HIV/AIDS campaigns as signifying processes: Group dynamics, meaning-formation and sexual practice

Abstract

This chapter examines university students’ interpretations of the notions of ‘absti- nence’ and ‘be faithful’, based on a reception study conducted to explore students’ responses to ABC and VCT campaigns at three universities in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Using Reception Theories and Hermeneutics, the study examined the structures and processes through which university students make sense of the ABC and VCT campaign messages and the impact of these campaigns on students’ sexual practices. Empirical evidence from the study suggests that the nature of cognitive influence and social action that behaviour change communica- tion messages generate amongst the audience-publics, ultimately depends on how the meanings interpreted from the messages articulate with the situated discourses that led to the formation of those meanings.