World Aids Day

Last Monday was #WorldAidsDay, a date first held in 1988 “for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died” (World Aids Day.org, 2014). Governments and NGOs, celebrities and ordinary people around the world remembered the day with posts on social media and messages on the internet. Although there are some similarities, it is interesting to notice how differently people address the same issue by framing their messages in diverse ways.

The Executive Director of UNAIDS delivered his message in the World Aids Day using the frame  a world free of Aids is possible. The same frame was used by President Obama. Since both videos were produced to represent political institutions, a certain level of accountability in their content is expected. In this sense, it is possible to infer that the need to justify their actions to the public may explain the use of the same frame.

In common, the two videos emphasizes that – although there is much that still have to be done – we are on the right track, since there is a hope that the world is going to be free of Aids in a near future. While the Executive Director of UNAIDS is assertive and affirms that “together we can end Aids epidemic by 2030”, the President Obama is more cautious and says “lets recommit ourselves to achieving an Aids free generation in our life times”.

However, the messages on the internet on 1 December was not only about optimism. Another frame used was the importance of fight against stigma, which emphasizes that prejudice may keep HIV patients away from treatment. This frame is used in campaigns such as the one promoted by Jared Leto and in posts like this one of Open Society Foundations. 

Through this frame, Aids is seen not only as a health issue but as a social issue as well. According to those campaigners, due the stigma, some HIV’s patients loose their jobs and need to stop their treatment, while other people even initiate their medical care because they are afraid to share their secret. This reality also motivated Prince Harry to launch a campaign that was quite commented in the media in the UK.  

A third frame that this blog have identified is awareness save lives. Through this approach, the Brazilian Ministry of Health, for example, is encouraging people to get tests in order to find out if they have the disease and, as consequence, start the treatment as soon as possible. In addition, the awareness of the disease is a way to stop the contamination, since people may be more careful and curb the spread of virus.

I protect myself, I have myself tested, I move on. #goingtotest

Source: http://ow.ly/i/7M8RQ

The multiplicity of frames in 2014 World Aids Day, rather than causes confusion, may complement each other. The most important thing is the social responsibility that they involve. Campaigners need to be careful when choosing frames, since they “enable individuals to locate, perceive, identify and label occurrences within their life space and the world at large” (Goffman cited in David et all, 1986). Frames as Aids kills used in an Australian campaign of 1987, for example, just trigger homophobic attitudes and fear. "What we found at the time was a lot of people with very low risk went and got tested while high-risk people were too scared after the ad."(Cairns Sexual Health Service director in Herald Sun, 2012)

Therefore, one same issue may be framed in many different ways. In this post, it was identified and analysed only a few of the many possibilities in framing Aids. Despite its diversity, it is interesting to notice that in the 2014 World Aids Day, Aids is not being considered as something scary (a person can live with Aids. What this person need is treatment and respect). The disease is being framed, above of all, as something that you need to be aware.

 

References:

Russel, D. (2012) in Herald Sun. Available at <http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/notorious-1987-aids-ad-returns-in-gentler-reincarnation/story-fndo45r1-1226457971283?nk=e0a5bcd1bb7d3800b022239e0a6f0a30> Accessed at 4/12/14.

Snow, D. A., Rochford, E. B., Worden, S. K., & Benford, R. D. (1986). Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation. American Sociological Review, 51(4), 464–481. 

World Aids Day.org (2014) Available at <http://www.worldaidsday.org/about-world-aids-day.php> Accessed at 4/12/14

Inform to empower

The Brazilian Senate, alongside with Chamber of Deputies, is responsible for discuss and approve bills, which become laws. For this reason, the major part of its campaigns is based on the divulgation of the laws and its impacts in people’s lives. Rather than simply justify the existence of Senate or provide accountability for its activities, these campaigns are a way to increase the awareness of people about the legislation and empower them to exercise their rights.  

In this sense, it seems fair to say that campaigns as “The treatment of breast cancer doesn’t need to leave this mark” – that is currently being promoted by Federal Senate of Brazil – is a way to empower women with breast cancer. By informing them about their right to have plastic surgery after the mastectomy, the campaign allows the patients to decide if they want to use the law in their benefit or not.

