Despite the many HIV/AIDS
communication initiatives, combined with support and infrastructural support in
South Africa, risky behaviour associated with the spread of the epidemic is
increasing amongst many groups. This calls for a re-evaluation of endeavours
aimed at curbing the spread of the epidemic. This article is only concerned
with the communicational aspects of the epidemic, but does not negate the
interaction of these with other measures taken to address the epidemic.
As is
the case with most health communication initiatives, HIV/AIDS communication
initiatives have evolved to favour the participatory approach above
one-directional transmission of information to the public. The participatory
approach rests on the assumption that an HIV/AIDS communication initiative
stands the best chance of resulting in behaviour change if members of the
target community participate in the communication initiative. The assumption is
that as many people as possible should be involved in the maximum number of
phases of the communicative initiative (such as initial research, planning,
implementation and evaluation of the project). Some research has recently
started to explore new forms of community participation, including inviting
community participation through, for example, internet-based platforms such as
social media, and mobile phone platforms such as WhatsApp and BBM. However, the
reality broadcast genre - more specifically, talk radio - has been neglected,
as only a few research investigations focused on talk radio and most of these
are not exclusively about HIV/AIDS communication but focus on other health
topics.
From a participatory communication perspective, two sets of critique
against the existing HIV/AIDS communication projects hold water: firstly, they
do not make the maximum use of participatory communication principles and,
secondly, they are externally initiated projects and emanate from outside the
target community. To address both of these concerns, this article explores a
wider range of participatory principles and the potential workings of these in
an internally initiated communication initiative aimed at addressing the
epidemic. More specifically, this article investigates ways in which radio
listeners experience the reality broadcast genre - the talk radio show,
Positive Talk - as participatory communication.
Positive Talk is not an
externally initiated project, as it is not part of a pre-planned, goal-oriented
project that is owned and controlled outside the target community. In contrast,
it has been initiated by Criselda Kananda, an individual not linked to any of
the existing initiatives outside the community. She started the show to earn a
living. She became a well-known person, is fairly knowledgeable in the field
and was granted this opportunity as she is HIV-positive. In order to
investigate how radio listeners use the show to engage in HIV/AIDS
communication, 20 in-depth interviews were held with avid listeners of the show.
The respondents indicated that they appreciate ordinary people phoning in. When
expressing their opinions about the show, they found Kananda's life story
credible, believed her public and private life to be congruent, valued
Kananda's personality and respectful manner and could identify with the views
expressed. In the article, it is argued that these ideas are largely in line
with the principles of participatory communication tied to democracy, the
participatory turn, the ordinary, validation of identity and respectful
dialogue.
Although the findings of this qualitative study cannot be generalised
to the whole listening population of the show, they indicate that it is worth
investigating the value of communication initiatives that emerge spontaneously
from communities (instead of those strategically engineered from outside the
general population) as a future direction of HIV/AIDS communication in the
country.
Full article at: http://goo.gl/sRPZp0
By:
- 1a D Litt et Phil is affiliated to the Department of Communication Studies , University of Johannesburg , Johannesburg , South Africa, *Email: mburger@uj.ac.za.
More at: https://twitter.com/hiv
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