HIV/AIDS, soap operas and young viewers: exploring the intersection of media effects and reception analysis and its implications for health communication
Keywords:
Health, media, soap operas, cultural studies, cultivation studies, youth and adolescentsAbstract
Using data from twenty focus groups and thirty in-depth interviews, this research analyzed how young viewers related to health messages dealing with hiv/aids and sexuality issues in two commercial Colombian soap operas. Following a variety of theoretical elements that included social learning theory, parasocial interaction, cultivation analysis, and cultural studies this research studied the presence message effects at attitudinal and behavioral levels and active construction of meaning among young viewers. Results showed presence of certain message effects among viewers, but also an ongoing process of negotiation and reinterpretation of meanings. The study suggests that viewers, both alternatively or simultaneously, can negotiate meanings of health issues and report attitudinal and behavioral changes. While this type of interaction with media messages is not new, results call for greater attention to processes of message reception when developing health media campaigns, particularly those supported by entertainment media. These fundings have implications for health communication reserachers and practitioners who often overlook people’s experience of media reception while focusing primarily on the potential existence of message effects.
References
ALLEN, R. (1995). Introduction, in Allen, R. (Ed.) To Be Continued...Soap operas around the world. New York, NY: Routledge, p. 1-26.
ALLEN, R. (1985). Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
ATKIN, C. & BRATIC. E. (1990). Issues and initiatives in communicating health information, in C. Atkin & L. Wallack (Eds.). 1990. Mass Communication and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
ATKIN, C. & WALLACK, L. (Eds.). (1990). Mass Communication and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
BANDURA, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
BARAN, S.J. & DAVIS, D.K. (1995). Mass Communication Theory: Foundations, Ferment, and Future, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
BUERKEL-ROTHFUSS, N. & MAYES, S. (1985). Soap Opera Viewing: The Cultivation Effect, Journal of Communication, 31: 108-115.
CORONADO, S. (1998). Lectura al Azar, El Tiempo, Noviembre 15, p. 4D.
FADUL, A.M. (1993). (Ed.), Serial Fiction in TV: The Latin American Telenovelas, Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.
FREIMUTH, V. (1993). Introduction: The Role of Communication in Health Promotion. Communication Research. 20 (4): 509-516. August.
FREIMUTH, V. Hammond, S.L., Edgar, T. & Monahan, J.L. (1990). Reaching Those at Risk: A Content-Analytic Study of AIDS PSAs, Communication Research, 17(6): 775-791.
FREIMUTH, V. (1992). Theoretical Foundations of AIDS Media Campaigns. In AIDS: A Communication Perspective, (Eds.) T. Edgar, M.A. Fitzpatrick, V.S. Freimuth. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ: 91-110.
GARCÍA-CANCLINI, N. (1990). Culturas Hibridas. Mexico City: Grijalbo.
GARCÍA-CANCLINI, N. (1988). Culture and Power: The State of Research, Media, Culture & Society, vol.10: 467-97.
GARCÍA-CANCLINI, N. (1982). Las Culturas Populares en el Capitalismo [Popular Culture in Capitalism. Mexico: Nueva Imagen.
GERAGHTY, C. (1995). Social issues and realist soaps: A study of British soaps in the 1980s/1990s, in Allen, R. (Ed.) To Be Continued...Soap operas around the world. New York, NY: Routledge, p. 66-80.
GERAGHTY, C. (1991). Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime Time Soaps. London: Polity.
GERBNER, G. (1995). Television, Violence: The Power and the Peril, in G. Dines & J.M. Humez (Eds.) Gender, Race and Class in Media, p. 547-557, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
GERBNER, G., GROSS, L., MORGAN, M., & SIGNORIELLI, N. (1994). Growing Up with Television: The Cultivation Perspective, in J. Bryant & D. Zillmann (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum, 17-41.
GONZALES, J.A. (1988). La Cofradia de las emociones (interminables), Culturas Contemporaneas, v.2: 5-65.
HORNIG, S. (1996). Doing Media Research: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
HORTON, D. & WOHL, R. (1956). Mass Communication and Para-social Interaction, Psychiatry, 19: 215-229.
MCANANY, E. (1993). The Telenovela and Social Change, in A. Fadul (Ed.), Serial Fiction in TV: The Latin American Telenovelas, Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.
MCANANY, E., & LA PASTINA, A. (1994). Telenovela Audiences: A Review and Methodological Critique of Latin American Research, Communication Research, 21: 828-849.
MARTÍN-BARBERO, J. (1993). Communication, Culture and hegemony: From Media to Mediations, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
MARTÍN-BARBERO, J. & MUNOZ, S. (1992). Television y Melodrama, Bogotá: Tercer Mundo Editores.
O’CONNOR, A. (1991). Emergence of Cultural Studies in Latin America, Critical Studies in Mass Communications, 8: 60-73
PHILO, G., MCLAUGHLIN, G. & HENDERSON, L. (1996). Media Content, in G. Philo (Ed.) Media and Mental Distress, London: Addison Wesley.
