Interpretation of Radio Television Messages Promoting Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
A number of media campaigns including educational programs, radio phone-in-programs and
discussions on ART have been produced and delivered to the public to inform them about the
service and to minimize the stigma attached to those who use the drug. Though producers of the
programs assume their messages to be interpreted exactly the same as they transmitted it,
scholars argue that it is not. It is, thus essential to study how audiences receive such messages.
Based on reception theory, this study was conducted to explore audiences’ interpretation and
response to radio and TV messages promoting ART and the factors that account for such reception
To generate the appropriate data, qualitative approaches mainly focus group discussion and individual
interview were used.
The study elicited important insights into the understanding of how different audiences make
meaning out of radio/TV messages promoting ART and how they respond to them. Accordingly, it
was observed that participants’ source of information regarding ART, their media use, and the
people they discuss with after watching/listening to such messages, are all related to how they
drive meaning out of the messages.
Moreover, participants having different educational background, profession HIV status and gender
were found to have similar understanding of ART messages. They, however, were observed to
differ in their response to the messages.
The distrust some participants have over media, the setting participants are in, the way the
programs are presented and the influence of ‘significant others’ were identified as factors for the
poor watching/listening habit of participants which in turn results in incomplete understanding of
the whole messages and finally to their rejection of the messages.
Religious institutions’ outlook of HIV in general and its medicine in particular, participants’
involvement in the media and the sender of the message were also found to be factors
contributing to how participants interpret the messages and to their rejection/acceptance of the
messages.
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Keywords
Messages Promoting