ASSESSING REFUGEE COMMUNICATIVE ECOLOGY to CRITIQUE and GUIDE
HEALTH COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGNS on HIV PREVENTION
Nakia Ma'hias-‐Tshikuna Doctoral Candidate
Ohio University Media Arts and Studies Program Scripps College of CommunicaBon IAMCR 2014 Hyderabad, India
§ STUDY CONTEXTS & PARTICIPANTS § RESEARCH QUESTIONS § THEORETICAL GUIDES § METHODS: SAMPLING, DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
§ EMERGENT THEMES § CONCLUSIVE REMARKS
OVERVIEW
§ Namibia’s award winning Break the Chain SBCC Campaign to address MCP as a driver of HIV
§ Exclusion or neglect of refugee populaRons as audiences for messages & programs
§ Research shows overlap of HIV risk factors & vulnerabiliRes for target audiences & refugee populaRons § Mobility for survival/ by choice § resource scarcity § cultural & gender based norms § sexual behaviors
STUDY CONTEXT & PARTICIPANTS
§ 10 week snapshot ethnography in Namibia in 3 seZngs:
§ Windhoek § Otjiwarongo § 28 days in Osire refugee camp
47 ParRcipants:
§ Male refugees 18 to 54 years
§ NaRonaliRes: Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, CAR, DRC, Kenya & Ethiopia
§ Languages: French, Kiswahili, Portuguese, English, Lingala
STUDY CONTEXT & PARTICIPANTS
RQ2
How can the communicaBon ecology of male refugees be understood and arBculated?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RQ1
What is the nature of and impetus for mobility rouBnes enacted by male refugees?
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RQ3
What are male refugees’ knowledge and percepBons of the Break the Chain SBCC
campaign?
RQ4
How are HIV and AIDS related messaging achieved within the
Osire refugee camp?
THEORETICAL GUIDES
COMMUNICATIVE ECOLOGY
§ INFORMATION & MEDIA
§ STRUCTURES & ASSETS § CULTURES & SALIENCE § EFFECTIVE ENVIRONMENT*
§ COMMUNITY CENTERED SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
§ MEANING IN SOCIAL ACTS
GROUNDED THEORY
*Altheide (1995)
§ OBSERVATION
§ PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION
§ UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
§ GO ALONG INTERVIEWS
§ MAPPING ELICITATION INTERVIEWS § AUDIO RECORDINGS § PHOTOGRAPHS § JOTTINGS & FIELD NOTES
§ PARTICIPANT MAP SKETCHES
METHODS: SAMPLING, DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS
DATA COLLECTION
TYPES of DATA
§ GROUNDED THEORY § COMMUNICATION ECOLOGY
ANALYSIS
§ PURPOSIVE § QUALITATIVE SOCIAL NETWORK
§ THEORETICAL
SAMPLING
THEME 1 PARTICIPANTS PERCEIVE HIV COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN MEDIA &
MESSAGES WITHIN the REFUGEE CAMP as OBSOLETE
EMERGENT THEMES
THEME 2 PARTICIPANTS WERE UNAWARE of the PRESENCE or PURPOSE of NAMIBIA’S
‘BREAK THE CHAIN’ SBCC CAMPAIGN
THEME 3 PARTICIPANTS’ MOBILITY ACTS MAINTAIN SOCIO-‐COMMUNICATIVE
& SEXUAL NETWORKS WHICH AVAIL ACCESS to ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & MATERIAL RESOURCES
THEME 4 PARTICIPANTS PREFER to RECEIVE INFORMATION from REFUGEE & NON-‐
REFUGEE OTHERS OUTSIDE of OSIRE
THEME 1
“... I can be Rred to see them, I‘m here for almost 7 years but only one Rme I noRced they were change …” [Male, 29, Burundi, Osire]
“…they can be something you not even thinking for when you pass it and you don't even get some idea , no senRment, it’s old affiche…”
PARTICIPANTS’ USES of OSIRE MEDIA & MESSAGES
§ AdverBsing and trade § GraffiB/ arBsBc expression § Place making § DirecBonal and meeBng markers § Referencing messages for jokes
PARTICIPANTS PERCEIVE HIV COMMUNICATION CAMPAIGN MEDIA & MESSAGES WITHIN the REFUGEE CAMP as OBSOLETE
[Male, 27, DRC, Osire]
THEME 2
“That is the one …I see it in town … they write … ‘break the chain’. I see the sign for SIDA but I understand this one is for violence to break violence, to
love more and break violence [Male, 23, Angola, Otjiwarongo]
“…I go in the clinic all the Rme for my medicines for my breathing … I don’t hear about Break the Chain before… I’m not sure about MCP but if it is for
the health we can get it in Osire later ”
PARTICIPANTS’ EXPOSURE to BREAK THE CHAIN
§ Outside of the refugee camp § Urban and Peri-‐Urban locaBons § Limited to mass media
PARTICIPANTS WERE UNAWARE of the PRESENCE or PURPOSE of NAMIBIA’S ‘BREAK THE CHAIN’ SBCC CAMPAIGN
[Male, 29, Burundi, Osire]
THEME 3
“…I can stay in Osire but I like too much money, then I have my family, my wife is from here…I’m running too much to Swakop, to Windhoek, for selling
some nice curio…in lodge for tourists” [Male, 23, Angola, Otjiwarongo]
“…no life in Osire you can be hungry, don’t have future, suffering too much for the house, no courant, no money for living…I stay to Windhoek then do my music in the band traveling… I eat nice… we can stay together or with
lady…”
PARTICIPANTS’ MOBILITY ROUTINES § Urban, Interregional & InternaBonal § Daily, weekly & monthly § Undocumented by refugee authoriBes § CohabitaBon with friends and/or
sexual partners
MOBILITY MAINTAINS COMMUNICATION & SEXUAL NETWORKS for ACCESS to ECONOMIC, POLITICAL & MATERIAL RESOURCES
[Male, 34, DRC, Windhoek]
THEME 4
“Osire people like too much lying… those ones in Windhoek have the different life outside here they don't have to make story … they get experience to know living here and geZng around…” [Male, 51, DRC, Osire]
“I go to my friends in Windhoek and I ask them ‘tell me what I must do?...they get that smart for living out of camp so they know more for life
here… if I visit my Damara friends they give me the idea for sula …”
PARTICIPANTS’ INFORMATION NEEDS § Refugee administraBon plans § Currency exchange rates § News about family, friends & events § Trends in the trade/sale of arBsanal cra`s,
human hair, mobile ICT’s, clothing & staple foods
PARTICIPANTS PREFER to RECEIVE INFORMATION from REFUGEE & NON-‐REFUGEE OTHERS OUTSIDE of OSIRE
[Male , 19, Angola, Osire]
CONCLUSIVE STATEMENTS
§ COORDINATION OF POLITCAL & PROCEDURAL AGENDAS § REFUGEE COMMUNICATIVE ECOLOGY AS STRUCTURES
& STRATEGIES
§ UNDERSTANDING REFUGEE MOBILITIES via REFUGEES’ MOBILITIES PARADIGMS
CONCLUSIVE STATEMENTS
COORDINATION of POLITCAL, PROCEDURAL & COMMUNICATION AGENDAS
§ Refugee agencies
§ Host naBons
§ Campaign developers
§ Implementers
CONCLUSIVE STATEMENTS REFUGEE COMMUNICATIVE ECOLOGY as STRUCTURES & STRATEGIES
§ Privilege refugees’ communicaBon that support social interacBons & future orientaBons
§ Absence or presence of communicaBon assets is not always indicaBve refugees’ communicaBon ecology