| Public health interventions in the community are a major health promotion and health education tool. These interventions typically use coalitions to facilitate collaboration among organizations and individuals in a similar manner to their use in social work interventions such as community organizing, community development, and community planning. Effectiveness of coalitions are greatly influenced by coalition communications. Computer-mediated communications (CMC) tools and approaches are in increasing use for these communications. One well-established CMC application, electronic bulletin board (EBB) systems, offers modalities useful for facilitating coalition communications.;At present, widespread use of EBB (also known as BBS) modalities appears inevitable. organizations can be positively affected and often transformed by CMC: What effect will this have on community coalitions? Will this benefit community change agents? Will the locality-based culture of coalitions shift as non-spatial communities of interest exert a larger influence in society?;This qualitative case study used innovation diffusion theory and computer-mediated communications theory to explore how and why EBB modalities may be used by coalition participants as preparation for a descriptive study of social workers and public health professions in community coalitions. Thirty-six users, familiar with community coalitions, were recruited from an electronic bulletin board system. Each subject read a brief, general description of a hypothetical coalition and responded to questions regarding modalities of email, listserve, archives, Web, and Internet video conferencing. The interviews were taped, transcribed, and analyzed for themes using established approaches. The subjects predicted a variety of uses, and to a lesser degree saw EBB modalities as displaying characteristics of successful innovations. However, their responses displayed a very limited view of EBB potential; little interest was shown in use of EBB modalities to improve coalition capability despite the historical record of community change using EBB modalities and the current transformation of society by information technology. In addition, many subjects viewed EBB modalities as threatening traditional coalition values. The study operationalized relevant variables, provided suggestions for practitioners and educators as well as for methodological improvements. |
