| dc.description.abstract | Communicationis a key ingredient of all aspects of human interaction and is carried out
to pass information, exchange ideas or simply to establish a sense of oneness or
commonness between two or more interactants. This study analyses the dominant
discourse on HIV and AIDS in Nyanza Province, Kenya, their underlying assumptions
and the parties involved in their creation and dissemination. The concern with
communicationin reference to discourse on HIV and AIDS discourse arises from the fact
that despite decades of spirited campaigns, HIV and AIDS has attained pandemic
proportions and, in the absence of a cure, effective communication remains a crucial
means of stemming its spread. Given that infection with HIV is a problem with broad
social,cultural, as well as economic implications, there is an urgent need to examine the
communication as well as communication strategies used in the campaign in order to
assess their effectiveness. The study had five objectives: To identify the representations
of HIV and AIDS in discourse in Luo Nyanza, to establish the extent to which the
inhabitants of the region are aware of the modes through which HIV is transmitted, to
describethe response of the inhabitants to the information aimed at stemming the spread
of HIV in the region. Additionally, the study sought to evaluate the role of cultural
beliefs,norms and practices in the spread of HIV in the region and to assess the
treatment of these cultural beliefs, norms and practices in the discourse on HIV and
AIDS. The significance of this study lies in the fact that in the absence of a cure or
vaccine against HIV, effective communication aimed at prevention of infection through
change in sexual behaviour and continual practice of healthy sexual practice is
humanity's only hope.The conceptual framework for the study comprises Discourse
AnalysisFramework, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Communication Theory Paradigm
as well Communication Campaign Theory and Advocacy. The study draws from multiple
sources of data - questionnaires, document collection and content analysis. The
population sample is drawn from three districts of Luo Nyanza - Bondo, Kisumu and
Homa Bay which are representative of the Northern, Central and Southern parts of Luo
Nyanza respectively. Purposive sampling technique was employed in the study to select
respondents who would best help in understanding the problem and research questions.
The findings of the study indicate that the choices made in the language used to
communicate information on HIV and AIDS realize different representations of HIV,
AIDS and PLWHA. In addition, the knowledge displayed by the inhabitants of the Lake
Victoria region on HIV and AIDS is superficial rather than specific, pointing to a need to
be specific about the aspects of behaviour that need changing. | en_US |
