Term Paper on "Communication Program for Aids"

Term Paper 15 pages (4898 words) Sources: 15

[EXCERPT] . . . .

With the changing technology by the day, the younger generation is increasingly getting absorbed into this new culture. With information shared globally through the social networks at the press of a button, these young adults have all the information at their fingertips. The innovation of the mobile phone made things even much easier. Being young and curious about the changes in their bodies, the teenagers will seek any information regarding their sexuality. Most of the times the information available on the internet is a total contradiction of the traditional values and practices; as a matter of fact, this leads to conflict of interest between the older generation and the younger generation. From schooling, employment and sexual and reproductive choices, the decision making would experience a lot of defiance. Through their adolescent stage, boys and girls are usually at a very critical stage whereby the environment they are exposed to determines a lot about their behavior. It could either affect them positively or negatively.

Ensuring that the environment the adolescents are exposed to is accommodating will be a better way of influencing their character than feeding them a lot of knowledge. The other way would be to establish protective measures such as making school mandatory for the adolescents and making sure that they are safe. In order not to feel like caged birds, the school system should incorporate their aspirations and needs and work towards meeting them. (World Health Organization, 2011).

BCC adoption of Diffusion of Innovations model

Rodgers defined diffusion as "the process through which an innovation is relayed through certain channels over a given time between members of a social system." From this definition we get to realize that main element of diffusion of innovations are the social system, communication channels, time and innovation.

Innovation

Innovation is further broken down and described as "an idea, project or practice that is seen to be new by an individual or other unit of adoption (Rogers, 2003, p. 12)." Sometimes the innovation might have been discovered years ago, but if the individuals have just realized it then for them it qualifies as an innovation. Most innovations are never adopted due to the barrier known as uncertainty. This can be overcome through detailing all the positivity and negativity of the innovation so that a person is well aware of the consequences that may come about once the innovation is adopted

Communication Channel

Communication is the second element and is thus described as "a process through which information is created and shared by participants to enable them to come to a common understanding." Various channels such as mass media and interpersonal communication are useful in passing across the message. For the mass media, the information is passed to a large number of audiences. Types of mass mediums include radio, TV and Newspaper. The interpersonal communication on the other hand is a two way communication of two or more people. Rodgers then goes ahead and describes diffusion as "a social process that entails a lot of interpersonal communication relationships"(Rogers, 2003, p. 19). What this means is that out of the two communication channels, interpersonal stands to be a better choice when seeking to change or influence people's attitudes.

Time

The time factor is one very important aspect when conducting behavioral research, but unfortunately, it is often left out. Inclusion of the time dimension in the adopter categorization, innovation-diffusion process and rate of adoptions will give them more credit.

Social System

Lastly, the social system is defined as "a number of units that co-relate coming together to solve a mutual problem in order to achieve a common purpose" (p.23).Therefore, the fact that the social system is like the stage where diffusion of innovation takes place, its social structure greatly influences the outcome of the diffusion of innovations.

This theory about the diffusion of innovation is a good principle guideline in the world of technological innovation whereby modification of the innovation will be in such a way that it will be able to cater for the needs of all adopters across all levels. The significance of peer communication and networking among peers is also looked into at great lengths during the adoption process. The diffusion of innovation can simply be described as the process that takes place when individuals take on a new concept, philosophy, product etc.

During the initial stages an idea is never readily adopted by the masses. You will find a very small percentage that would adopt the idea and then with time after they enlighten others who are close to them, the chain grows until more people embrace it. The adoption of the idea by new individuals will steadily rise until it reaches a saturation point. Rodgers then goes ahead to break down the categories of innovation adopters into five distinct groups as follows: the innovators, the early adopters, early minority, early majority and lastly the laggards. Then non-adopters are sometimes listed as the sixth group (Kaminski, 2011).

These five categories can also be explained in relation to the influence of technological advancements on the innovative and adoption process. In this context, the aim would be to restructure the innovation in line with the requirement of the five categories (Kaminski, 2011).

Peer Networks

A peer network is very essential in the diffusion of innovation theory as it serves as the vital mass that is found after being influenced by the early adopters and innovators. The peer network works in such a way that the innovators and early adopters who act as the opinion leaders are change agents who persuade their friends through networking, peer-to-peer communication and role modeling. An example of how this process works is using opinion leaders in social media networking to influence people (Kaminski, 2011).

Listed below are a number of strategies employed to achieve behavior change:

Involving the target audience is the first strategy. In this case, the target audience being the adolescents. They have to be part of each stage of the programming. Whether it is designing and testing adolescent-friendly materials and how to deliver them, identifying their desired services and setting of targets and goals or delivering of the services to their peers and monitoring the progress, they have to be part of the whole process.

Address adolescents in programming for key populations: Implementation of HIV prevention, care and treatment for a number of adolescent populations namely, sex workers and people who inject drugs (PWID) would be an effective way of dealing with the mass killer that is AIDS (Pitorak, Bergmann, Fullem & Duffy, 2013).

Ensure that you clearly define the target population when programming: This is due to the fact that different adolescent stages do not subscribe to the same needs. The intervention measures taken for an 18-year-old would not apply to a 12-year-old. The case becomes even more complicated in the case of intervention for boys and girls (Pitorak, Bergmann, Fullem & Duffy, 2013).

Data should be your source of information regarding the design of the program and its progress. The data collected is very important in setting up program to cater for the needs of the adolescents.

Provision of a comprehensive combination of HIV prevention services is very important for consistency in quality of the information. The information on HIV / AIDS should be provided across the board and not just in schools alone. Condoms should also be issued to adolescents who are sexually active.

The family unit and the society at large should be involved in the process too. As a result, social practices should be pointed out during this time. By involving these groups of individuals, the fight for an AIDS-free generation would be greatly strengthened since the adolescents spent most of their time with or around the community and their families.

Collaborating with willing and interested parties. Joining forces with industries such as the technology industry would help a lot when it comes to passing of health information through various social media forums. It is a sure way of reaching a good number of adolescents who spend a lot of time on these media.

In order to tame the AIDS epidemic, the young people need to take the front row in this fight. They need to be part of the decision making, since it is for the better good of their health. Since they stand to gain a lot from the HIV services, the young people ought to put in their all for the success of these initiatives and processes (Pitorak, Bergmann, Fullem & Duffy, 2013).

Expected outcome

Reduction in resource wastage and improved service delivery and healthcare outcomes are just some of the positives that will come when people get to invest in beneficial initiatives. One of the beneficial initiatives is that of involving the youth to be part of the change in issues that relate to them or… READ MORE

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