Media professionals' views of the government's 1987 AIDS campaign

One hundred and twenty six journalists and programme-makers were interviewed to ascertain their views about the effectiveness of the Government's campaign in early 1987 to inform the public about the risks from Aids. The majority view was that it was a good all-round campaign focused on the public at large and on several at-risk groups. It was also thought to have been acceptable to the public. But a sizeable minority of media professionals felt that more selective targeting would have been desirable, and that the information was not specific enough. Another criticism concerned the lack of an adequate follow-up. There was general agreement that before the campaign the public knew little about Aids, and that afterwards they were better informed, in particular about the prevalence of Aids and the existence of high-risk groups. Overall, however, respondents underestimated the campaign's achievements in increasing knowledge, while overestimating changes in attitudes and behaviour. Recommendations were made about the format and content of TV programmes for future public information campaigns concerning AIDS.