: 9 /0.45

First off, our group produced an inter-related reliability of .84 which means that our results are reliable, because the majority of the message coding was agreed upon between group members. Like Braithwaite found in his studies when investigating social support in CMC there was more messages sharing information in able-bodied persons. In our messages there was no indication that any of these people had a physical disability and so the high amount of information that was shared in the messages makes sense. Like the reasoning Braithwaite provides, these people are more in control (versus a disabled person) and the information will actually be able to be put into practice.

Overall, we did not find very much emotional support but the few times it was present it was in the form of encouragement. This makes sense because in regards to fitness and heath/ weight loss topics people often need encouragement to keep on the right track and to stay focused on their goals. We felt that the reason there was little emotional support was because a lot of the postings were strictly questions and answers that were looking for facts. There were not many personal testimonies that would otherwise produce sympathy or affection.

A unique difference that existed in the results of our exercise versus Braithwaite’s study was that we had a fairly high amount of network support shown in our messages. There were many referrals to other professionals that could be of assistance, or sometimes there was the connecting of social networks. For example one individual said “here is the email address of my friend who is a trainer, I’m sure he could set you up on a weight training program.” Our prediction for the high number of network support laden messages is that because weight loss and physical fitness are very personal and individualized topics , perhaps learning and connecting with similar others is a helpful way to reach success.

Like discussed in Braithwaite’s paper we noticed a number of messages that had various types of support in them. The two types of support that were most often linked were informational and network support. Usually a contributor would offer information about an aspect of health or fitness and then towards the end of the message would follow up with a way for an individual to expand their network by connecting with someone else who could provide relevant information.

Walther and Boyd discuss that there are certain aspects of online social support that individuals find attractive and we feel that anonymity and access are the two most relevant ones in our exercise. Because weight and health issues can be very personal anonymity could increase the degree to which people feel comfortable disusing sensitive issues (diets, obesity, and poor exercising habits). The notion of constnt access to advice with these issues is also important because many people do not have time to see a nutritionist or work with a trainer during a standard work day. So the ability to connect to advice and help at convenient times is a benefit.

Below are the links to the threads our messages are from:

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.diet/browse_thread/thread/5d639a3354e742e0/cd8969cac60ed9d7?lnk=st&q=weight+loss+advice#cd8969cac60ed9d7

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.fitness.misc/browse_thread/thread/2bc9bfb43992cf95/f8f842df9f6fc021?lnk=st&q=weight+loss+advice#f8f842df9f6fc021

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.fitness.weights/browse_thread/thread/d34701df5be8d183/26d7e2b8e3d97b9f?lnk=st&q=weight+loss+advice#26d7e2b8e3d97b9f

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.food.cooking/browse_thread/thread/45440534d5811f7e/25dd8f3808e74fbb?lnk=st&q=weight+loss+advice#25dd8f3808e74fbb

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.fitness.aerobic/browse_thread/thread/c299e62613bae90b/9b79472bfafeee79?lnk=st&q=weight+loss+advice#9b79472bfafeee79