Fighting HIV/AIDS with Edutainment: "An Exploratory Study of the Use of Edutainment by the MTV Shuga Campaign" [Kennesaw State University]

Abstract

Communication strategies have an integral role in society and have been used as tools by health, political and media campaigns. Since the development of these strategies the growing concept of edutainment has emerged and has obtained wide spread use (Tufte, 2002). Yet, since its new popularity most research have focused on traditional strategies for communications in regard to behavioral change. To fully understand the edutainment strategy, we must therefore understand the use and the effects. This is done by evaluating the MTV Shuga Campaign in South Africa through a comprehensive content analysis. The MTV Shuga campaign addresses the issue of HIV/AIDS and safe sex habits with the use of edutainment. With the significant number of people with HIV/AIDS in present society, the importance of prevention programs and campaigns such as MTV Shuga cannot be overemphasized. This study analyzes the effectiveness of edutainment in the MTV Shuga Campaign. It further sheds light on theories of behavioral change such as the social cognition learning theory.