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A completely different type of project from the seminar - a mini-research project on HIV/AIDS campaigns on campus...by Lauren Rosenberg. At the end of a semester’s worth of a ‘Health Communication’ seminar I considered my position as a UCT student and the type of ‘Health Communication’ that I had experienced during my time at this university. Nearly all of the campaigns that I have seen and heard are to do with HIV/AIDS. The only exception to this is a small sign in the ladies bathroom that tells me to wash my hands using the soap provided, of which there is hardly ever some to use. Irony aside it did make me think about HIV/AIDS communication campaigns that are run on campus and whether or not they achieve what they set out to do. Throughout my Health Communication seminar inferences were made that the issues around HIV/AIDS that we discussed were perhaps not as relevant to us as they were to people who were either A) not at university or B) not as ‘privileged’ as we were in terms of our education, finances and home background. In our penultimate class a quick poll was taken where students had to write down on small bits of paper whether or not they had ever had unsafe sex before. The results came in on carefully folded bits of paper with the following data: out of a class of 14 ‘privileged’ university students, 11 had had unsafe sex before. Thinking back to the empty soap dispenser in the bathroom I figured that it was clear that people were reading the sign but not using the soap. This reflective essay will look at data collected from mini informal interviews conducted with UCT students who were chosen randomly from a convenience sample. It will also consider the aims and projects of HAICU (UCT’s HIV/AIDS co-ordination unit) and see whether the two match up in terms of expectations and delivery.Methodology With the help of a field worker (also from my Health Communication class) I approached random students who were sitting in the Leslie Social Sciences Building at the University of Cape Town and asked them the following question: “What would be an effective HIV/AIDS communication campaign for YOU?” Short informal discussions were held with these students and their answers were recorded in as much detail as possible by means of writing. In total 46 students were polled and the results of those discussions were put into a table that is attached at the end of this essay. Findings: I have divided up the responses of the students into seven categories. These categories were derived from words and phrases that came up frequently during the discussions. The categories represent what 46 randomly and conveniently chosen UCT students think would work well in an HIV/AIDS communication campaign. The number for each category reflects how many students either directly used the category word/phrase in their response or indirectly referred to it by use of synonyms or phrases with the same meaning. 1. HIV+ people/people living with AIDS: 18 2. Art/aesthetic campaigns (including posters): 13 3. TV advertisements (especially MTV/Channel O adverts) & health messages in sitcoms: 13 4. Live events (including public participation events): 11 5. Young people who are HIV+ / campaigns aimed directly at students: 7 6. Scare tactics/shocking and controversial images: 7 7. Catchy slogans: 4 HAICU: “Building an AIDS-competent UCT” HAICU has several roles and responsibilities on campus which include organising HIV/AIDS communication campaigns and events to raise awareness around key issues relating to HIV and AIDS. Sean Brown is the Information, Education and Communications (IEC) Officer at HAICU and he explained to me that there are usually two main themes to each project that the unit organises. This year in the first semester were focused on HIV prevention and awareness and included activities such as O-week presentations and voluntary testing and counselling on campus. Sean says that the second semester’s activities will be geared towards combating AIDS-related stigma on campus. HAICU uses social marketing concepts and practices when creating campaigns together with the help of their ACES (AIDS Community Educators) who engage in informal discussions with other students and facilitate workshops on campus. Social market theories conceptualise HIV and AIDS campaigns as ‘products’ that need to be ‘sold’ to a specific target market. In terms of this HAICU tries to come up with ways in which to sell their product of HIV/AIDS awareness and related issues however the challenge in this is to make the product attractive to their consumers (UCT students and staff) so that there would be a need to ‘buy’ it. In addition to this further challenges arise given the diversity of UCT students thus it becomes harder to define a specific target market. Red plastic public art HAICU’s latest communication campaign is a sound installation that was housed in a square of red plastic strips. In the nature of public art it was positioned outside a coffee shop on campus near Jameson Hall where many students congregate during their free time. The sound that one heard when in or near the installation were recorded readings of transcripts of interviews with UCT students who are HIV positive. The voices heard were not those of the HIV positive students who preferred to remain anonymous. When I consider my findings from my opinion poll I would argue that this campaign met most of the requirements that student felt would constitute