| Abstract [eng] |
Because of it‘s importance in public life, mass media has incomparable opportunity to inform and educate general population on HIV/AIDS issues and protect from danger to get infected with HIV. Therefore, it is important to find out and assess peculiarities of HIV/AIDS coverage in mass media. This aim was pursued by the following work tasks: to display relations among HIV/AIDS topic, control and prevention; to evaluate the role of mass media in covering this topic; to research the trends of HIV/AIDS coverage in Lithuanian mass media; to analyse and compare advantages and shortcomings of the topic coverage in mass media by means of specialists’ opinion. Work object was HIV/AIDS coverage in mass media. Analysis of scientific printed matters and available research results allow to conclude that HIV/AIDS topic, control and prevention are tightly related as these issues require general integral point of view. Role of mass media and its impact onto prevention of epidemics and reduction of prevalence is obvious, possible potential to perform this role is also well-seen. Quantitative content analysis and quality expert interview used to assess HIV/AIDS coverage in mass media resulted into following conclusions: professional HIV/AIDS coverage in mass media depends on comprehensive complex point of view, and not only on attention and possibilities of the mass media but also on effective cooperation with interested institutions and population groups to affect targeted dissemination of HIV/AIDS information via mass media. Mass media is prone to apply long-term impact effects to influence socialization processes of various population groups, to take part in shaping of public attitudes towards risk groups or risky behaviour in order to assure objectivity and adequacy of those on the background of HIV/AIDS prevention, and to stimulate reappraisal of values of the risk groups. To successfully implement striving for public education on HIV/AIDS, the mass media must not limit itself with the function of information provision but also tackle education, prevention and advocacy functions that are significant for the topic. Advantages and shortcomings of HIV coverage in various countries depend on concrete prevention targets, intensity of mass media interest, and importance of HIV/AIDS problems in certain country. However, regular and targeted public education is more cost-effective in slowing incline of HIV incident cases as the tertiary prevention, which requires significant human and financial resources for treatment of AIDS patients. In Lithuania, as in other countries, information provision is a dominant component of the coverage, less works with educative weightiness could be found. Journalists are more interested in personal experiences of people living with HIV and AIDS, which is not good and not professional, while other HIV/AIDS actualities, significant achievements of prevention are treated as secondary ones. Mass media also is insufficiently involved into creation and distribution of social visual marketing. The latter should be one of the key priorities of preventative actions. Corporate and professionally planed information dissemination is the most effective way to motivate for changing the risky behaviour and for adopting the rules of safer living style, therefore mass media information campaigns, creation of model communication with mass media are of utmost importance and purposeful. This is proved by successful cooperation with the mass media in Lithuania, when timely public education and information, organization of various mass media campaigns allowed maintaining lower level of HIV prevalence as in other Eastern Europe countries. |
