Media Performance in the Coverage of HIV/AIDS

The study investigates public assessment of media performance in the coverage of HIV/AIDS in four regions of Cameroon. It made use of a probability sample of 382 respondents from four towns within four regions of Cameroon including, Bamenda, Buea, Yaoundé and Douala actually distributed in a rank order of prevalence of HIV/AIDS. 400 questionnaires were sent to the field giving a response rate of 95.5%. Findings reveal that the media provides sufficient information about HIV/AIDS to the Cameroon public though limited in quality. Also, the study concludes that there is an overall significant relationship between media coverage of HIV/AIDS and behaviour. However, some behaviour like the use of condom, care for HIV/AIDS patients and embarking on voluntary testing did not show this significant relationship. Notwithstanding, television was rated as the most reliable and most performed medium for information about HIV/AIDS. Spearman's Rank Difference Correlation also showed that there exist a strong positive relationship between source performance and the public dependence on the source for HIV/AIDS information.

Autorentext

Nengieh Lizzie Wantchami is a doctoral student in Educational Foundation and Administration in the University of Buea, Cameroon. She received her Undergraduate Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication and Masters Degree in Journalism from the University of Buea. She was closely supervised by Prof. Enoh Tanjong in the production of this work.