PHILO, G. (1996). Introduction, in G. Philo (Ed.) Media and Mental Distress, London: Addison Wesley.
PIOTROW, P.T., KINCAID, D.L., RIMON II, J.G. & RINEHART, W. (1997). Health Communication: Lessons from Family Planning and Reproductive Health. Westport, CT: Praeger.
POTTER, J.W. (1997). Antisocial Acts in Reality Programming on Television,»Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 41: 69-89.
POTTER, J.W. (1993). Cultivation Theory and Research: A Conceptual Critique, Human Communication Research, 19(4): 564-601.
RUBIN, A.M. & PERSE, E.M. (1987). Audience activity and soap opera involvement: A uses and effects investigation, Human Communication Research, 14: 246-268.
RUBIN, A,M., PERSE, E.M. & POWELL, R.A. (1985). Loneliness, parasocial interaction, and local television news viewing. Human Communication Research, 12: 155-180.
SCHLESINGER, P. (1993). Introduction, in Communication, Culture and Hegemony: From the Media to Mediations, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
SHEFNER-ROGERS, C., ROGERS, E. & SINGHAL, A. (1996). Parasocial interaction and the television soap operas Simplemente Maria and Oshin: Implications for entertainment-education television soap operas. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Conference, May, Chicago.
SHERRY, J. (1997). Prosocial Soap Operas for Development: A Review of Research and Theory, The Journal of International Communication, 4(2): 75-101.
SIGNORIELLI, N. (1993). Mass Media Images and Impact on Health: A Sourcebook. Greenwood.
SIGNORIELLI, N. (1990). Television and health: Images and impact, C. Atkin & L. Wallack (Eds.). 1990. Mass Communication and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
SINGHAL, A. & ROGERS, E. (1999). Entertainment-Education: A communication Strategy for Social Change. Mahwah, NJ: Larence Earlbaum.
SINGHAL, A., OBREGON, R. & ROGERS, E. (1994). Reconstructing the story of «Simplemente Maria: The most popular telenovela in Latin America of all times, Gazette, v.54: 147-168.
SLUYTER-BELTRAO, M. (1993). Interpreting Brazilian telenovelas, in A. Fadul (Ed.), Serial Fiction in TV: The Latin American Telenovelas, Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.
SMITH, L.J. (1994). A content-analysis of gender differences in children’s advertising, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 38(1): 323-337.
SPENCE, L. (1995). They killed off Marlena, but she ?s on another show now: Fantasy, reality, and pleasure in watching daytime soap operas, in Allen, R. (Ed.) To Be Continued...Soap operas around the world. New York, NY: Routledge, p. 182-198.
TORRES, F.J. (1994). Telenovelas, Television y Comunicacion: El Caso de Mexico. Mexico: Ediciones Coyoacan.
TUFTE, T. (1995). How do telenovelas serve to articulate hybrid cultures in contemporary Brazil? Nordicom Review, 2: 29-35.
TUFTE, T. (1993). Everyday life, women, and telenovelas in Brazil, in A. Fadul (Ed.), Serial Fiction in TV: The Latin American Telenovelas, Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.
University of California, University of North Carolina, University of Texas & University of Wisconsin (1995). National Television Violence Study: 1994-1995. Mediascope.
URIBE, A.B. (1993). La telenovela en la vida familiar cotidiana in Mexico, in A. Fadul (Ed.), Serial Fiction in TV: The Latin American Telenovelas, Sao Paulo: University of Sao Paulo.
WAHL, O.F. (1995). Media Madness: Public Images of Mental Illness. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
WALLACK, L & ATKIN, C. (Eds.) (1990). Mass Communication and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
WALLACK, L. (1990). Mass Media and Health Promotion: Promise, Problem, and Challenge, in Wallack, L & Atkin, C. (Eds.) 1990. Mass Communication and Public Health: Complexities and Conflicts. Newbury Par, CA: Sage.
WILLIAMS, C.T. (1992). It’s Time for my Story: Oral Culture in the Technological Era-Towards a Methodology for Soap Opera Audience Study, in S. Frentz (Ed.) Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Press, p. 69-88.
WINDHAL, S. & SIGNITZER, B.H. (1992). Using Communication Theory: An Introduction to Planned Communication. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
WINDSOR, R., MIDDLESTADT, S.E. & HOLTGRAVE, D. (1994). Behavioral Science Theory, in Handbook for HIV Prevention Community Planning, p. A1-A7. Washington, DC: Academy for Educational Development.
YODER, P.S. HORNIK, R. & CHIRWA, B.C. (1996). Evaluating the Program Effects of a Radio Drama About AIDS in Zambia. Studies in Family Planning. 27: 188-203.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Research & Development provides free access to its content to those who register on the website under the principle that making research freely available to the public supports greater global knowledge sharing.
It runs under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 License.
Neither the submission nor the processing of the articles implies costs for the authors or the institutions of which they are part.
