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Using New Media to Make HIV Personal Tina Hoff 1 1 Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, CA Corresponding Author: Suggested Citation: Hoff T; Mishel M; Rowe I. Using New Media to Make HIV Personal: A Partnership of MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Cases in Public Health Communication & Marketing. 2008; 2:190- 197. Available from: www.casesjournal.org/volume2. AbstractIn 2006, the Kaiser Family Foundation teamed up with MTV as part of a decade-plus public information partnership to leverage the growing popularity of "user-generated content" (UGC) to connect more directly - and intimately - with our target audience of young people about the impact of HIV on their generation. The millions of youth who watched the resulting show and companion vlogs (video blogs) produced by their peers heard first-hand how HIV has affected people their age and received information about HIV prevention and testing. BackgroundSince 1997, the Kaiser Family Foundation has partnered with MTV to reach young people in the U.S. about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). At the time it launched, this partnership approach represented a new model for working with popular media to advance important social issues. More than 10 years later, the MTV / Kaiser partnership continues to lead the way in its uses of new media platforms to reach young people where they are today. MTV and Kaiser take a multi-platform approach to getting out information about sexual health issues, including: targeted public service ads (PSAs), special programming, integrated content in existing programming and extensive informational resources delivered on-air, online, on mobile phones and through toll-free hotlines. Wanting to make a more personal connection with their audience on HIV/AIDS, in the spring of 2006 MTV and Kaiser undertook an innovative project to incorporate user-generated content (UGC) into their ongoing public information partnership. It had been 25 years since the first case of HIV was diagnosed and most of MTV's young viewers had never known a time without AIDS. By engaging our target audience - young people between the ages of 15 and 25 - in developing the programming for their peers, we were able to focus on the concerns that were foremost on their minds, and thus more relevant. The project included two complementary components: thinkHIV: This is Me, a halfhour original show produced for air on MTV that was made up entirely of video content provided by viewers and a national contest to find youth "vloggers" (video bloggers) from every state to report about HIV for MTV online. A dedicated website (www. thinkhiv.org) was created to host the contest and for the vloggers to upload their video reports. The components were developed simultaneously and debuted on MTV platforms in August 2006. (The thinkhiv. org website was integrated with the www. think.mtv.com main site in September 2007, which today serves as the primary means of accessing the vlogs.) HIV/AIDS in AmericaMore than a million Americans are estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS today. Although early diagnosis and treatment can help those with HIV to live longer and healthier lives, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in four of those who are infected in the U.S. does not know they are positive.1 A quarter century into the epidemic and despite these staggering statistics, many young Americans do not realize that AIDS continues to be a problem in the U.S. Although the CDC recommends routine HIV screening for all adults in the United States to help reduce new infections and ensure early access to treatment and care,2 fewer than half of Americans report ever having been tested. Among the most frequently named reason is that they do not consider themselves to be "at risk."3 Messaging StrategyAlthough MTV and Kaiser have produced dozens of shows in the years we've worked together, the thinkHIV: This is Me show and companion vlogging contest marked a new approach that leveraged the growing popularity of "user-generated content" (UGC) to foster a more direct connection with young people about HIV. By asking our target audience to tell us - and their peers - what it was like to "live in an age of AIDS," they were part of shaping the message as well as passing it on. Our goal was to encourage viewers to seek more information - about HIV and how it is spread - as well as to promote testing after seeing the show or vlogs. Resources provided as part of the ongoing campaign by MTV and Kaiser included websites (www. itsyoursexlife.org on www.think.mtv.com) and a dedicated toll-free hotline (1 877 777 IYSL) . ProcessTo start, Kaiser staff met with MTV News & Docs producers, Betsy Forhan and Amy Brill, to discuss messaging priorities based on trends in the epidemic and what our surveys of young people indicated were misconceptions or information gaps. While we were looking for young people to share their first-hand experiences and personal observations, we also wanted to be sure the program reflected the current situation in the U.S. and provided accurate information. A call was put out for videos from young people interested in talking to their peers on air about HIV/AIDS and what it means to them. We sought both young people living with HIV/AIDS as well as those affected by the disease. We knew the more young people we put onscreen, the more powerful the message, that HIV affects us all. The team contacted AIDS service organizations across the country, including large national groups, like POZ Magazine and the National Minority AIDS Council, to smaller local community groups, for leads. Responses began coming in within the week. A dedicated web page was created on mtv. com for the project to provide background, submission guidelines and release forms. Through a partnership with iFilm (MTV's video sharing site) young people were able to submit videos directly to the producers. Not wanting to limit stories to only to young people with access to video cameras, MTV loaned out equipment through video cooperatives and also distributed its own digital cameras, which were circulated around the country between April and July, so young people could record their stories. As the footage came in, we faced the difficult task of whittling the submissions into a half-hour show. We received more than 200 hours of video footage from nearly 100 young people across the United States and beyond. Young people shared intimate details from their lives. Jeselle, 23, from Brooklyn, NY, provided an up close look at how her HIVpositive status affects her relationship with her boyfriend, who is HIV-negative and Kalee, 20, from Seattle taped herself