Sexually Explicit Internet Movies (SEIM) have emerged as a frequently accessed sexual resource by youth; however, SEIM’s potential influences on youth’s sexual health remains an understudied area. This study aimed to develop crucial insight into what youth perceive to be SEIM consumption’s sexual health influences. Employing an exploratory, constructivist grounded-theory approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Three main findings emerged from the data analysis: 1) Youth experienced SEIM consumption as having interconnected negative and positive sexual health influences; 2) SEIM were utilized by youth as a means to explore both their individual sexual self and the subject of sexuality; 3) Youth perceived SEIM consumption differently in the contexts of individual sexual health versus sexual health promotion. Youth’s perceptions suggest that it would be beneficial to enact more holistic, sex-positive approaches to sexual health promotion, and support the utility of creating alternative, lived experience-based discourses about youth sexual health.

Cette thèse explore les multiples rationalités à l’œuvre derrière la production et la publication en masse d’information de santé en langue française sur le web. Une clarification des notions essentielles entourant l’univers de l’e-santé facilite l’appréhension de l’état des lieux de ce domaine et du contexte de cette étude. La méthodologie mobilisée est décrite de façon détaillée : depuis la constitution d’un corpus à partir de contenus ciblés extraits de 367 sites jusqu’à l’interprétation des données collectées. Douze profils-types d’éditeurs composant le paysage du web de la santé ont émergé de l’exploitation de ce corpus, eux-mêmes classés dans quatre grandes catégories. Pour chaque type d’éditeur défini, quatre caractéristiques distinctives sont examinées : les différents acteurs concernés, les informations diffusées sur leurs sites, leurs modèles économiques, ainsi que les objectifs qu’ils déclarent. Les analyses approfondies menées sur ces critères déterminants sont confrontées aux résultats d’autres travaux de recherche issus de disciplines hétérogènes pour dégager les principaux enjeux qui sous-tendent la mise en ligne d’information de santé à destination du grand public. / This thesis explores multiple logics of action at work behind the production and widespread dissemination of health information in French on the Web. Key e-health concepts are clarified to facilitate understanding of the field and the study context. The methodology is described in detail from the constitution of a corpus of focused content from 367 websites to the interpretation of the data collected. Twelve standard publisher profiles in the e-health Web sector emerged from our analysis of the corpus, and were classified in four main categories. Four distinctive criteria were studied for each type of publisher: the stakeholders, the information available on their websites, their business models and their stated purposes. Analyses of these criteria were compared with results from other studies in a variety of fields in order to identify the key issues involved in launching e-health information for the general public.