HIV/AIDS Communication

HIV/AIDS has had tremendous impact on the world's populations especially, people living in Sub Sahara Africa. Efforts to curtail the diseases' spread have focused on preventive rather than curative strategies. However, recent reports indicate that infection rates continue to rise worldwide, especially among women. Social observers have attributed women's vulnerability to the disease, to various social, economic, and cultural factors. In response to these observations, various projects have been put in place to help address gender discourses in HIV/AIDS infection. However, an examination of these projects reveal that little or no attention is paid to gender discourse in health communication content. This book examines gender and communal cultural values in health communication messages, with specific emphasis on televised messages aimed at women. The study applies social identity and cultural relevancy values to already existing televised HIV/AIDS messages and the messages' effects on women were measured using identity salience, credibility of message presenter, acceptance and recall variables. Seventy Ghanaian women between the ages of 20 and 56 took part in the study.