getting a red-ribbon tattoo to commemorate 13 years of living with HIV. Some made passionate appeals to their peers to take note that AIDS has not gone away, others simply by capturing their everyday lives showed the reality of life with HIV today. Heather, a nineteen year old living with HIV in Atlanta, perhaps summed it up best when she looked directly into the camera and said: "All I can tell y'all is that I'm no different from anybody else." While we couldn't include every story in its entirety, the producers added a montage featuring every single person who submitted video. The finished product was part testimonial, part memorial. To allow an even wider cross-section of MTV viewers to share their stories, we organized a complementary video blogging contest, Alive @ 25, for young people to compete to be their state's MTV vlogger on HIV. The contest was promoted on-air through television PSAs as well as online at mtv.com. We received more than 700 essays from young people across the nation telling us what they wanted to share with their peers about how AIDS had affected them. The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) came on as a partner in the vlogging contest to help select the state and national winners. ResultsThinkHIV: This is Me debuted on MTV on August 18, 2006, and re-aired three times before the end of that year, drawing an audience of more than 3 million from these four viewings (See Figure 1). The show is available through streaming video on MTV's broadband site (www.mtv.com/overdrive) where it has been downloaded more than 50,000 times. It was screened at the United Nations during the 4th Annual New York AIDS Film Festival on World AIDS Day (December 1st) 2006. ThinkHIV: This is Me has also been distributed to African and Caribbean broadcasters through a special effort to extend reach of HIV content through the Global Media AIDS Initiative.  At commercial breaks, viewers of the show were directed to the campaign's toll-free hotline and website to get more information about HIV/AIDS. In addition targeted public service ads (PSAs) were developed specifically for MTV audiences as part of the wider campaign and received significant air time on the network throughout the year, including occasionally during show airings. These PSAs also directed audiences to the hotline and website. Given the breadth of the MTV and Kaiser relationship it would be impossible to say specifically which follow up was directly a result of the show or vlogs. One measure of impact is data from September 2006, when the show and vlogs debuted. For that month, there were more than 2,800 calls to the hotline and 19,000 visits to the website. Over the year, there were a total of 38,000 calls and 1.3 million visitors. Of the 700 entries, 32 state-level finalists were selected and given digital cameras to produce their online reports from which a national winner was selected, Joyce Joseph of Virginia. Joyce's reporting stood out for its creative combination of interviews, spoken word pieces, and video diary entries to show the increasing impact of AIDS on young black women, like herself. In September 2007, MySpace featured a selection of the vlogs on its home page for one week where they were viewed more than 60,000 times (See Figure 2).  The young people who participated in the show and the contest continue to be a resource we tap to provide a first-hand youth perspective on HIV/AIDS. For example, two of the young women featured in ThinkHIV: This is Me, Marvelyn Brown and Cherrell Edwards, appeared on an episode of Oprah about the impact of HIV on women, and Joyce Joseph has participated in a number of events speaking out about how "new media" may be used to reach her generation about important social issues. The project was recognized with an Emmy Award for Best Broadband project for 2006/07. Post ScriptMTV and Kaiser continue to work together to leverage "new media" in exciting and innovative ways to reach young people with information about HIV and related issues. Some current efforts include: In the spring of 2008, we organized a contest where more than 2000 young people competed to have their lyrics promoting HIV testing performed on MTV channels by top talent (www.aminutecontest.com); A new online game called "Pos or Not," produced with MTVU - the network's channel for college students - challenges stereotypes about who HIV affects by sharing stories of real young people living with or affected by HIV (posornot.com); And, since July 2007, Kaiser has offered an SMS (short message service) resource where MTV viewers can get information about a local testing center sent directly to their mobile phones by texting their zip code to a special short code, "KNOW IT". In four months when service was promoted through PSAs on MTV, we received more than 85,000 requests. ConclusionsThe ThinkHIV: This is Me show and complementary vlogging contest tapped the growing popularity of UGC for an important social issue, HIV/AIDS. The resulting products were compelling and spoke to the challenges around HIV prevention today, including that many of those at risk do not believe HIV can happen to them. By making our audience the producer as well as the consumer of content for our campaigns, we sought to connect with them in more personal ways that help them better understand how HIV affects them - and what they can do about it. Since the show and contest were developed as part of our ongoing partnership, the messages continue to be reinforced across other elements of the campaign. Additionally, we were able to use the products to promote our existing resources - the website and hotline. Copies of ThinkHIV: This is Me may be requested for educational use by contacting: emp@kff.org. The show may also be viewed online at: think.mtv.com/044FDFFFF0098A00700080098E834/User/Blog/BlogPostDetail.aspx For more information about Kaiser's partnership with MTV, visit: www.kff.org/entpartnerships or www.itsyoursexlife.com AcknowledgementsBetsy Forhan and Amy Brill of MTV News & Docs; Chad Boettcher and Tanene Alison, (both formerly) of MTV; and Allison McKenzie, Julia Davis, Jen Kates, Alicia Carbaugh, Liberty Greene and Stephen Massey of the Kaiser Family Foundation. References
Author InformationTina Hoff is the Vice President and Director at Entertainment Media Partnerships and the Director of Public Health Information and Communication for the Media and Public Education Program at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Meredith Mishel is the senior program officer at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Ian Rowe is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships & Public Affairs for MTV: Music Television. |
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