National Security and Health: Communication in a Pandemic

Abstract

Countries deal with more than national security to safeguard its citizens. Health problems are a crucial part of the general wellbeing of the people. As the global pandemic of 2020 showed, the population’s health is an important consideration. About 32 years ago, HIV was just rearing its head and was making its way to be a pandemic, which it is today. This paper poses five research questions. How did the world governments deal with it then? How do they deal with it now? What resources have they used to combat and educate? What is the correlation between the campaigns and the incidence or reduction of HIV? What messages could other pandemic communication campaigns take from the successes and failures of HIV communication? The paper analyses the media campaigns and media messages in the 15 years between 1990 and 2005. The different cultural connotations of each chosen country would be used as a backdrop to better inform the analysis. The primary objective of the research is to determine the practical value of these advertisement and messages in combating the pandemic. This qualitative research uses a constructivist approach, and uses secondary data from statistics, research reports, and newspaper articles. The analysis will be done using theories such as stages of change model and theory of reasoned action/planned behaviour.