Wize Up Television Talk Show - Zimbabwe

The talk show, running under the campaign Wize Up, Your Decision, Your Life, is part of a regional health communication campaign on SRHR led by the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication and funded by the Sweden and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) (see Related Summary below). The campaign builds on the success of Action IEHDC's previous OneLove campaign, which sought to address the issue of multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships, a key driver of HIV infections in southern Africa.

The talk show seeks to be a platform for young people, parents/guardians, service providers, and policy makers to converse about issues that are not addressed regularly and openly. The intended audience is young people between the ages of 12 and 25 in urban and rural areas, but the series is also aimed at the general adult population, which includes parents and caregivers, in order to facilitate more widespread discussion. The different audiences are also being catered to through the distribution of multimedia materials with tailor-made messages.

The talk show is a pre-recorded discussion, and each of the episodes is guided and facilitated by presenters, whose selection was based on their proven experience and an ability to understand a variety of local languages. To support the talk show, vox pops are being screened where youth on the street are interviewed about their views and opinions on the SRHR issue to be discussed in that particular show. Click here to view the vox pops from the show.

The development of the campaign and the messages of the show were based on formative research conducted in Zimbabwe by Action IEHDC (see Related Summary below). The specific topics for discussion are based on a creative brief developed by key experts - from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), National AIDS Council of Zimbabwe (NAC), Action IEHDC researchers, as well as representatives of the youth and their respective organisations speaking for rural, urban, and peri-urban areas of the country.

Topics to be covered include:

• Condom use - discussing common myths and misconceptions, availability and affordability, and the issue of policy forbidding the mentioning of condoms in schools as a preventive measure for pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections.
• Service delivery - addressing barriers faced by youth when wanting to access SRHR services.
• Delaying sexual debut - looking at reasons for early sexual debut, consequences, and what can be done to delay sexual debut.
• Parent-child communication - looking at cultural barriers to communicating about sex and how to improve communication.

In order to attract viewers to the show, Action IEHDC embarked on a social media marketing campaign through their Facebook page. In addition, and in response to the concern regarding decreased viewership on the national broadcaster (more and more people are subscribing to privatised satellite channels such as DSTV), the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) agreed to work with Action IEHDC to ensure that advertisements are broadcast on television and radio to raise awareness about the talk show. Billboards have also been placed at strategic points across Zimbabwe to advertise the show.

In response to the limited viewership on the local television station, as well as rolling electricity blackouts during broadcasting times, Action IEHDC distributed 1248 DVDs which were packaged into 96 sets with 13 episodes each. The DVDs could then be played in health centres and/or youth friendly centres, waiting rooms or young people’s community clubs.

As social media is widely used in Zimbabwe and is considered a trusted source of information, Action IEHDC also used the following social media to engage audiences around the topics being discussed in the talkshow: Google+, YouTube, a blog, their website, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp platforms. The blog and Google+ were found to not be very successful in engaging audiences, but YouTube, Twitter (@ActionIEHDC) and Facebook were used a lot.

According to Action IEHDC, the use of various social media platforms helped the organisation to reach out to a broad range of social media users. It also allowed the project to reach people who did not have access to ZBC TV or the multimedia materials, and who relied on the social media updates to find out about issues raised during the various talk show discussions.

More information about the TV programme and other aspects of the campaign can be accessed on the Wize Up TV Show Facebook page.

Youth, Reproductive Health, HIV/AIDS

According to an evaluation of the show, "the Wize up TV talk show was generally well received by young people, parents and other stakeholders concerned with SRHR. The programme was seen as addressing real life issues faced by the young people regarding sexuality and growing up. The target audience also indicated that they expected the talk show to continue beyond 13 episodes and so it became clear that there is a need to go into season 2 of the talk show. The involvement of youthful presenters and the attendance of both young and older guests, drawn from a wide range of organisations, on the show were considered as having contributed immensely to the success of the show."