"Soap operas as a platform for disseminating health information regarding ART and the use of 'reel' versus 'real' role models"

• Main Author: Deiner, Catherine Anne
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Rhodes University 2015
• Subjects: Isidingo (Television program); Television soap operas > South Africa; Health in mass media; Mass media in health education > South Africa; Antiretroviral agents > South Africa; Public health > Moral and ethical aspects; HIV-positive women > South Africa > Grahamstown
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1017783

The media, through development communication and edutainment, plays a critical role in the transformation of societies. In line with this, this thesis discusses the extent to which commercially driven prosocial soap operas can provide a platform for public health messaging, in the context of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa, for antiretroviral treatment (ART) and for encouraging ART adherence to foster national development. Furthermore, this thesis examined the potential of celebrities as HIV/AIDS ambassadors and the potential of both fictional characters and ‘real-life’ celebrities to disseminate these health messages. Although the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is stabilising, this is not the time to relax the communication around the disease, particularly regarding adherence to ARVs, considering that South Africa has the largest ARV rollout in the world. The qualitative methodological approach taken for this thesis is a three-step approach examining the intended message, the text and the appropriated message by viewers. Firstly, a thematic content analysis of an episode of Isidingo, that illustrated Nandipha as HIV-positive and the side-effects that came with her ART adherence, and the 3Talk interview with Lesego Motsepe, where she announced that she was weaning herself off ART, was done in order to understand the intended health messaging in the soap opera and the health message disseminated by an HIV-positive actress with regards to ART. Thereafter interview responses by the production team as well as by HIV-positive viewers, using ARVs, were thematised. In addition media texts which provided commentary on the use of a celebrity as a HIV-positive role model were examined. In doing this, this thesis has offered up the meanings of how HIV-positive women taking ARVs and living in Makana experience and understand the media, particularly health messaging relating to ARVs. The findings of this study suggest that commercial soap operas are the perfect platform to address HIV/AIDS and that prosocial health messaging regarding ARV adherence is still necessary in this country. Soap operas have the potential to have an educational angle. Although, HIV-positive individuals serve as better role models as they are authentic; given human nature, fictional characters, such as Nandipha Matabane in Isidingo, may be more sustainable role models as their message can be scientifically-based and well-researched. Realistic characters serve as role models whose behaviour is to be emulated. Soap operas appeal to a wide audience and so storylines can be tailor-made according to the times and the needs in terms of health issues and messaging. Thus, soap operas are not a single platform but rather one which can be exploited to maximum advantage for public health messaging.