`I heard on the news that a man with an AIDS needle stabbed a nurse. How long does it take to know if she or anyone has the disease?”
“I have a friend who has AIDS and I want to help him, so do you know of any numbers that I can call to help him?”
“I work with someone that has AIDS, and a lot of people treat him differently and it seems unfair. But it’s hard to treat him the same. How should I treat him?”
These are questions that Jonathan McClure routinely answers, not in the confines of a quiet office, but on television with lots of others listening in. He’s a volunteer TV host with a simple message: HIV infection is on the rise in black communities.
Once a month McClure, a volunteer with the West Side Association for Community Action, directs a small volunteer staff in a 30-minute program at the studios of Cable Access Corp., 322 S. Green St., not-for-profit overseer of the City of Chicago’s five public-access cable channels.
The West Side group is one of four participating in “AIDS Call-In Live,” which airs at 5:30 p.m. Mondays on Channel 21. The others are Stop AIDS Chicago, the Chicago Department of Health’s office of AIDS prevention, and the Chicago House and Social Service Agency, which provides housing and other services for those with AIDS.
The four are using a medium, public access TV, that’s far more accessible to small, not-for-profit organizations than mainstream TV and radio. Further, it allows them a chance to have unusually frank on-air discussions about AIDS with people at risk, the sorts of discussions rarely heard on other media outlets.
The taping is conducted in a studio so small, it fits only three people comfortably, those three usually being the host, the day’s designated guest and someone trained to handle the phones.
It is within this cramped production nook that McClure, a 47-year-old African-American, tries to reach and educate perhaps thousands of inner-city youths who are prime potential victims of AIDS, especially given the high levels of drug trafficking and prostitution.
McClure is admittedly tired. A family man with four children to support, he also volunteers to run an average of two intensive AIDS prevention workshops daily for the association. Although he has 25 years of social outreach experience under his belt, McClure’s only television production training consists of the few inexpensive hours of training required by Chicago Access.
McClure believes he has been effective in reaching his target group. Most of the roughly 15 calls taken during the show appear to be from young black males.
Once the camera rolls, either McClure or his partner, Laura Branch, a health educator, leads an intense discussion that covers homosexuality, condom use and drugs. There are always calls holding.
On one recent show, McClure received queries ranging from “Can people catch AIDS from a toilet seat?” to “How safe is it for mothers with the virus to breast-feed their infants?” One caller wanted to know how he is susceptible to contracting the virus by sharing a drug needle.
The show “is intensive, and to be effective you really have to talk to people and you have to find out where they are and you have to give them an opportunity to interact with you,” McClure explained.
Funding for the West Side Association’s HIV work had been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control but ended last October. “I don’t have any more condoms or brochures (to distribute at workshops),” says McClure, who sometimes provides condoms using the salary he draws working for a not-for-profit drug and alcohol abuse organization.
Connecting through candor
Among the other hosts offering advice on AIDS is Michael Haynes, 34, co-director of the “communities of color program” for Stop AIDS Chicago, a developmental educational organization. His show tends to be upbeat, informative and, perhaps, shocking to some viewers.
Once during the live program, Haynes, who is black, used his fingers to demonstrate the proper use of a condom for a teenage caller worried because her boyfriend refused to wear protection during intercourse. He said he was showing the girl that she can make protection a part of the lovemaking process without making her mate uncomfortable.
It is this kind of spontaneity and candor that allows cable access participants a closer connection to their audience.
“We are successful because we are very frank, and we do this (cable show) non-judgmentally, talking about the facts associated with AIDS, more so than the myths,” said Haynes, a gay African-American.
A native New Yorker who came to Chicago 17 years ago, Haynes attended the Bronx High School of Science and was fortunate to have a two-parent upbringing. He says his desire to inform and uplift is what led him to community work, explaining that he wants youths who did not have the opportunities he did to be informed.
Although the central Stop AIDS Chicago office is at 909 W. Belmont Ave., Haynes will direct his “communities of color branch” at a recently opened South Side office at 2154 E. 71st St. There he will be closer to the schools, churches and community groups that will allow him direct contact with his intended audience.
Barbara Popovic, executive director of Cable Access Corp., is proud of the success of programs such as the AIDS-related call-ins. It is exactly these shows, she said, where blacks are helping their own, by targeting high-risk groups and actually reaching them.
The interactive nature of the shows, and the ability of callers to remain anonymous, is crucial, she believes. For the non-profit groups, it’s a very practical, inexpensive way to reach the people they want to reach.
Bridging a credibility gap
Further, Popovic believes that youths respond to the AIDS awareness shows because they can identify with hosts like McClure and Haynes more so than with megastars. “Even Michael Jordan says, `Say no to drugs,’ but he does not live their lives,” she said.
A recent study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation presents the theory that mainstream media may not be effective in reaching inner-city youths, given their inherent suspicion of Establishment culture.
“While there is certainly exposure to public service announcements and other messages seeking to reduce drug use and other anti-social activities, the medium’s universality and mainstream orientation make it a poor means of reaching this urban counter-culture,” the report says.
By comparison, Popovic argues, the sorts of cable access shows hosted by McClure and Haynes may be effective precisely because they present “real people relating to real people” and are not seen as “canned” mainstream media.
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Call Cable Access Corp. at 312-738-1400.
