HIV/AIDS, Media Prevention Programs and

Since HIV/AIDS was first recognized as a public health problem, a variety of approaches have been used to inform the public about HIV risk and prevention. Recognizing that the mass media are integral components of prevention programs, educators, health practitioners, media researchers, and others have recommended the use of media-based prevention efforts. In response to such recommendations, media campaigns have been developed, and local communities have often been saturated with HIV/AIDS prevention messages. Children and adolescents need HIV/AIDS prevention messages that are developed specifically for them, and media-based projects have attempted to fill this need by providing age-appropriate HIV/AIDS information.

One of the first media-based HIV prevention campaigns, America Responds to AIDS, was developed under the auspices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The foundation of this campaign was a series of televised public service announcements (PSAs) that promoted healthy sexual behavior and awareness about HIV/AIDS.

After linking health communication to HIV/AIDS prevention, health practitioners soon realized that prevention efforts needed to be culturally and developmentally specific. Thus, prevention programs have been geared toward specific cultural and developmental groups, including children and adolescents.

One might wonder about the need for HIV prevention programs directed toward these groups, as children and adolescents generally represent fewer than 2% of the documented cases of HIV/AIDS. However, the need for HIV/AIDS preventative information targeted to these groups is evidenced in research showing that (a) the electronic media are a source of AIDS information; (b) elementary school children have reported on the AIDS Survey for Kids that they believe they are at risk of contracting AIDS; (c) adolescents, in particular, are at high risk for contracting HIV infection in that approximately half of a nationally representative sample of high school students reported having engaged in sexual intercourse, and nearly 7% had initiated sexual intercourse before age 13 (CDC, 2002); and (d) many do not use condoms for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS.

In response to this need, a number of media-based HIV/AIDS interventions have been developed that are geared specifically to children and adolescents. A decade ago, in 1996, Snyder identified more than 80 studies of such interventions.

HIV/AIDS posters in the late 1980s and early 1990s often used photographic images to target specific racial and ethnic groups and to dispel myths about at-risk populations. This poster from the AIDS Prevention Program of the Michigan Department of Public Health, with its picture of an attentive child, was part of a campaign suggesting to parents that they have a responsibility to educate their children about HIV/AIDS.

[Page 386]Although video is the most commonly used format, these interventions have used a variety of channels, including pamphlets, video games, documentaries, Internet websites, TV shows, film, popular music, radio, posters, comic books, and rap music. Featuring messages about condom use, safer sex, and abstinence, in language that young people understand, the interventions attempt to

• Increase awareness of the importance of preventing HIV infection
• Increase the use of condoms and reduce unprotected sex
• Increase the perceived personal vulnerability to contracting HIV infection
• Increase awareness of how to get tested for HIV/AIDS

Many local, regional, and national organizations have been involved in HIV/AIDS prevention. As an example, CDC has continued its initial involvement in HIV/AIDS prevention with several media-based projects, including (a) Respect Yourself, Protect Yourself, which is targeted toward people 18 to 25 years old and features a series of radio and television spots showing young people discussing and modeling protective sexual behavior; (b) Street Smart, a skills-building program designed to reduce HIV risk among runaway and homeless youths, which uses media developed by the participants themselves; and (c) PROMISE (Peers Reaching Out and Modeling Intervention Strategies for HIV/AIDS Risk Reduction in their Community), which is a community-level HIV prevention intervention that relies on role-model stories and peers from the community. The CDC also sponsors a hotline that offers referrals and resources on HIV/AIDS—the National Prevention Information Network (NPIN).

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