The treatment of breast cancer doesn’t need to leave this mark

Issues as prejudice and low self-esteem are among the several challenges that are faced by those who fight against breast cancer (Breast Cancer Care, 2014). After all, the physical mutilation may jeopardise the treatment, since it affects psychologically and emotionally the patients. If, on the one hand, the law itself may be not enough to guarantee the expected results, on the other hand, the knowledge about its existence may mobilize women with cancer to demand their rights.

Hence, it is possible to say that this campaign uses a right-based approach. According to this theory of change, “people should be informed of their rights and empowered to exercise them” (Krznaric, 2007). This approach considers that a social change occurs when people are able to satisfy their needs by claiming their rights. This approach also emphasizes the cumulative effect of this process, considering that insofar people are more aware of their rights, more able they are to make legitimate claims to the state (Krznaric, 2007).

Nevertheless, in order to promote real social change, this campaign need to reach as much potential beneficiaries of the law as possible. Currently the campaign is based mainly in the Federal Senate broadcast system (constituted by a TV channel, a radio station and a news paper, whose audiences are not really representative) and its pages on social media and Internet. The campaign is also being published in other media thanks to the collaboration of organisations of the civil society. Despite all this effort, considering that Brazil is a big and heterogeneous country, the coverage of the campaign is still far away from the ideal. Therefore, the increase of the number of partners of the campaign and the improvement of the media strategy should be taken into consideration in order to amplify its audience.

Reference:

Breast Cancer Care (2014). Available at <http://www.breastcancercare.org.uk>. Accessed in 25/11/2014

Krznaric, R. (2007). How Change Happens: Interdisciplinary Perspectives for Human Development. Oxfam GB Research Report.

Small corruptions

It has been a great success in social media a campaign called “small corruptions” promoted by CGU, the institution responsible for assist the Brazilian President in issues related to transparency, fight against corruption, among others subjects co-related. The campaign reached 10 million accesses in Facebook, which is a really unusual achievement to public institutions in Brazil.

This success may be explained by the fact that the wave of protests against corruption in social media has increased a lot in Brazil since last year. Nevertheless, the most interesting thing about this campaign is the fact that CGU is encouraging people to pay attention not to the politicians and big companies actions, but to their own behavior.

The change for a more ethical Brazil starts in each one of us. Small corruptions: say no.

Each post shows an example of unethical or illegal attitude

The CGU’s role is to punish corrupts in the public sector, but above of all is to prevent corruption to happen in public institutions. In this activity, there are several issues that need to be monitored and the most visible is the behavior of public agents, politicians and civil servants. But there is also an invisible power (1) that permeates the behavior of these actors: the culture.

According to the site of CGU, the main goal of the campaign is to “aware citizens about the importance of fighting against unethical attitudes – or even illegal attitudes – that are culturally accepted and have its severity ignored or undermined”. In this sense, it could be argued that the campaign aims a long-term result, which is based on the expectation that better individuals lead to a better society, and a better society gives rise to better governments (2).

However, it seems fair to say that this is not exactly the main point of the campaign. The point seems to be the deconstruction of the general idea that Brazilian people are corrupt (this idea is pretty common. Have a look at this article, for example) and, by doing this, the campaign aims to make citizens believe that the fight against corruption worth. Pereira (3), an auditor of CGU explains that the campaign is a way to show that those who believe that corruption is part of Brazilian nature are wrong. He affirms that this belief means that Brazilian society has failed, and hence, that there would not be a way out. The campaign, according to him, reminds people that unethical and illegal attitudes practiced by individuals can be prevented individually. In other words, the society has not failed and there is the possibility to the country reduces its level of corruption.

Therefore, the campaign aims to amplify the interest of society in monitoring the Governments and, consequently, demand more transparency, accountability and ethics. By focusing on invisible power, the campaign highlights the importance of constant vigilance over our own attitudes and over public institutions.

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1. Invisible power is one of the forms of power and works by "shaping meaning and what is acceptable".

Gaventa, J (2006). Finding the spaces for change: a power analysis. IDS Bulletin Volume 37 number 6 November 2006.

2. This idea is related to the concept of social capital in the way discussed by Lipset (1959) and studied by Putnam (1993).

Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lipset, S. M. (1959). Some Social Requisites of Democracy. American Political Science Review 53, no. 1, pp. 69-105.

3. Claudenir Brito Pereira is Chief Auditor of the Internal Audit of the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT). Article in Portuguese available here