ABSTRACT

Social rank is the strongest single predictor of health and wellbeing according to the World Health Organization. Media’s role in health and development is frequently seen as functionalist and as a vehicle to deliver information and stories in order to change health behaviors. However, if we consider a media studies approach then we recognize a much more nuanced approach to the ways media help construct understanding of health and illness that reflect and relate social rank. Kenya shares the title of fourth largest HIV epidemic in the world. Millions of development dollars are spent producing high-quality edutainment in Kenya with television depicting young urban elites. This chapter uses a media studies approach to analyze Kenyan edutainment that focuses on HIV and AIDS, exploring issues of class and gender to better understand how media studies of edutainment can contribute to the wider discussion of economic inequality in health and formulate a need for a participatory approach to health communication.