Using TV IN HIV/AIDS Eddcation: Production & Audience Cultures

Abstract

This article examines recent calls for a wider and more sustained use of television in the field of HIV/AIDS education. Drawing attention 10 the different theoretical emphases underlying this debate, the article argues that a synthesis of production, text and audience analysis is needed in the field of AIDS education and public health. It points out that for health workers to successfully use television, they must first understand its cultures of production, and the professional television routines and values which 'transform' and 'transcode' their HIV/AIDS messages. The article examines the organisational, economic and narrative contexts of one television production, A Country Practice which carried a needle-sharing story, pointing to the audio-visual and narrative transformations which this health message encountered. The article then reports on a large audience study which used three versions of the same A Country Practice episode, 'Sophie' to examine, by class and gender: 'before' and 'after' screening responses to its health messages; comparisons of responses to different versions of the soap opera (with and without 'balancing' stories); and, generic comparisons between responses to the soap opera and the 1990 government HIV/AIDS television ads. The article concludes that two out of the three overt messages carried by A Country Practice can be regarded as having successful impact, and that narratives which 'drive on' can have more impact than more multi-layered soap narratives. But it also questions the concept of impact, and notes that if we ask what social meanings the audience groups got from the different versions of the soap opera and the government ads, we may reach different conclusions. Finally, it points to the complexity of audience analysis and argues that the relationship of 'effective impact' and 'cultural meanings' needs 10 be understood further before we can better understand the effect of television in conveying health messages.