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A discussion of the personal, interpersonal, and social challenges youth face against the backdrop of media-oriented campaign discourses in South Africa.
This thesis examines the different discourses on sexuality put forth by two prominent media-oriented HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns, Soul City and Love Life, in South Africa, and the ways in which they resonate with youth as they struggle to negotiate their own sexual identities in a rapidly changing society. It uses qualitative methods to consider the struggles of the individual in the personal, interpersonal, and larger social realms and how campaigns speak to them in different ways and, in turn, how youth negotiate their own identities. Concerning personal struggles, this thesis considers individual negotiations of knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS in the face of campaigns, particularly as they work within certain frameworks of morals and values. In conjunction, it also examines personal negotiations of knowledge and awareness amidst the muted realities of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, as well as some of the conflicting discourses of campaigns. From this point, interpersonal struggles relating to the ideals and realities of love in relationships are then considered. Discussions of gender-based ideals and realities and the realities of exchange values and responsibility in relationships along side campaign responses are used to further build upon the multi-layered dynamics of interpersonal youth struggles. Building on personal and interpersonal struggles, larger social struggles involving the different ways that the intermingling of traditional and modern values has impacted sexual expression, as well as helped create and perpetuate double standards regarding gender and sexuality are considered. Finally, social struggles that the influences of popular culture puts forth are discussed in conjunction with the discourses of campaigns and their efforts to maintain their marketability to youth.
Publisher: Linköpings Universitet
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