Managing Hypervisibility in the HIV Prevention Information‐Seeking Practices of Black Female College Students

Abstract

While information resources have contributed to the overall decline in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections in the United States, these benefits have not been experienced equally. Our article describes formative research conducted as part of a larger study focused on the development of an online HIV prevention platform tailored for Black female college students. To inform the design of our platform, we conducted focus groups with 60 Black women enrolled at two predominantly White institutions (PWIs). The purpose of the focus groups was to understand information needs, awareness of specific information resources, and the search strategies employed for finding and evaluating HIV prevention information. We used hypervisibility as a sensitizing lens for making sense of how the intersecting gender and racial identities of Black womanhood shape informationseeking behavior. Four themes emerged: platform choice and privacy, relatability, respectability politics, and silence on campus. The themes depict discursive representations specific to Black female identity to manage stigma, reduce their hypervisibility, and amplify their authentic voices in the broader HIV prevention discourse. Our findings contribute to human information behavior scholarship on marginalized groups.

Helpful information to whom? An intersectional critique of the ‘it gets better project

“…However, given the ongoing struggles experienced by people of color (e.g., as demonstrated by the Black Lives Matter movement), much of which takes places and is documented in online spaces, online campaigns must take race more seriously, and in tandem with other identity facets like LGBTQ identities. In information science there is a growing body of scholarship concerning the connections between race and technology (Kvasny & Payton, ; Noble, ).…”

Does Technology Have Race?

“…However, given the ongoing struggles experienced by people of color (e.g., as demonstrated by the Black Lives Matter movement), much of which takes places and is documented in online spaces, online campaigns must take race more seriously, and in tandem with other identity facets like LGBTQ identities. In information science there is a growing body of scholarship concerning the connections between race and technology (Kvasny & Payton, 2018;Noble, 2018).…”

Online and offline information seeking behaviours of people living with HIV in a clinic-based setting

“…There are multi-sectoral initiatives to lower the HIV pandemic, including PLHIV’s access to relevant information for effective disease management and preventing new HIV infections transmissions. It is documented that, effective treatment, management and prevention of HIV rely on the PLHIVs’ capacity to seek, understand and use health information (Kvasny and Payton, 2018; Stonbraker et al , 2018). In the context of this study, information seeking behaviour refers to the “purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal.…”

“…Information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the internet offer a new opportunity for enhancing access to research-based health information or as a means for self-care (Gallagher et al , 2008; Kvasny and Payton, 2018). The internet is a growing technology for communications; approximately 474 million people have access to the internet in Africa as of March 2019 (World Internet Users and Population Statistics, 2019).…”

“…Several studies have investigated the online HIV information seeking behaviour in sub-Saharan Africa (Lwoga et al , 2017; Mosha and Manda, 2012; Mwammenywa and Kaijage, 2018; Yaya and Ghose, 2018; Ybarra et al , 2006) and outside Africa (Courtenay-quirk et al , 2010; Kvasny and Payton, 2018; Mo and Coulson, 2010; Schnall et al , 2018; Stonbraker et al , 2017, 2018; Thomas and Shuter, 2010). In general, these studies indicate that the use of internet for seeking HIV information is still low in sub-Saharan Africa as compared to other high income countries (Courtenay-quirk et al , 2010; Lwoga et al , 2017; Mo and Coulson, 2010; Mosha and Manda, 2012; Mwammenywa and Kaijage, 2018; Stonbraker et al , 2017; Thomas and Shuter, 2010; Ybarra et al , 2006).…”