Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


bgsu1250358866.pdf (1.24 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Examining the Meaning-Making of Hiv/Aids Media Campaign Messages: A Feminist Ethnography in Ghana

Dako-Gyeke, Phyllis
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1250358866

Abstract Details

2009, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Communication Studies.
This dissertation is an ethnographic study that theorizes the processes and mechanisms through which HIV/AIDS meanings originate in the Ghanaian setting. Whereas AIDS media discourses exemplify dominant representations, I argue that there are other meanings co-constructed by various members of a society. To support this assertion, I provide a fresh focus for mapping how particular individuals in the society symbolically structure their own HIV/AIDS meanings. I do this by applying postcolonial theories and feminist methodologies. I examine how dominant HIV/AIDS communication messages are received within everyday contexts. I used HIV/AIDS communication materials developed and circulated in Ghana for the past nine years. I used 26 communication materials including posters, television, and radio commercials. These communication materials are a part of two-phase HIV/AIDS National Strategic Framework implemented in Ghana. I engaged different qualitative inquiry approaches such as interviewing, participant observation, direct observation, as well as document review. A total of 39 participants living in the city of Accra were involved in this study. I used this study to demonstrate that, in the Ghanaian postcolonial context, HIV/AIDS campaign messages interact with particular beliefs and past experiences to become ideas in everyday practices. I also conclude that disciplinary measures such as abstinence, faithfulness, and condom use, that individuals subject themselves to, are enabled by a web of discourses contained in HIV/AIDS media campaign messages. Also, considering unique colonial experiences and development practices that inform participants understanding of AIDS, I conclude that meaning-making is context specific. Therefore, it is important for HIV/AIDS communication practitioners to acknowledge specific struggles, experiences, and stories that alternative disease interpretations in a particular context suggest.
Radhika Gajjala, PhD (Committee Chair)
Ewart Skinner, PhD (Committee Member)
Lynda Dixon, PhD (Committee Member)
Michael Butterworth, PhD (Committee Member)
Jane Rosser, PhD (Committee Member)
158 p.
Communication
HIV/AIDS; Media Campaign Mesasges; Ghana; Postcolonial Theory; Feminist Ethnography; Disease

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Dako-Gyeke, P. (2009). Examining the Meaning-Making of Hiv/Aids Media Campaign Messages: A Feminist Ethnography in Ghana [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1250358866

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Dako-Gyeke, Phyllis. Examining the Meaning-Making of Hiv/Aids Media Campaign Messages: A Feminist Ethnography in Ghana. 2009. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1250358866.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Dako-Gyeke, Phyllis. "Examining the Meaning-Making of Hiv/Aids Media Campaign Messages: A Feminist Ethnography in Ghana." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1250358866

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1250358866
2,069
© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.