Digital Storytelling for the Support of Maternal and Child-wellbeing Through Community-based Co-design

Abstract

In rural, under-resourced, and marginalised regions, digital health information has become a tool with which to reach new and expecting parents for the care of their and their children's wellbeing. However, the types of health information shared is often inaccessible since "top-down"approaches are utilised in creating and sharing content, with limited input by recipients of the information. Furthermore, access to health information has been prioritised over the learning thereof, indicating a need to refocus efforts on how health information is curated. I aim to explore how community-based co-design can be leveraged to design and develop digital storytelling content for the support of maternal and child-wellbeing (MCWB). With the consideration of intersectional feminist methods, participatory visual techniques, and Lambert's taxonomy of participatory media practices, I seek to understand existing storytelling and communication practices, as well as dissemination mechanisms in two rural South African communities for the support of MCWB. This will be achieved through four phases, namely understanding, making, connecting, and embracing, using in-depth interviews, photovoice, generative workshops, and focus groups. I am interested in how various community stakeholders participate in the MCWB and health information sharing ecosystem, thus I will be including mothers, fathers, other caregivers, healthcare workers and community leaders. With the creation of digital story artefacts, community-based methods and techniques, and an understanding of health information content creation and sharing via community-based co-design, the intended contributions are: describing how existing communal practices can influence novel approaches to promoting MCWB; developing an understanding of how different degrees of participation in the creation of digital stories impact how people create, share, and learn from digital stories; advances in community-based co-design for rural and under-resourced populations; and explaining how digital stories could impact MCWB within a community.