Media Performance in the Coverage of HIV/AIDS

The study investigates public assessment of media performance in the coverage of HIV/AIDS in four regions of Cameroon. It made use of a probability sample of 382 respondents from four towns within four regions of Cameroon including, Bamenda, Buea, Yaounde and Douala actually distributed in a rank order of prevalence of HIV/AIDS. 400 questionnaires were sent to the field giving a response rate of 95.5%. Findings reveal that the media provides sufficient information about HIV/AIDS to the Cameroon public though limited in quality. Also, the study concludes that there is an overall significant relationship between media coverage of HIV/AIDS and behaviour. However, some behaviour like the use of condom, care for HIV/AIDS patients and embarking on voluntary testing did not show this significant relationship. Notwithstanding, television was rated as the most reliable and most performed medium for information about HIV/AIDS. Spearman’s Rank Difference Correlation also showed that there exist a strong positive relationship between source performance and the public dependence on the source for HIV/AIDS information.