Makgabaneng is a serial radio soap drama that addresses critical HIV/AIDS awareness and behavior change issues in Botswana. Based on the MARCH strategy (Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS), this drama aims to help change risky behaviors associated with HIV/AIDS through modeling and reinforcement. Specifically, Makgabaneng aims to provide listeners with higher levels of HIV knowledge that will lead towards prevention and less stigmatizing attitudes towards those affected by HIV/AIDS. This study serves as an audience reception analysis of Makgabaneng. Through triangulation methodologies, a better understanding is gained of how citizens of Botswana interpret and make sense of the edutainment series. A survey evaluation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and participant observations contribute to the final conclusions of this study. Accordingly, this audience reception study provides a deeper understanding of how listeners of Makgabaneng construct themselves and their environment through the edutainment media.
Results from this analysis demonstrate some areas where the program could improve. Fans believe that the drama is targeted towards youth, excluding Makgabaneng's actual target audience of individuals' aged 10-49 years; participants expressed sentiments of tuning out any message that centers on HIV/AIDS due to message fatigue; the absence of church and religion proved troublesome to many; fidelity and the risks of multiple concurrent partnerships are talked about in the drama more often than the other five recommended PEPFAR themes. The most empowering messages were targeted towards females only, resulting in male fans only seeing negative behavior as the norm in society; discrepancies also exists between the ways in which traditional and modern fans interpret the same storylines.
However, fans of the program express sentiments of being generally satisfied with the production of the program; they believe the drama is similar to what real-life is like in Botswana; and the most enthusiastic fans of the drama are using storylines to initiate conversations about the storyline in real-life situations. This demonstrates the potential of Makgabaneng as an HIV/AIDS public health development intervention to help facilitate social change.