Production of HIV/AIDS lessons in the entertainment-education television programme Tsha Tsha and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto-Johannesburg

[摘要] This study aims to examine the production of HIV/AIDS lessons on Tsha TshaEntertainment-Education and their reception by HIV-positive men in Soweto, and to findout whether this response impacts on their perception of their roles and responsibilities inHIV/AIDS. The rationale behind this study is that gender and HIV/AIDS has been criticalin interventions aimed at combating the disease. Studies in South Africa on gender haverevealed that versions of masculinity can be implicated in the increasing infection rates ofHIV/AIDS making efforts to combat the disease problematic. A qualitative methodologyis used. This method included interviews and focus group discussions. Five interviewswere done with programme producers and researchers of Tsha Tsha to find out the majorconsiderations in production. An average of seven HIV-positive men were exposed to 12episodes of Tsha Tsha to find out their responses in six focus group discussions, andwhether these indicated a changed perceptions in their roles and responsibilities inHIV/AIDS. Their responses were then examined under Bandura’s (1971) social learningtheory and Hall’s (1977) encoding-decoding theory .This theories explain theconsiderations in the production of lessons in Tsha Tsha and how audiences respond tothose lessons respectively. The findings reveal that audiences (HIV-positive) menidentify with lessons around HIV-testing, disclosure, support and those that challengestigma and masculinity in HIV/AIDS. Disclosure emerges as a major theme and iscompared with sub themes of testing, stigma, masculinity and social support to formcategories that are presented as the findings. While HIV-disclosure is seen as challengingHIV/AIDS stigma and masculinity, where men accept their condition, and takeresponsibility to continue occupying their space as men, E-E production can reinforcelessons around disclosure and other coping strategies to combat HIV/AIDS.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand