TEBlog

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. (More)

You might wonder why I bother teaching radio when you tune in to most commercial radio stations in South Africa. Or perhaps you might wonder why we didn't start teaching radio earlier! My radio teaching is linked to the broader interest in communication for development/ communication for social change and the health communication seminar posts where I've been sharing student work. So, I also taught a seminar on writing for radio this semester. Decided to be adventurous and asked students to write a radio drama (they're coming back into fashion on SAFM and Bush Radio). What I liked about this group's piece (click more to read the unedited script below) is that it's not prescriptive. I still find myself wondering whether one can really reach people through this kind of radio programming, or whether it's inherently patronising and/or paternalistic to deliberately and strategically embed social messages into entertaining formats...At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome of the assignment. The script that follows was written by 2nd year students:- Sharika Jaga, Tamsin Collins, Tracy-Lee George & Matshidiso Matlapeng (More)

A little later than planned, but here is some more student work from my Health Communication Seminar. Joy Waddell developed a website aimed at educating South African high school students (between the ages of 14 and 18) on HIV/AIDS and certain related topics. You can check it out at http://www.killjoyonline.com/hiv_home.htm and click more (below) to read her project summary. What's most interesting here is her approach - a combination of academic and "on the ground" formative research. Of course, as she admits, the major weakness is the lack of summative evaluation. But a project like this raises the importance of 1) consulting the target audience and drawing on their existing knowledge; and 2) the possibility of using new technologies to reach youth with social messages. Here, the obvious critique is the question of access, in this case mitigated by the fact that youth can log on at school. This kind of assignment was useful for me on a number of levels: 1) Taking the student out of the classroom to interact with real "subjects" and see them as "real people"; producing something potentially useful; and using the student's personal/professional interests (in this case web design) to explore issues around HIV/AIDS. (More)

I've just finished teaching a brand new seminar on Health Communication to third year media studies students. The course content included discussions and critical reading on HIV/AIDS and the media, health communication campaigns, health reporting and narrative journalism. Students produced annotated bibliographies, a researched magazine article and a final academic essay or creative project of their choice. I'd like to use this category to reflect on this teaching experience, and to share some of the student work.

Teaching a seminar to worldly wise third year media students is challenging. Teaching anything to do with HIV/AIDS is even more challenging. But this has turned out to be one of the the best courses I've ever taught, and judging by the student feedback, it's been similarly stimulating for them. After the initial scepticism, by the end of the semester, these were some of the responses during an informal feedback session: "I am very surprised at how much I didn't actually know about Aids"; "This course was better than I anticipated and taught me not only about Aids but about myself as well"; "Very stimulating and I learnt a lot".

But more about this later...Here's the first installement of student work. Read a short story entitled Nosebleeds by Masande Ntshanga.