Communication Sources and Knowledge: Use of Health-Enhancing Resources Among Different Residents in a Gentrifying Neighborhood

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session III
  In Interactive Paper Session: Intergroup Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

Understanding of the ways neighborhood social environments impact health is limited, with gentrifying neighborhoods offering unique opportunities to study the communication environments of two groups: newer and longer-term residents. This project seeks to analyze how residential tenure and residents’ use of media and/or interpersonal communication impact their knowledge and use of health-enhancing resources (i.e., grocery stores, farmer’s markets and community gardens, and places to exercise) during a time of rapid neighborhood change. It uses data from surveys and focus groups in a gentrifying neighborhood in Los Angeles. Preliminary analyses of data suggest that communication network composition seems to play a greater, significant role in knowledge and use of health-enhancing resources among residents who are newer to a neighborhood, with media and interpersonal communication facilitating knowledge or use of different resources. Implications and further data analyses are detailed.

Author

• Deborah Neffa Creech, U of Southern California - Annenberg School for Communication