"Organizations strive to persuade the public to change beliefs or behavior through expensive media campaigns. Designers painstakingly craft resonant and culturally sensitive messaging that will motivate people to buy a product or take active steps to improve their health. But once these campaigns le
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ave the controlled environments of focus groups and advertising agencies, the public interprets and distorts the campaigns in ways their designers never intended or dreamed. In 'Best Laid Plans', Terence E. McDonnell argues that these well-designed campaigns are undergoing “cultural entropy”: the process through which the intended meanings and uses of cultural objects fracture into alternative meanings, new practices, failed interactions, and blatant disregard. Using AIDS media campaigns in Accra, Ghana, as its central case study, the book walks readers through best-practice, evidence-based media campaigns that fall totally flat. Female condoms are turned into bracelets, AIDS posters become home decorations, red ribbons fade into pink under the sun—to name a few failures. These damaging cultural misfires are not random. Rather, McDonnell makes the case that these disruptions are patterned, widespread, and inevitable—indicative of a broader process of cultural entropy." (Back cover)
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"This article argues that an indigenous approach to communication research allows us to re-think academic approaches of engaging in and evaluating participatory communication research. It takes as its case study the Komuniti Tok Piksa project undertaken in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The proj
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ect explores ways in which visual methods when paired with a community action approach embedded within an indigenous framework can be used to facilitate social change through meaningful participation. It involves communities to narrate their experiences in regard to HIV and AIDS and assists them in designing and recording their own messages. Local researchers are trained in using visual tools to facilitate this engagement with the communities." (Abstract)
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"Public health interventions often take the form of media campaigns, which utilize television, radio, and print advertisements to spread awareness and inform the population of risk factors, prevention methods, and treatment options. This paper will focus on HIV/AIDS radio programs in Malawi, Zambia,
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and other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. It will analyze these programs’ air times, audience, presentation style, and content, and identify how these factors influenced behavioral changes in the audiences. Additionally, this paper proposes promising techniques to ensure the success of future campaigns based on previous findings. Given these reviews of broadcasts of the past and their strengths and weaknesses, radio stations can better understand the reasons behind the programs’ respective impacts on the target populations." (Abstract)
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"This book advances new understandings of how technologies have been harnessed to improve the health of populations; whether the technologies really empower those who use information by providing them with a choice of information; how they shape health policy discourses; how the health information r
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elates to traditional belief systems and local philosophies; the implications for health communicators; how certain forms of silence are produced when media articulates and problematizes only a few health issues and sidelines others; and much more." (Publisher description)
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"Through an action media methodology, various participatory, grassroots, and traditional media methods, such as role plays, movie screenings, and drawing, were used with eight HIV-positive children to empower them to collectively respond to better treatment adherence. The paper demonstrates how, thr
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ough a process of participatory methodologies, the young children developed a cricital consciousness about their lived experiences and were empowered to actively participate in decision making and their right to treatment." (Abstract)
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"In this study, we assessed the relevance and effectiveness of radio broadcasting as a strategy that facilitates the adoption and use of safer sexual practices among students at a South African university. Based on ethnographic data, the article highlights that the essential and critical contributio
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n of campus radio lies in its ability to create a social space for HIV/AIDS communication. The overall aim of this study was to assess the relationship between exposure to radio broadcasting messages and the adoption of safer sexual practices. Our analysis suggests that campus broadcasting can be instrumental in promoting HIV/AIDS awareness and education." (Abstract)
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"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 epide
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mic. 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/AIDScommunication 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." (Abstract)
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"This study examined the use of a locally developed storytelling prompt as an alternative medium for HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention messages among rural university students in Limpopo Province, South Africa. An assessment of first-year students’ (n=21) response to a storytelling stimulus wi
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th local and familiar content shows a high uptake of the content messages in six persuasive narrative mediators: recall, narrative interest, absorption, identification with the main character, intention to commit to at least one health behaviour and self-efficacy. There were statistically significant correlations between narrative interest and recall, as well as between absorption and intention to commit to at least one health behaviour. Within the narrative theory framework, I argue for differentiated and culturally sensitive strategies and modes on HIV and AIDS communication to broaden the scope of focus to marginal areas where educational entertainment (EE) programmes may be inaccessible and ineffective. Finally, I discuss opportunities for further research that assess the effectiveness of local stories on a larger scale." (Abstract)
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"El inicio del siglo XXI ha venido marcado por los debates que, en el plano internacional, están sometiendo a revisión la comunicación para el desarrollo con el fin de proponer otras alternativas como comunicación para el cambio social o comunicación para el empoderamiento ciudadano y ecosocial
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. El debate conceptual que tiene lugar está lejos de resolverse con una respuesta fácil e inmediata, en la medida en que todos los términos que entran en escena requieren de un trabajo genealógico que permita identificar las tensiones, los actores sociales y las perspectivas de investigación en conflicto." (Editorial)
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"Entertainment-education for Health Behaviour Change: Issues and Perspectives in Africa is a collection of essays from some of the leading scholars in entertainment-education, including writers from South Africa, Nigeria, and the United States. Chapters cover a wide range of application and strategi
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es for entertainment-education, from mass media campaigns to participatory communication for behaviour change in health interventions including polio eradication and HIV/AIDS. Through reviews of past programmes and discussions of areas of potential research, these scholars highlight an emerging approach that is set to change health education and behaviour change strategies around the world." (Publisher description)
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"This publication analyzes the ways in which health services, public health administration, and healthcare policies are managed in developing countries and how intercultural, intergroup, and mass communication practices are weakening those efforts. If developing countries are to reach their developm
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ent goals, their leaders must have a firm understanding of the impact of infectious diseases on their people and take prompt action to fix socioeconomic issues arising from the problems associated with poor health practices. Drawing on experiences from international health organizations such as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), commissioned in poor countries to assist national governments in improving the wellbeing of their citizens, this volume analyzes maternal and child mortality and the spread of infectious diseases, and offers communication strategies for the management of malaria, HIV Aids, Polio, tuberculosis, and others in Somalia, Madagascar, Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and India." (Publisher description)
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"Even though sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by HIV/AIDS in the world, no new theories have been discovered, and questions about life and death are ignored. This book uses certain selected communication practices to offer the foundations of an African theory of communication, applicab
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le to the crisis of HIV/AIDS." (Publisher description)
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"This study examines the effectiveness of an entertainment education (EE) programme, Makgabaneng, in reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS in Botswana. If successful, this communication intervention should result in greater self-report of attitudes, actions and knowledge related to risk reduction goals am
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ong those who listen to Makgabaneng more often than among those who listen less often. This article begins by describing the general orientation of Makgabaneng as EE and its specific theoretical model: the MARCH model of behaviour change. Through a survey of Batswana living in and around the capital of Gabarone, we assess whether Makgabaneng is effective in promoting knowledge, attitudinal and behavioural change. Findings reveal successes in some areas, but lack of success in other areas of prevention-supportive messages. We offer some conclusion for improving this form of EE." (Abstract)
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"In this fully revised and expanded Fourth Edition, Ronald E. Rice and Charles K. Atkin provide readers with a comprehensive, up-to-date look into the field of public communication campaigns. Updated to reflect the latest theories and research, this text extends coverage to new areas, including sun
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protection, organ donation, human rights, social norms, corporate social responsibility, condom use, ocean sustainability, fear messages, and digital games. Classic chapters include updates on topics such as campaign history, theoretical foundations, formative evaluation, systems approaches, input-output persuasion matrix, design and evaluation, meta-analysis, and sense-making methodology." (Publisher description)
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