Emotional Appeals in HIV Prevention Campaigns: Unintended Stigma Effects

The main point of the article is? 

The main point of the article is that use of emotional HIV/AIDS campaigns leads to unintended negative consequences both behavioral and attitudinal to both the intended and unintended audience and may even lead to discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS ( Thainiyom & Elder 2017). 

The key question that the author is addressing is? 

Is the Public Service Announcements that use emotional appeals have an unintended effect of creating stigmatizing attitudes in the viewers and what are the unintended attitudinal consequences and unintended behavioral consequences of these appeals? 

The most important information in the article is? 

The important message being conveyed by this article according to Thainiyom & Elder (2017) is that there is an unintended stigmatizing consequence brought about by use of emotional campaigns by Public Service Announcement that increases the discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS 

The main inference / conclusions in the article are? 

Thainiyom & Elder (2017) extrapolates that use of emotional messages especially fear and hope has some negative unintended consequences and hence there is need to conduct a research and find out what kind of emotional messages, content and communication channels will help reduce the unintended effects of stigma and discrimination, then health practitioners identify what kind of messages will bring about the intended behavior and reduce negative effects that create more harm to people living with HIV/AIDS. 

If we take this line of reasoning (authors conclusion) seriously, the implications are? 

If we heed to the authors conclusions, we will end up doing a research that will help identify the kind of messages, content and communication platforms to use in order to reduce unintended consequences of emotional campaigns. As a result we will have a community that helps reduce the prevalence of HIV/AIDS, people living with HIV/AIDS will be more comfortable with their lives due to the reduced stigmatization and discrimination and will be able to live a more healthy life due to their ability to freely express themselves with no one judging them harshly. 

If we fail to take this line of reasoning (authors conclusion) seriously, the implications are? 

If we fail to take the line of reasoning seriously, the implications are that the people living with HIV/AIDS will continue to suffer from the stigmatization and discrimination they are experiencing as well as increase the rate of HIV/AIDS prevalence as a result of the fear inflicted in people to an extent that they fear being tested. As result we will have a nation with less productive labor force and people who cannot communicate freely about their conditions for fear of being discriminated. 

The questions that I have after the article are? 

Are the emotional campaigns really necessary if they cause more harm than good? 

What kind of campaigns should be undertaken to ensure people living with HIV/AIDS are freely accepted in our community and the sexually active encouraged to test their status? 

Reference 

Thainiyom, P., & Elder, K. (2017). Emotional Appeals in HIV Prevention Campaigns: Unintended Stigma Effects.  American journal of health behavior ,  41 (4), 390-400.