What was most interesting and perhaps scary about watching the film, “And the Band Played On”, was that we are in many ways under the control of health professionals. AIDS could only be diagnosed by health practitioners, and a great deal of research. Each time something was found, it was imperative that it was communicated to the nation so that a person could perceive their risk. The movie begins as two doctors enter Central Africa as it is experiencing the Ebola Virus. These two men enter a horrific scene as people do not understand what kind of horrible sickness is taking their mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers. One doctor clings to a woman who is mumbling a different language in a ghastly state. Her inability to communicate with the doctor is quite concerning because it is obviously something that is imperative in order to understand what is going on. Her non-verbal communication says a lot to him because it is abrupt and from it he can understand she is in pain. In many ways you wish you could speak her language so that you may comfort this woman that is clearly in a great amount of distress. The two doctors, one man in particular that does research for the rest of the movie, feel powerless. He continues to feel this powerlessness throughout the entire film.
Fast forwarding a couple of years, the AIDS virus begins to take shape. The first case occurs in Copenhagen, Denmark. Then cases start to form at the UCLA Medical Center, and in New York. Doctors find quickly that the disease destroys t-cells and it is between gay men. So far, communication has been between doctors. As more cases come up, the Center for Disease Control is notified. Now, organizational communication is used. Messages are constantly being passed from doctor, to doctor, to lab technician, to epidemiologist, and back to doctors. As more information on the disease is found, the health professionals start communicating with the mass media. Health practitioners know that they must get information out to those who could contract the virus, but they also want to make the information correct. There is a lot of stress during the movie as some facts are withheld from the general public as a means to save time and money. For instance, the blood banks knew that they had received blood from people with AIDS, but they did not want to throw away their resources so they chose to still give it to people. In the end, this would be communicated to people, and they would be devastated. It makes you rather angry when you see these professionals covering up certain information.
In terms of non-verbal communication, statistics speak a thousand words. The number of those infected and dying would increase greatly over the eighties. Those statistics can be quite scary, and they allow a person to perceive their threat. This goes along with the health belief model because if a person perceives that they are in great danger of receiving this disease, they will most likely make behavioral changes. The incentive in itself is to not contract the disease. If a man would have continued going to a Bathhouse during that time, their risk increased. If this man understood this, he would comprehend the amount he could benefit by not going to a bathhouse. This person must also be confidence in his actions and know that his actions would help him. As numbers increased, the disease was not found in just gay men. A woman who used a needle received the viruses which lead professionals to conclude that the disease could infect another through the act of sex, and the “swapping” of blood. Throughout the entire movie, there is constant interaction between health professionals.
I found it interesting that most of the doctors became interested in the business aspect of the disease. In many ways, they lost their empathy. These doctors were more concerned with saving money by not using blood tests, and not depleting the blood banks resources. Both of these things could have saves hundreds of people. Unfortunately this made the public view doctors in a different light. A doctor should communicate peace, and they should advocate change for the betterment of health. Phlebotomists must have lied to many people as they gave them infected blood. During this time, different countries were also in completion. The French scientists and the American scientists were both working on identifying the virus. There was a cultural disconnect with communication as the French saw the American as sex obsessed. I’m sure at first both countries and the working scientists were concerned with public health, but in the end, it became a fight to recognized in the scientific world. This was like organizational communication because the person who knew the most about the disease would be the “go to” person, and then information would trickle down as it finally reached the public through mass communication. The public then plans protests with huge signs and silent marches that model non verbal communication.
The theory of planned behavior model was also used in many ways during that time. The man they showed who ran the bath house had to have a change of attitude in order to shut down the bath houses. He understood that this would cut off a lot of revenue, but in the end it would save many men from getting AIDS. He received social pressure from the Center of Disease Control, and finally from the government. Because of his position as manager, he was in full control of assembling this change.
The stages of change model is difficult to use throughout the movie. Sadly, once a person receives AIDS from another, they cannot get rid of the disease. They could though, stop using dirty needles and stop having intercourse with a variety of people. The flight attendant in this movie is a good example. He seems to be stuck in the pre contemplation stage. He knows that he has infected someone but he does not wish to change. If he did wish to change he would take action and stop sleeping with so many people. He would keep this behavior, and hopefully not relapse. Instead though, he gives the disease to many people after he receives it.
Positive group communication occurs when the researchers and doctors sit around a round table. Many times they are arguing, but they always end up getting somewhere. This interpersonal, group, and one on one communication is highly effective. In fact, with health communication, it seems as though all types of communication are positive and they bring people closer to better health. Gender communication is also used in an interesting way throughout the film. Because AIDS is focused on the relationship between two males, the dynamic becomes different. There is one powerful woman in the movie and she is portrayed as someone who is quite knowledgeable in her area. The men in her professional world communicate to her with serious respect. When the disease can be contracted by blood, women are become aware that they could receive it too. Information then becomes useful to both men and women throughout the world.
The AIDS disease is now perceived a lot differently as it was back then. We now see it as a disease that one can live with. We are now concerned with those third and fourth world countries that do not seem to have the resources to handle the disease. The movie changed the way I thought about health communication because it showed how many parts of it there are. It incorporates many models and it includes a variety of communication contexts. After dealing with such an unknown disease, hopefully health professionals learned how to better communicate for change the next time something like this happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment