Governments during the Covid‐19 pandemic in response to the challenge of reaching as many of their citizens as quickly as possible have relied on the use of digital media communication. Various stakeholders, however, have questioned whether strategic use of digital communication by governments has been effective during the Covid‐19 health crisis. We thematically analyzed a public online bi‐country webinar and conducted a netnographic analysis of South African Health Minister Dr. Zweli Mkhize and Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services Twitter accounts to evaluate the effectiveness of government digital communication during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Stakeholders and social media analysis highlight that government digital communication has lacked engagement, falling short in assisting citizens to understand the effects of the Covid‐19 pandemic. We highlight the shortcomings of governments simply transmitting information on channels built for dialogue, the digital divide limiting reach, as well as how limited engagement opens up opportunities for misinformation.
This paper gives a description of multilingual practices in two HIV-care centres in Lesotho on the basis of interviews with both health care providers and some patients who make use of the services of these centres. It considers the importance of effective linguistic communication in HIV-care and the hazards posed to such communication when physicians do not share the first language of the patients and of others working in these health care facilities. It gives the insights gained in a recent study on the kinds of interventions developed to facilitate communication in such multilingual institutional settings. In one of the centres informal interpreters are appointed to assist in transfer of information during consultations; in the second centre interpreting is only casually available from bilingual staff members. Besides interpreting, participants reported engaging in a number of other mediating practices. Evidence gained from informal interpreting studies elsewhere suggests that more than literal translation is required to achieve the kind of communicative success that will ensure quality in the health care provided to a vulnerable community. This study agrees with such findings and has generated a number of suggestions for improving the management of the linguistic diversity in communication within such clinics. The paper focuses on the specific resources provided in the healthcare centres and on the strategies participants use to enhance medical communication.
This research report provides an account of how multilingualism is handled in behavioural change communication about HIV/AIDS by Phela health and development communications, an NGO in Lesotho. The report discusses the distribution of languages in the print and media publications of the NGO. It highlights the bilingual nature of these publications, which emphasise English and Sesotho as enshrined in the constitution, and which exclude other minority languages of the country. The report discusses the implications on this approach to language on minority language speakers, more especially in the context of HIV/AIDS, a pandemic which affects all the population regardless of language. The report lastly makes recommendations for a more inclusive approach in behavioural change communication about HIV/AIDS.
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