Audiovisual communication- the use of videos for antenatal education

Abstract

In recent times, the use of audiovisual media to communicate and support maternal health messages have become germane to antenatal health education in Ghana. Despite this interest, studies on the use of audiovisual media for maternal health education in general and its reception are relatively scanty in Ghana. Hence, the study focused on designing persuasive audiovisual on maternal nutrition and examining health workers and pregnant women perceptions about the use of the audiovisual media antenatal educational setting. The study amalgamated the Persuasive Health Message Framework, the Multimedia Learning Theory, the Technology Acceptance Model and the Decoding-Encoding Model into a conceptual framework to situate and ground the study. The study was situated in the interpretivism paradigms; hence the qualitative approach was used. The study used the artistic research design and structured it along three stages: pre-studio, studio and post-studio research. The research employed the purposive and convenience sampling techniques with a total sample of thirty (30) participants from government health facilities in the Ga South Municipal Assembly. Interviews, observation and visual study were used for data collection. Again, the study used thematic and textual analysis used during data analysis. Findings from pre-studio research revealed that there were no officially designed videos from the Ghana Health Service to support antenatal education. Thus, available visual aids on maternal nutrition are predominately print materials even though it emerged that videos were mostly preferred. Consequently, health officers resort to exotic videos from internet sources despite serious communication limitation. During studio research, storyboards and animatics were used to conduct audience research which helped to refine the form and content of the video. During actual production cinematic elements and aesthetics decisions were guided by cognitive theory of multimedia learning. The post-studio research revealed that health workers viewed the persuasive video very useful and easy to use due to threat and efficacy elements which improved understanding among pregnant women and efficiency among health workers. Despite the positive impact of efficacy and threat elements which shaped and generated preferred readings among the selected pregnant women, susceptible elements produced negotiated meanings and identities among pregnant women due to strong religious beliefs. The study concluded that integration of audiovisual media into antenatal education sessions improved the effectiveness the education and reception among the selected pregnant women. The study recommends the adoption of persuasive audiovisual media into all pregnancy schools to support effective antenatal health education.