Developments in the Use of the Mass Media at the National Level for HIV/AIDS Prevention in South Africa

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Abstract

The effective use of the mass media is a critical component of HIV/AIDS prevention. In South Africa there are three major programmes that utilise the national mass media platform for HIV/AIDS prevention. These are the Beyond Awareness II campaign, the multimedia edutainmentprogramme Soul City and the youth programme loveLife. Beyond Awareness II finished in October 2000 and subsequently the Department of Health has commissioned a new consortium, the AIDS Action Team (ACT), to deliver the next phase of government HIV/AIDS communication.

International developments in this field have ensured that there are now models of best practice to help ensure the appropriate application of health promotion and communication theory to this field. Overall, there are strengths and weaknesses in the application of theory and research in South African campaigns. A number of recommendations are made to help improve the sharingof expertise across programmes, behavioural surveillance, the utilisation of the mass media to impact on community action, the needs of rural communities and the role of health workers.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Concept and strategy

Concept and strategy in South African campaigns

Research and development

Evaluation, impact and cost effectiveness

Conclusion & Recommendations

Introduction

The potential of the mass media to reach South Africans is widely acknowledged. In South Africa it is estimated that 99% of people have access to the radio, 75% have access to television and 7% readership of newspapers.[1] Sixty-nine percent of young people watch TV five or more days a week.[2] The South African government and the donor community are investing more money than ever before in mass media campaigns for HIV/AIDS prevention. The 2001 Department of HealthHIV/AIDS prevention and care and support campaign tender amounts to almost R100 million.

This review examines three critical areas for mass media work; the conceptualisation and strategy, the research and development phase, and the evaluation, impact and cost effectiveness of mass media work for HIV/AIDS prevention. To do this, the review discusses three wellknowninitiatives that utilise the mass media for HIV/AIDS prevention. These are the Beyond Awareness II campaign, Soul City and loveLife. Some limited reference is also made to the prevention campaigns organised through the Government Communication and InformationService (GCIS) in collaboration with the Department of Health.

The review focuses on the promotion of HIV/AIDS prevention messages through the mass media and does not include Lovers Plus that specifically promotes their brand of condoms. Although all of the major programmes discussed in this review have produced large amounts of print media,there is no specific discussion of the individual merits of these. Instead, the review focuses on the overall evaluation of these programmes. In particular, the review examines the following evaluation studies; the evaluation of Soul City 4, the evaluation of the first year of loveLife and their national youth survey "Hot Prospects, Cold Facts" and the sentinel site research survey"Communicating for Action: A contextual evaluation of youth responses to HIV/AIDS" commissioned by Beyond Awareness II. The discussion in this review was supported by key informant interviews where necessary.

National mass media HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives

Prior to the development of Soul City, the Beyond Awareness campaigns and loveLife, the use ofthe national mass media for HIV/AIDS prevention was very underdeveloped. Unlike in other resource-rich countries where the earliest signs of an HIV/AIDS epidemic triggered an outburst of national media advertising, South Africa was slow to respond.

Beyond Awareness

The commissioning by the Department of Health of the Beyond Awareness campaigns in 1995 and 1997 marked a departure for government from their previous track record. Up until this time, low budget campaigns with conservative messages and images had predominated, for example,the national HIV/AIDS campaign carried by the "yellow hand". Beyond Awareness I and II had a much stronger strategy that extended beyond the traditional boundaries of the mass media and involved working partnerships between government and civil society. Beyond Awareness II was a two year campaign that ended in October 2000 with a total budget of R26 million.

Soul City

Soul City is the longest running and most experienced project. Now in its ninth year, this multi-media edutainment project is in the development phase for its sixth television and radio series and estimates to have spent up to 70% of their total budget on HIV/AIDS work. (Soul City has also covered a wide range of other health promotion topics in addition to HIV/AIDS.) Theirtarget audience is black and coloured South Africans between the ages of 16-65. Print media and an adult education complement the television and radio series and lifeskills programme. Soul City has been flighted in several other African countries. In 2000 Soul City launched a children's series called "Soul Buddyz" targeting children aged between 8-12 years old. Soul City estimates that each series costs in the region of R30 million spent over two and a half years including alldevelopment, production and evaluation costs. Soul City is mostly donor funded and has received in total approximately R8 million from the Department of Health. In the last year they received R1 million and from 2002 this figure will be doubled.

loveLife

loveLife was launched in 1999. loveLife describes itself as a "deliberate departure from traditional approaches to HIV prevention, relying on a combination of commercial marketing and public health techniques to promote a new healthy lifestyle among 12-17 year old target group."[3]loveLife is a five year strategy designed to reduce the rate of HIV infection among 15-20 years olds by 50% in five years. loveLife combines high-powered media awareness and education with development of adolescent-friendly reproductive health services and other outreach and supportprogrammes for hard to reach youth in poor communities. The annual budget for loveLife is R150 million; R60 million is spent on their media component including television, radio, advertising and print media. loveLife is funded by Henry J Kaiser Foundation, with a total of R75 million from government from 2001 to 2004.

GCIS/Department of Health

GCIS has been involved with a number of isolated HIV/AIDS prevention communication campaigns. In particular, they were instrumental in the launch of the Department of Health's "Partnership against AIDS" initiative and has subsequently worked with the Department on anumber of campaigns. These single message campaigns include the "ABC"campaign, the "If your friend had flu would you ignore them" campaign and the "Men make a difference" campaign. In total, R13 million has been spent on these campaigns using radio, print and television advertising.

2 loveLife. Hot Prospects, Cold Facts: Portrait of Young South Africa, Henry J Kaiser Foundation, 2000.

3 Stadler, J. Looking at loveLife the first year - Preliminary monitoring and evaluation findings of the first year of loveLifeactivity: September 1999 - September 2000, Reproductive Health Research Unit, 2001, p.4.