an effective campaign. It was not clichéd (this is the first time that something like this has been done at UCT), it was artistic, HIV+ people were very much involved, it was directly aimed at students and some of what was said was quite shocking and controversial considering that no UCT student has publicly disclosed their HIV status to date. When analysing these categories, this campaign is very similar to the style of last year’s very successful haiku campaign that lined the sides of University Avenue. However those students who did have opinions on the installation found that the campaign was too abstract and that a sign outside the installation would have been a good inclusion. Only one student said that the campaign was “clever” and felt that a sign outside the installation would have impacted negatively on the campaign as people should interact with it as naturally as possible. Interestingly enough this student also commented on their observations of other students and the installation and said that it was funny to see how people either completely avoided walking near to the red plastic square or cautiously ventured in. Personally, besides the issue of the rainy weather, I am not sure why the campaign wasn’t received better by students but it points to discrepancies between the expectations of students and the delivery of HAICU. My Recommendations: With only a semester’s worth of health communication education behind me I found it useful to look at what researchers are saying about HIV/AIDS communication campaigns aimed at the youth. One of the problems associated with youth targeted HIV/AIDS campaigns is that the target audience suffers from AIDS fatalism and AIDS fatigue . Research (and plain general knowledge) has shown that there is a “normalisation of the epidemic” because the younger generation has “grown up with AIDS” . AIDS fatigue has thus set which results in established communication campaigns being seen as boring and predictable and researchers have found that the traditional “threat-consequence” approach is no longer effective . AIDS fatigue is particularly problematic for social marketing strategies and should force HAICU to develop campaigns that combat this. In a presentation entitled Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Communication Campaigns: The importance of critique, the Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) found that there is little evidence to show that an indirect focus on ‘consumerism’ amongst youth will lead to sexual risk reduction. This is probably understandable given AIDS fatigue amongst the youth and this is reflected in my data. It is thus reasonable to say that from a small scale random and convenient sample of UCT students the general attitude towards HIV/AIDS communication campaigns is that students are not interested in ‘buying’ whatever conventional ‘products’ that HAICU or anyone else has to offer. What then is the solution? In another presentation CADRE puts forward the notion of “non-purposive AIDS communication” which includes “wide-ranging interpretations of the disease and the epidemic” . In this approach to HIV/AIDS communication individual and social responses related to living in/through a severe AIDS epidemic are considered which includes knowing people who are HIV+ and/or have died of AIDS . What I think is effective about this approach to communication campaigns is that it “includes processes of making meaning, including involvement in AIDS response, but also a relation to myths, stereotypes, and other forms of sense making” . In terms of ‘making meaning’ my primary suggestion to HAICU would be that they come up with a HIV/AIDS communication identity that is meaningful to UCT students. Non-purposive AIDS communication is also said to be “ever changing in relation to content, timing and intensity” and this is significant as I believe that there should be a greater consultative process with students when conceptualizing campaigns. Currently this process is limited to input from the ACES but I suggest that if UCT is to become ‘AIDS-competent’ such engagement needs to extend beyond this style of information gathering. Conclusions: What I found most interesting about my short venture into such data collection is that UCT students, despite being AIDS fatigued, are quick to offer their advice on what would make a good HIV/AIDS communication campaign. Perhaps if HAICU focused on first branding itself as a unit that was student-friendly and open to input from anyone and everyone then it would have an easier time ‘selling’ its ‘products’ to students. One of the main reasons why the students that I polled said that they wanted to see and hear more from HIV+ people in campaigns is that in that way the epidemic would take on a human face. Those students who are not infected or affected by HIV/AIDS also have an identity in the epidemic. What I am suggesting is that the voices of these students also be taken into consideration in creating HIV/AIDS communication campaigns before these very same campaigns try to speak to them. Reference List: 1. HAICU website, www.hivaids.uct.ac.za 2. Mokoetle, S. Annual Report of the Steering Committee of the African Broadcast Media Partnership against HIV/AIDS, Maputo, September 2006 3. Parker, W. Evaluation of HIV/AIDS Communication Campaigns: The importance of critique (PowerPoint Presentation) 4. Parker, W. Communication Campaigns in the Context of a Severe HIV and AIDS Epidemic in South Africa (PowerPoint Presentation)