Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Listening to UGC – AIDS/PPSA/ATL (4/23)

“They just didn’t get it, did they?”

First, let’s do the acronyms.
UGC = User Generated Content
ATL = Atlanta, probably got that one.
AIDS = Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
PPSA = Personal Public Service Announcement

The whole point of the AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement in Philadelphia was to create new types of messages to encourage young people to be tested for HIV. Over a quarter of a million people in the US are infected with HIV and don’t know it. The unknowing infected don’t receive the downright miraculous treatments available and are at greater risk for transmitted HIV. Frankly, old media isn’t proving very effective in reaching young people with AIDS information. New media has to be better.

On November 6 in Philadelphia, we held a crash course workshop on HIV/AIDS for 25 college students. Doctors, public health officials, AIDS activists, and people living with HIV made great presentations on HIV/AIDS science, prevention, treatment, testing, and vaccines. A lot of information.

The next morning (11/7), we divided the students into three teams, handed them a backpack of equipment (phones, wireless computer, and a cheapy video camera), gave them a subway pass, and told them to make videos to convince young people to be tested for HIV. The videos they produced had to work on cell phones. And oh yeah, the teams had to finish in 7 hours. The teams took off at a run.

Later that night we screened all the videos – 10 in all. Amazing, the teams produced some great videos (you can see them at http://www.nmi.uga.edu/aids_ppsa/Philly/). But afterward, on of the health experts stopped me.

“Sure, they are great videos. But they didn’t include the right info. They just didn’t get it did they?” She was exasperated.

All of these experts had been working on the problem of convincing people to be tested for years and some for decades. They had all felt the frustration when their well thought-out and extensively researched campaigns didn’t accomplish all that they wanted them to. When they presented to the students, they hit on all the messages the experts knew should work to convince college students to be tested. But the info that mattered most to the experts didn’t matter as much to the students. Our student teams picked up on different information. For instance, almost every video included the information that you could be tested and have a result in twenty minutes.

“That is old news,” the expert told me. “Besides, when your life is on the line, why would the time it took to get the results matter? The students just picked up on the wrong things.”

She was right. But she was also dead wrong. Yeah, to a 30-something trained health professional, the 20 minutes didn’t matter. But to the 18-25 year olds making the videos, that fact was salient, relevant, important. Those PPSA messages the students produced provide vital clues for developing effective messages for that age group.

For media organizations, user generated content is the Holy Grail. Imagine if you can get people to produce content that you can sell to people. Brilliant! Of course we might wind up with a media universe populated by adorable baby videos and people getting hit with whiffle balls in unfortunate parts of their anatomies. But if that is what the people want well …

For organizations seeking to connect with difficult to reach audiences, user created content offers a priceless pay-off as well. The messages in user generated content point the way to successful and effective communication strategies.

The CDC (ok, more acronyms – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – http://www.cdc.gov) helped with the Philadelphia AIDS PPSA project. The CDC saw the real value in the project’s user generated content.

Now the CDC is working with us on the next iteration of the AIDS PPSA project – in Atlanta on April 23rd. You can read all about the project at http://www.nmi.uga.edu/aids_ppsa/. Students and faculty from nine different universities will meet for a day of workshops on HIV/AIDS on April 22. Then on April 23, students will shoot videos using only cellphones and wireless technology. We will debut at least 15 videos at a wrap/premiere party on the evening of April 23. Verizon is providing the equipment and services as well as other resources for the ATL AIDS PPSA project (the funded the whole thing in Philly). And, the CDC is providing important funding for the Atlanta project.

The AIDS/PPSA/ATL has got to feel weird for CDC. With an $8B federal budget and 4600 employees, they are used to telling us how to stay healthy. Now they are counting on a bunch of wet-behind-the-ears college students with cellphones to create messages that will help young people like them improve their lives. It is a whole new world for the CDC, but they are adapting.

