Browsing by Author "Beyene, Tsegaye"

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    The Role of The Voice of The Revolution of Tigray Radio in Setting Hiv/Aids as an Agenda And Initiating Audience Participation: The Case of Mekelle Town
    (Addis Ababa University, 2007-10) Beyene, Tsegaye; Asgedom, Amare (PhD)
    The HIV/AIDS epidemic has affected millions of people all over the world and the effect of the pandemic has been particularly striking in Sub-Saharan Africa. As a Sub-Saharan country Ethiopia has been launching many projects to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS since 1986 (MOH: 2006). Tigray is one of the nine federal states of Ethiopia located in the northern most part of the country. Studies show that the Ethio-Eritrean war of 1998-2000 resulted in significant increase in HIV prevalence in the region, where the majority of the Ethiopian Defense Forces were stationed (Berhe et al, 2004:1). The military may be described as one of the high-risk groups in HIV/AIDS because of its mobile nature. It may be argued that the region faces an additional AIDS threat because of the massive military presence at present. Added to this is the large number of sex workers who are believed to be in the major towns of the region following in the footsteps of the defense forces. And it appears that their presence poses an additional threat to community health in the Region. The project paper tries to assess the extent to which the Voice of the Revolution of Tigray (VORT) which is transmitted in local Tigrigna language has been effective in setting the issue of HIV/AIDS as an agenda among its audience in Mekelle town and mobilizing the audience for participation. The study has employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. These include a survey, observation and quantitative description of content and in-depth interview. The research was conducted in Mekelle town; using purposive sampling on two of the eight Tabias (Sub-Urban centers).The researcher distributed 219 copies of questionnaire to gather data. In addition to this, the researcher has carefully studied the letters of comments sent to the station from listeners to examine the degree and level of audience participation in the HIV/AIDS programs produced by the radio station and also analyze their main concerns.Moreover,the researcher has employed in-depth interviews with representatives of different associations, the regional HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, and journalists to find out what the agenda they were trying to set was .The result of the research shows that the radio station has been able to persuade the audience to consider HIV/AIDS as a top priority issue of concern. However, it was learned that the 9 degree and level of audience participation especially on the HIV/AIDS radio program is generally not encouraging compared to the other programs of the radio station. Of all the total respondents the majority reported that they didn’t participate by writing a letter and the researcher didn’t find listeners views and through call-ins and personal visits. The level of participation of the various segments of the society is too low. And the time allocated for the HIV/AIDS programs is not enough. The research analysis shows that the radio station has to work hard to meet the needs and aspirations of the audience.