Department of Literature, Communication and Publishing

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AIDS Communication through Billboards and Murals in Tanzania
(2014) Mutembei, Aldin K.
One of the incontrovertible marks for Tanzania’s open door policy is the huge billboards along major roads and highways; and murals (or graffiti) on fences or walls of large buildings. This is relatively a new way of communication in a country that once pursued Ujamaa policies. Promoters of public health and particularly HIV/AIDS awareness campaign have turned to use billboards as one of the ways to communicate responsiveness messages to different communities. Artists similarly, have created a space for their murals to share their messages about the AIDS scourge. As this kind of communication uses artistic language and creativity, it attracts a curious literary critic into rethinking the meaning and boundaries of literature and its role in society. The paper attempts to examine what kind of HIV/AIDS messages is being communicated. What impact does such communication has to people, and how in turn the people respond to such adverts? Using a modified Awareness, Attitude and Behaviour Model (AAB model) adapted from the Earle and Phillips report on billboard survey (2002), the paper seeks to understand the feelings, perception, attitudes and behaviour of individuals as they respond to the adverts on erected billboards or murals and how individuals connect to the figurative language that those billboards and murals beam out.