Title

Implications of High-/Low-Context Communication for Target Audience Member Interpretation of Messages in the Nimechill Abstinence Campaign in Nairobi, Kenya

Authors

Authors

J. G. Muraya; A. N. Miller;L. Mjomba

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Health Commun.

Keywords

MASS-MEDIA CAMPAIGNS; MARKETING HEALTH; AIDS-PREVENTION; CULTURE; HIV/AIDS; WORLD; CUES; Communication; Health Policy & Services

Abstract

Although it ran on multiple mass media for the better part of a year, end line evaluation of the Nimechill youth abstinence campaign in Kenya indicated that exposure to the campaign had no relationship to youth decisions to defer sexual debut. One possible explanation of this lack of association could be that target audience members derived inconsistent and confusing meanings from visuals as opposed to text in the campaign. Employing Hall's concept of high- and low-context communication, we assessed target population interpretation of four campaign posters via 12 focus-group discussions and four individual in-depth interviews with Nairobi youth. We found that although participants endorsed and recognized campaign objectives, contextual cues in some campaign visuals were interpreted by participants as being contradictory to the abstinence message in the poster texts. In addition noticeable differences arose between the low-income and middle-/high-income groups in interpretation of one of the posters. We conclude with recommendations regarding use of visuals in high-context cultures and involvement of youth from various socioeconomic strata in campaign planning.

Journal Title

Health Communication

Volume

26

Issue/Number

6

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

516

Last Page

524

WOS Identifier

WOS:000299567800004

ISSN

1041-0236

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