Last time the AIDS PPSA taught us a lot. This time it will teach us a bunch as well. But the biggest lesson is one that the CDC has already learned. There is a time to lecture and
there is a time to listen. Shhhhhh.

Help us get the word out on AIDS/PPSA/ATL

This semester has been something special. Yeah, I have said it (many times) before that mobile media has potential that shouldn’t be squandered. We have engaged students in thinking of ways that mobile media can truly improve people’s lives. This semester we charged our New Media Capstone class with developing the materials for the AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement Project in Atlanta on April 22 & 23 (the AIDS/PPSA/ATL). In the AIDS/PPSA/ATL students from other universities from around the south will use mobile media to create videos messages for mobile media encouraging young people to be tested for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The Capstoners have taken to this project with a passion. They have developed how to videos on using cellphones, produced websites to house materials, created the press materials to publicize the event, and charted a campaign for distributing the videos created in the AIDS/PPSA/ATL. They have been truly amazing.

But over the last weeks, we have come to a distressing realization. This project could have a greater impact if more people knew about it. We believe watching the videos that will be produced in the AIDS/PPSA/ATL will increase the chances a young person will take a critical step in keeping themselves by getting tested. But we know that getting the messages to people’s cell phones (or on the websites they visit) will be a challenge – we won’t reach everybody. So the students have been exploring ways to maximize the impact of the AIDS/PPPSA/ATL to encourage testing.

Now we need your help. The AIDS/PPSA/ATL project itself is a way to tell the message about the benefits of testing. On April 23, over 50 people will accept a crazy challenge to use technology in brand new ways to people stay healthy. Help us tell that story.

Write about it in your blog. Send the info to a newspaper. Tell your radio station. If you know someone in the media who would be interested, have them contact me (or send me her/his info and I will do the contacting). We welcome any media coverage. No, we need media coverage. The AIDS/PPSA/ATL has a lot of the ingredients of a compelling news story – cool tech, creative people, a daunting challenge, an important cause. So help us find the people that will help us tell that story to as many people as possible. Why? Because everyone who encounters the story of this wild event, will also encounter the positive arguments for HIV testing. That is what is important.

Here is the website for the project – http://www.nmi.uga.edu/aids_ppsa/. There you will find tons of info including a press release. Thanks.

Uncork a Cure (4/24)

Call it a theme, but here is another chance for you to help battle HIV/AIDS.
For 20 years, the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta (ARCA = http://www.aidsresearchatlanta.org/) has been working to help develop new treatments for HIV and to prevent its spread through prevention research, education, and free HIV rapid testing. On April 24, you can join me in helping ARCA by eating, drinking, and bidding. Uncork a Cure (http://www.uncorkacure.org/) is ARCA’s annual benefit and 2008 will be its 18th year. With over 25 restaurants, at least 100 different wines, a fabulous silent auction, and an exciting drawing for prizes, this will be a great way to help a great cause. And we will be showing the videos from the AIDS/PPSA/ATL (see above) at the event. There is more info at http://www.uncorkacure.org/. I hope I will see you there.

This DBB (Tu. 4/8) – Get a Job – Scott Shamp

This Digital Brown Bag (Tu, 4/8, 12:30P, NMI, 412 Journalism) is the annual opportunity for Dr. Shamp to share his ideas for the best way to find a job. Come.

The New (And Hopefully Improved) Music Business – 4/12, ATL

On Saturday, April 12th, The University of Georgia Music Business Program will host a series of panels focusing on "The New (And Hopefully Improved) Music Business." Panelists, industry leaders and trend setters from Atlanta, will be asked to expand on how the industry has changed in their particular field and how it will continue to evolve in the future.

They have lined up some great panelists and the event free and open to the public. They will be held at Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta located at One Live Oak Center, 3475 Lenox Road, Atlanta, GA 30326. More info: 706-542-7668 or Bruce Burch bburch@terry.uga.edu Directions at http://www.terry.uga.edu/atlanta/directions.html