Doctoral Dissertation Research - AIDS Streetscapes: The Imagery of Campaigns against HIV in Chicago and Accra

艾滋病街景：从芝加哥到阿克拉，全球艾滋病组织试图通过艾滋病海报、广告牌、保险杠贴纸、t恤和平面广告，在视觉上说服人们改变信仰和行为。本论文考察了芝加哥和加纳阿克拉城市街景视觉艾滋病运动的制作和接受情况。作为艾滋病组织和地方社区之间最常见的交流方式，这些视觉宣传活动在公共卫生官员的专业知识和地方群体的民间知识之间起到了调解作用。理解生产者和观众共同参与的解释实践，将为哪些符号策略被证明是最有效的提供基本见解。关注格里斯沃尔德（1984,1994）“文化钻石”中每个元素之间的联系，本项目使用组织人种学、焦点小组访谈、GIS制图技术和内容分析来评估艾滋病运动的生产、接受和传播，并开发艾滋病符号的类型学。这项研究提出了这样一个问题：“芝加哥和阿克拉的城市街景中的艾滋病图像是如何让人们知道某些关于艾滋病的想法，而不让其他人知道的？”研究视觉文化与艾滋病的社会病理之间的联系，重点是意义和解释，将有助于文化社会学，视觉社会学和知识社会学。评估视觉艾滋病宣传活动也有助于防治艾滋病毒。自危机开始以来，各组织在城市景观中点缀了艾滋病的图像，但很少有研究系统地解决这些视觉艾滋病运动在城市空间中的问题。通过检查这些图像的生产和接收，该项目将预期效果和实际效果联系起来。从不同受众的焦点小组收集的数据将有助于深入细致地了解关于艾滋病毒的传播机制。从这篇论文的结果将找到听众艾滋病组织和公共卫生政策制定者。这项研究希望找出在各种环境和不同信息下效果最好的视觉策略。联邦、州和地方机构以及私营部门的艾滋病组织将利用这些发现更好地与公民沟通，并动员人们对抗艾滋病危机。

AIDS Streetscapes: The Imagery of Campaigns against HIV from Chicago to AccraAIDS organizations across the globe attempt to persuade people to change belief and behavior - visually - through AIDS posters, billboards, bumper-stickers, t-shirts, and print advertisements. This dissertation examines the production and reception of visual AIDS campaigns of the urban streetscapes of Chicago and Accra, Ghana. As the most common mode of communication between AIDS organizations and local communities, these visual campaigns mediate between the expert knowledge of public health officials and the folk knowledge of local groups. Understanding the interpretive practices in which both producers and audiences engage will provide fundamental insights into which symbolic strategies prove most effective. Attending to the connections between each element of Griswold's (1987, 1994) "cultural diamond," this project uses organizational ethnography, focus group interviews, GIS mapping technology, and content analysis to assess the production, reception, and dissemination of AIDS campaigns, and to develop a typology of AIDS symbols. This research asks the question, "how do AIDS images within urban streetscapes of Chicago and Accra make certain ideas about HIV knowable, while discouraging others?" Examining the links between visual culture and the social pathology of AIDS, with a focus on meaning and interpretation, will contribute to cultural sociology, visual sociology, and the sociology of knowledge. Assessing visual AIDS campaigns also contributes to the fight against HIV. Since the beginning of the crisis, organizations have peppered the urban landscape with images of AIDS, but very little research has systematically addressed these visual AIDS campaigns across urban space. By examining both the production and reception of these images, this project correlates between intended and actual effects. Data collected from focus groups across audiences, will allow for a deep and nuanced understanding of mechanisms of communication about HIV. The results from this dissertation will find an audience with AIDS organizations and public health policy makers. This research hopes to identify those visual strategies that work best, in a variety of environments and with different messages. Federal, State and local agencies, along with AIDS organizations in the private sector will use these findings to better communicate to citizens and mobilize people against the AIDS crisis.