Have Your Say: The AIDS Debate - Global
BBC News has launched a season of its interactive online programme Have Your Say called The AIDS Debate. This project, which involves inviting submissions of photographs, comments, and questions from citizens worldwide via email and online, is designed to provide a forum for discussion of the issues and exploration of the facts surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Communication Strategies
The Internet is the primary mode through which BBC News fosters the exchange of experiences, perspectives, and queries related to AIDS. On the AIDS-specific Have Your Say page, visitors are invited to question world figures and tell their story. While the page provides facts and information about HIV/AIDS, its focus is on exchange. Various question points and "assignments" are put to visitors to engage them in interaction with each other and with specific leaders in the fight against AIDS. Comments, stories, and photographs are then featured on this site.
For example, on November 16 2003, a 2-hour programme will be broadcast live on the BBC website, BBC World Service Radio, and BBC World TV. In this particular episode, citizens may ask Peter Piot of UNAIDS and Carol Bellamy of UNICEF questions such as: Are the UN agencies doing enough in my country? What more could they do? Has the UN pushed world leaders hard enough? Visitors to the Have Your Say site may email questions or experiences to these guests, or may participate (live) in a "global phone-in". The following weekend, actress Emma Thompson will answer questions such as: Do governments listen to film stars? How does she think the world should tackle the AIDS crisis? Have her visits to Africa changed her perspective? And, as part of "Ask the head of the global AIDS fund", citizens may ask Richard Feachem about issues related to finances and AIDS. (Dr. Feachem is delivering the keynote address at the BBC World Service Trust HIV conference on November 24 2003. He will respond to citizens' questions at the event; answers will appear on the webpage and on the BBC World Service).
Other questions and quizzes on the site are designed to invite reflection and debate among citizens. One such topic, which will be the subject of an upcoming Africa Live broadcast, focusses on this question: Is AIDS killing intimacy? Various comments from citizens around the world are posted. One such comment, from Liza Tong of the UK, reads, "More should be done to promote the femidom, enabling women to negotiate for safer sex." A online condom quiz is offered in conjunction with this topic.
Seeking out and sharing stories from those directly impacted by AIDS - in the form of words or visual images - is another strategy for giving AIDS a "human face". As part of the "Photo assignment" section, citizens are asked to send photo essays that tell stories about what it's like to live with HIV. Those who are HIV-positive or have AIDS, care workers, or people who have lost a relative or friend to the disease are among those who may participate. Guidelines are available on the site. BBC will publish the best photo essays on BBC News Online in anticipation of World AIDS Day on December 1 (deadline: November 20 2003). In another section, people living with HIV from around the world to describe how AIDS has affected them and their communities. Guiding questions include: Are you one of the faces behind the HIV statistics? What have you lost - what have you gained? What concerns you most?
For example, on November 16 2003, a 2-hour programme will be broadcast live on the BBC website, BBC World Service Radio, and BBC World TV. In this particular episode, citizens may ask Peter Piot of UNAIDS and Carol Bellamy of UNICEF questions such as: Are the UN agencies doing enough in my country? What more could they do? Has the UN pushed world leaders hard enough? Visitors to the Have Your Say site may email questions or experiences to these guests, or may participate (live) in a "global phone-in". The following weekend, actress Emma Thompson will answer questions such as: Do governments listen to film stars? How does she think the world should tackle the AIDS crisis? Have her visits to Africa changed her perspective? And, as part of "Ask the head of the global AIDS fund", citizens may ask Richard Feachem about issues related to finances and AIDS. (Dr. Feachem is delivering the keynote address at the BBC World Service Trust HIV conference on November 24 2003. He will respond to citizens' questions at the event; answers will appear on the webpage and on the BBC World Service).
Other questions and quizzes on the site are designed to invite reflection and debate among citizens. One such topic, which will be the subject of an upcoming Africa Live broadcast, focusses on this question: Is AIDS killing intimacy? Various comments from citizens around the world are posted. One such comment, from Liza Tong of the UK, reads, "More should be done to promote the femidom, enabling women to negotiate for safer sex." A online condom quiz is offered in conjunction with this topic.
Seeking out and sharing stories from those directly impacted by AIDS - in the form of words or visual images - is another strategy for giving AIDS a "human face". As part of the "Photo assignment" section, citizens are asked to send photo essays that tell stories about what it's like to live with HIV. Those who are HIV-positive or have AIDS, care workers, or people who have lost a relative or friend to the disease are among those who may participate. Guidelines are available on the site. BBC will publish the best photo essays on BBC News Online in anticipation of World AIDS Day on December 1 (deadline: November 20 2003). In another section, people living with HIV from around the world to describe how AIDS has affected them and their communities. Guiding questions include: Are you one of the faces behind the HIV statistics? What have you lost - what have you gained? What concerns you most?
Development Issues
HIV/AIDS.
Key Points
BBC notes that a total of 42 million people around the world are living with HIV - more than the population of Spain. More than two-thirds of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa, where in the hardest-hit countries 1 in 3 adults have the virus. 14,000 people are infected every day worldwide.
Comments
Hiv/aids is a disease that the majority youth population need factual proof to believe that it is a real pandemic that is existing to destroy the human race especially here in AFRICA where the outstanding pupolation is illitrate.My question is how do organisations involved in the eradication of this deadly virus include people living with the Hiv/aids virus in their education programs?
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