The Role of Media in The Prevention of HIV/AIDS Spread Among University Students in Uganda. A Case Study of Galaxy FM 100.2

This chapter basically or mainly looks at the back ground of the study, research objectives, research questions, and scope of the study and the significance of the study. Obiectives; to examine the role of media in preventing HIV/AIDs, to examine the challenges of media in preventing HIV/AIDs among university students, to examine the solutions which have been made to solve the problems faced by media in preventing HIV/A1Ds among university students. The Literature is mass media campaigns play a central role among a range of interventions which influences behavioral change for the prevention of HIV and other STIs. The use of mass media for instance can be instrumental in promoting condom use as a way of preventing STIs, including HIV/AIDs. The research used both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the media cove rage The results were 20.17% had one article on HIV/AIDS, 8.96% had two articles. 3.64% had three, while 6.16% had four or more articles. World AIDS Day, recorded the highest number of articles 7.84%. The New Vision had the most cove rage 41.63%, followed by The Monitor 33.9 1% and Radio Uganda accounted for 24.46%. The Summary of findings were HIV/AIDS issues are given little cove rage in the Ugandan media. For Radio Uganda, apart from HIV/AIDS issues that come as news items, t h e re are other programmes that carry these issues. These include Family Life Education, Life Watch, In Conclusion whereas the media have done a commendable job in raising people’s awareness about HIV/AIDS and the rate of infection has dropped relatively, there is still more to be done with respect to effecting behavioural change. Depending on the way the media handle HIV/AIDS issues, the public is likely to perceive it in the same light. In the early stages when HIV/AIDS cases started to be reported in the 1980’s, HIV/AIDS featured prominently on the media agenda. At the close of the 1990’s, H1V / AIDS was no longer a big news. Some considerable cove rage of HIV/AIDS is given on World AIDS Day but elsewhere it is not generally on a consistent basis. The media have a challenge to keep the public constantly reminded of the seriousness of HIV/AIDS.