Best laid plans : cultural entropy and the unraveling of AIDS media campaigns / Terence E. McDonnell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McDonnell, Terence E. (Terence Emmett), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

AIDS (Disease) in mass media.

Mass media in health education--Ghana--Accra.

Mass media in health education.

Communication in public health--Ghana--Accra.

Communication in public health.

AIDS (Disease)--Ghana--Prevention.

AIDS (Disease).

AIDS (Disease)--Prevention.

Ghana.

Ghana--Accra.

Physical Description:

257 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Summary:

We see it all the time: organizations strive to persuade the public to change beliefs or behavior through expensive media campaigns. Designers painstakingly craft resonant and culturally sensitive messaging that will motivate people to buy a product or take active steps to improve their health. But once these campaigns leave the controlled environments of focus groups and advertising agencies, the public interprets and distorts the campaigns in ways their designers never intended or dreamed. In Best Laid Plans, Terence E. McDonnell argues that these campaigns are undergoing "cultural entropy": the process through which the intended meanings and uses of cultural objects fracture into alternative meanings, new practices, failed interactions, and blatant disregard. Using AIDS media campaigns in Accra, Ghana, as its central case study, the book walks readers through best-practice, evidence-based media campaigns that fall totally flat. These damaging cultural misfires are not random. Rather, McDonnell makes the case that these disruptions are patterned, widespread, and inevitable-indicative of a broader process of cultural entropy. Book jacket.

Contents:

Cultural entropy

The cultural topography of Accra

"Best" practices

Imagined audiences and cultural ombudsmen

Displacement and decay: materiality, space, and interpretation

Scare tactics: interpreting images of death, illness, and life.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-251) and index.

ISBN:

9780226382012

022638201X

9780226382159

022638215X

OCLC:

932618833