Help women help other women by sharing your experiences as an African woman and a World Pulse community member and earn USD 25 dollars subscription to an online magazine

Dear Community members,

Hi, my name is Jessica Foumena. I am a doctoral candidate in the College of Media and Communication at Texas Tech University. I was born and raised in the Republic of Cameroon and I speak both French and English fluently. These past ten years, I had the blessing to complete my university degrees in the U.S.A. I have also been a World Pulse community member since 2016. In fact, I was 2018 a World Pulse Featured Storyteller, and I received the World Pulse Story Award in 2017 for my story “A letter to my 18-year-old self.” You may check my Texas Tech student profile here, my World Pulse profile here, and my story here.

In 2016, I joined World Pulse to connect with like-minded women and because I have a passion for issues related to women and Africa. I am also a blogger on my spare time, but I have not had much lately. For my  Ph.D. dissertation (or final research project), I want to know how African women use World Pulse and how it can be used for women to help one another. I decided to interview African women via email because their voices matter and must be heard. World Pulse has approved and supported my study.

During this study, my goal is to highlight the lived experiences of African women who are World Pulse community members. The results of this study will help to evaluate the impact of World Pulse in the lives of African women and to identify ways to increase African women’s use of online media. Participants of this study will have the opportunity to share their experiences and to have their voices heard.

Participants who volunteer for this study will be asked to complete two rounds of email interviews and follow-up questions during a period of three weeks. The researchers estimated that participants would spend about two hours of their time per round. Participants are free to stop their participation anytime.  Participants can stop their participation in this study by sending me an email at j.foumena-agnoung@ttu.edu

After completing two rounds of email interviews and follow-up questions, participants will receive a USD 25 Magzter gift card they can use toward the subscription of a magazine of their choices such as Forbes Africa Woman or Forbes Africa. Participants who volunteered for this study will also have their World Pulse public profiles observed. All personal information from participants will be kept confidential using a pseudonym for each participant.

To protect the privacy of participants in this study,  their names will not be linked to any documentation and any use of this material in reports, publications or presentations will never be associated with participants in this study without permission. No one other than the researchers associated with this project will have access to the raw data. All related documentation will be stored either in a locked file cabinet in the researcher’s office or on a password-protected computer. All personal information from participants will be kept confidential using a pseudonym for each participant.

If you are an African woman residing on the African continent or elsewhere who is willing to share your experiences about your access and use of World Pulse and the media in your home country (and your host country), please send me an email at j.foumena-agnoung@ttu.edu Upon the reception of your email, I will send you an informed consent you will need to read and email me back signed and dated. It's after the reception of your signed and dated informed consent that I can email you the first round of interview questions.  World Pulse and Texas Tech University have approved of this study. If you have any questions or concerns, you can contact anytime my Dissertation Chair Dr.Kent Wilkinson at (806)-834-0199 or kent.wilkinson@ttu.edu

Jessica Foumena, Ph.D. candidate

College of Media & Communication, Texas Tech University

j.foumena-agnoung@ttu.edu