New Media, We Are Convinced… Now How Do We Start?

By Jennifer Medina

Myspace. Facebook. Twitter. YouTube. Just how does an agency fold these websites into their overall HIV prevention/education marketing plan? How does an agency make content that will attract their target population, while also educating and empowering them? These are just some of the questions faced when an agency decides to start to phase in new media into their outreach plan.

The silver lining is that many companies/organizations have already adopted new media as part of their HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns and these examples can help to frame an agency’s understanding of exactly how to do it. Mind you I say frame, not copy!! By understanding what has already been developed and implemented, an agency can work on not reinventing the virtual wheel.

One corporate example of pushing new media to new heights is MTV’s social networking community, ThinkMTV, www.think.mtv.com. Launched in September 2007, MTV is working to educate its’ build-in audience around such issues from voting to HIV/AIDS. Using their vast audience, ThinkMTV is using a multi-platform approach to educate young people around issues that matter to them. The website allows for youth generated content (in the form of vlogs, blogs, videos, and much more) to coexist alongside primary source material, providing a comprehensive understanding of an issue from many different points of view; all on one website!!

An international example of true incorporation of new media into HIV/AIDS prevention education is the “Condom, Condom!” cell phone ringtone (www.condomcondom.org) launched in four phases by the BBC World Service Trust, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This organization’s understanding of how cell phones are used by their target population allowed them to develop a prevention/education campaign that used in the best way possible one of the most portable vehicles of new media, the cell phone.

Now that we have looked at national and international examples of new media prevention/education integration, local examples are next. Make sure to tune in next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel….

How Connected Is Your Agency?

The internet has transformed our lives. It has allowed us to do research in minutes, send information and pictures in seconds, and connect with people across the globe in real time. Access and utilization of the World Wide Web has allowed for ideas and theories to cross physical miles and become part of a virtual network for which there is no sense of spatial or time limitations. First seen as a place for techies and information gathering, the internet has evolved into a “place” where social and behavioral change can occur.

While integration of the internet and new media (think text messaging, blogging, vlogging) into our personal lives has completely occurred, those of us in the AIDS service field have not always used it to its’ full advantage in our professional lives. Yes, I know that there are barriers: our employer does not allow access to the internet while at work, our office computers might have the slowest internet connection on earth, providing direct services does not allow us to integrate the internet into our professional lives, etc, etc.

I know these barriers because I have lived them, but, let me tell you that once you have the professional opportunity to integrate the internet and new media for client recruitment, outreach, feedback, and evaluation, you will never look back. New media is the vehicle through which the world is now communicating and is one of the major avenues through which social change is occurring.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, may not sound like obvious places to conduct HIV/AIDS prevention education, but they are places where hundreds of thousands of people congregate on a daily basis; what better audience to have? These four entities are much more than just websites; they are the vehicles through which the world is now communicating and modes of social change. Take a chance; set up a case management blog, twitter your daily prevention education activities, promote an HIV/AIDS 101 workshop on Facebook, you might be very surprised by the feedback you receive.