Ukhozi FM: Talking about HIV/AIDS in the Weekday Entertainment-Education Radio Drama Series

Abstract

"In today's highly commercialised environment, the raison d'etre of a public broadcaster should be the prioritisation of good programming rather than numbers and this responsibility is rooted in the need to enlighten the public and of the broadcast medium being a public space in which social and political life unfolds democratically (Raboy, 1996:6) The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is South Africa's public broadcaster with a network of nineteen radio stations under its ambit. These stations have a collective listenership of 20,834 million (SABC website) within a national population of over 40.58 million (Statistics South Africa website).

UKHOZI FM, as part of this network and with a similar social responsibility mandate, commands a listenership of around 4,6 million listeners making it the largest radio station in the southern hemisphere (UKHOZI FM website). The station's main broadcast area, KwaZulu-Natal, is the most densely populated province in the country with 8,4 million people who are predominantly Zulu speakers and Zulu is the broadcast language of the station. Based on the above, a communication intervention targeting a mass audience, would reach a large part of the country's populace, especially in KwaZulu-Natal. Although there has been no significant rise in the incidence of HIV since 1998 in South Africa, the point prevalence rates for HIV infection place KwaZulu-Natal at the top of the list with 36.2% compared to other provinces (HIV & Syphilis Survey, 2000).

Further revelations indicate unexpected patterns of distribution of HIV by age which ultimately call for prevention efforts to be sustained beyond the youth category, which has constituted most of the target population of such actions so far (HIV & Syphilis Survey, 2000). The question then arises whether UKHOZI FM, as the major radio station in the province, has played its part in educating and conscientising KwaZulu-Natal's population about HIV/AIDS prevention and management through its weekday entertainment-education social drama serial."