Who would ever think that Sarah Palin could make me think about new media, but she did!! I have to admit that I was riding Kingda Ka at Great Adventure when Sarah Palin appeared on Saturday Night Live and unfortunately, my husband and I do not have DVR. While I was really anticipating what it would be like to see Sarah Palin and Tina Fey on the same stage, I was not worried as I knew that I would find it online after its’ initial airing on Saturday night.
Needless to say, Sunday morning I ran to my computer to look for the SNL clips that I know were already available online. Lo and behold, they were uploaded and ready for viewing and I spent quite some time at the computer (with my mother, father, and sister) laughing at the antics of quite a cast of characters.
What can SNL, Sarah Palin, and Tina Fey possibly have to do with HIV/AIDS education? The answer is everything!! The fact that I missed the initial airing of that Saturday Night Live episode did not mean that I would never see it again or would have to diligently watch the re-run roster for the next year; viewing it was as easy as sitting in front of my computer. This is the true definition of new media, information at your fingertips when you want it, how you want it.
While watching videos on the computer is nothing new, the speed and efficiency with which I can now find any and all types of media content online is new. According to the Associated Press, 10.2 million people watched the season-opening “Saturday Night Live”, an additional 1.2 million people recorded it on their DVRs and the skit was accessed online more than 13 million times. Remember that these are the numbers that NBC can track, while going viral through their company website, NBC has no way to track the number of times that it has been posted or emailed through hundreds of other sites. This is the nature of information in our new media world, once posted online, information has the opportunity to go viral within a few hours.
Now imagine if just a quarter of the people that went online to view the SNL clips went online to obtain HIV/AIDS information? What if they spent time with their family in front of the computer looking at HIV/AIDS related websites, public education campaigns, and various available programming? It is plausible and more than possible for online media to be at the forefront of HIV/AIDS information and to become the newest medium through which individuals and families can sit together and talk about what they are viewing on the screen.
This is the ultimate goal of Cable Positive’s different grant programs, to provide agencies with the funds and insight to translate their promotional and education campaigns onto multi-media platforms. With the correct use of new technology, HIV/AIDS information and education can be readily available through the press of an On-Demand button or the click of a mouse; when HIV/AIDS education goes viral online, it will be something viral that we can all celebrate.
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