On 28th November OxTalks will move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events' (full details are available on the Staff Gateway).
There will be an OxTalks freeze beginning on Friday 14th November. This means you will need to publish any of your known events to OxTalks by then as there will be no facility to publish or edit events in that fortnight. During the freeze, all events will be migrated to the new Oxford Events site. It will still be possible to view events on OxTalks during this time.
If you have any questions, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
We test the effectiveness of an entertainment education TV series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model we show that “edutainment” can work through an information or through a conformity channel. We conducted a randomized controlled trial in urban Nigeria where young viewers were exposed to Shuga or to a placebo TV series. Among those who watched Shuga, we created additional variation in the “social messages” they received and in the people with whom they watched the show. We find significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes towards HIV and risky sexual behavior. Treated subjects are twice as likely to get tested for HIV 8 months after the intervention. We also found reductions in STDs among women. Our experimental manipulations of the social norm component did not produce significantly different results from the main treatment. The “information” effect of edutainment thus seems to have prevailed in the context of our study.
