Ask not what you can do for media; ask what media can do for you!

Who has never found themselves parked on the couch, channel surfing, looking for something, anything to watch on television? Now picture a public education campaign (or public service announcement) for your agency’s HIV testing event flashes across the screen. Happily you can now settle into a program knowing that other channel surfers in your neighborhood have been educated about HIV and might take the opportunity to come to your agency’s event. This scene is not a fantasy, it is the main objective of Cable Positive’s Tony Cox Community Fund grant; what is different about TCCF is that is not a grant just to support an ASO’s programs, it is to encourage ASOs to use the media as a resource and to fund an ASO’s campaign, with the long term goal to help form a relationship between that ASO and their local cable network.

According to the Global Media AIDS Initiative, 72% of Americans identify television, radio, and newspapers as their primary source of information about HIV/AIDS; surpassing doctors, family, and friends as primary sources of information. Media organizations have an enormous sphere of influence on all demographics, defining what people wear, what they say, and even, what types of food they eat. Media frames products and ideas and allows them to enter our lives through mainstream points of entrance, i.e., our radios, televisions, computers, cell phones, iPods, etc.

Media’s role in HIV/AIDS prevention is vital; media allows for easy access to the homes of millions of people around the world. It allows for extremely pertinent information to be flow through trust worthy channels and be viable and accessible over an extended period of time. Media can, and has been used, to combat HIV/AIDS denial, stigma, discrimination, and apathy across all socioeconomic levels and can bring messages of tolerance and awareness through a medium that is available and accessible to most of the population. By working hand in hand with the media, ASOs can assure themselves that their HIV prevention message will reach as many of their target population as possible, while also serving to educate the general population at the same time; which is a win/win situation. Whether it is an HIV education podcast, radio commercial, or PSA, ASOs must continue to recognize the value of cable network partnerships and not be afraid to jump into these relationships feet first.