UGA students to use mobile media to increase AIDS awareness

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Dec 27, 2007

A team from the University of Georgia's New Media Institute traveled to Philadelphia last month to explore how mobile media technology can be used to deliver health messages related to the fight against AIDS.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Three student teams from UGA, the University of South Carolina and Temple University, along with representatives from MDS organizations and Verizon Communications, teamed up to develop MDS public service announcements. The project will test a new mobile production model to create messages that can be sent to young people's cell phones encouraging them to get tested for HIV.

"A whole generation isn't using their parent's media," said Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute and professor of telecommunications at UGA's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications. "Mobile media has powerful potential for reaching young people with information to help them stay healthy and protect others."

You can preview the PSAs, which premiered Nov. 7, at www.nmi.uga.edu/aids_ppsa.>

COPYRIGHT 2007 Cox, Matthews & Associates

COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning