Abstract:
The fight against HIV and AIDS in Kenya has roped in the concerted efforts of the government, medical practitioners, the general population, religious organizations and the media. Efforts to combat and manage the impacts of the scourge include the development of Information, Education and Communication materials such as newspaper advertisements targeted at adolescents in school. Language in newspaper advertisements uses graphic and visual modes of signification to construct the overall message. This poses challenges to readers because in multimodal discourses, readers are faced with the changing phenomenon in which language per se is being displaced by verbal and visual imagery, taking over tasks associated with the role of language. Verbal and visual representations are co-deployed to make meanings that go beyond what either would make alone. It is this synergy across semiotic modalities that this paper analyzes in one advertisement on HIV and AIDS which appeared in the Kenyan print media. This paper explores the images of HIV and AIDS in advertisements in newspapers as seen through the eyes of school-age adolescents. It is a Critical Discourse Analysis of the multimodal nature of the HIV and AIDS advertisement in relation to consumer behaviour. This paper provides an interactive sociolinguistic model through which the contradictory discourses of HIV and AIDS can be interpreted. Findings reveal that modes of signification work in complementarity to craft the discourses. In this paper the author posits that advertisements in the print media create meaning through the careful manipulation of graphic and visual modes of signification that construct the desired interpretations that are advantageous to copywriters. Advertisements in the print media are effective in eliciting the desired responses from readers thus promoting responsible personal decisions that go a long way in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
