An Exploratory Analysis of Communication Sources

Abstract

Currently, most AIDS education and prevention programs attempt to change the high risk behavior of injection drug users (IDU's) (e.g., sharing needles and engaging in unsafe sex) through the implementation of two distinct strategies. First, empirical-rational strategies suggest that people maximize their rational self-interest. Second, normative re-education strategies suggest that people change their individual behavior when they believe that there has been change in sociocultural norms, values, and habits around them. Both of these strategies make assumptions about how communication changes IDU's beliefs and behavior. An empirical-rational strategy emphasizes non-personal mass communications (e.g., television, radio, newspaper); while normative re-educative strategies make use of personal communications (e.g., friends, family, educational outreach workers, and group discussion). The purpose of this paper is to compare these strategies by examining the impact of AIDS communication sources on the beliefs and behavior of IDU's.