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Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana

Research has shown that music can be used to educate or disseminate information about public health crises. Grounded in the edutainment approach, we explored how songs are being used to create awareness about COVID-19 in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. YouTube was searched, and 28 songs met th...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Thompson, Rachel G. A., Nutor, Jerry John, Johnson, Julene K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7847897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33537281
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.607830
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author Thompson, Rachel G. A.
Nutor, Jerry John
Johnson, Julene K.
author_facet Thompson, Rachel G. A.
Nutor, Jerry John
Johnson, Julene K.
author_sort Thompson, Rachel G. A.
collection PubMed
description Research has shown that music can be used to educate or disseminate information about public health crises. Grounded in the edutainment approach, we explored how songs are being used to create awareness about COVID-19 in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. YouTube was searched, and 28 songs met the study inclusion criteria. We conducted a thematic analysis of the song lyrics. Most lyrics were in English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Akan, Ga, or Dagbani. Reflecting the multilingual population of Ghana, half of the songs contained three languages to convey their message, and only five songs were in one language. Eight themes emerged from the analysis: public health guidelines, COVID-19 is real and not a hoax, COVID-19 is infectious, prayer as method to stop the virus, emotional reaction and disruption of “everyday” activities; verbally expelling the virus, call for unity and collective efforts, and inspiring hope. We show that songs have the potential as a method for rapidly sharing information about emerging public health crises. Even though, it is beyond the scope of this study to draw conclusions about the reception and impact of songs on awareness and knowledge, the study shows that examining song lyrics can still be useful in understanding local attitudes toward COVID-19, as well as strategies for promoting preventive behaviors. We note that additional multidimensional efforts are needed to increase awareness among the general public about the COVID-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-78478972021-02-02 Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana Thompson, Rachel G. A. Nutor, Jerry John Johnson, Julene K. Front Public Health Public Health Research has shown that music can be used to educate or disseminate information about public health crises. Grounded in the edutainment approach, we explored how songs are being used to create awareness about COVID-19 in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African country. YouTube was searched, and 28 songs met the study inclusion criteria. We conducted a thematic analysis of the song lyrics. Most lyrics were in English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Akan, Ga, or Dagbani. Reflecting the multilingual population of Ghana, half of the songs contained three languages to convey their message, and only five songs were in one language. Eight themes emerged from the analysis: public health guidelines, COVID-19 is real and not a hoax, COVID-19 is infectious, prayer as method to stop the virus, emotional reaction and disruption of “everyday” activities; verbally expelling the virus, call for unity and collective efforts, and inspiring hope. We show that songs have the potential as a method for rapidly sharing information about emerging public health crises. Even though, it is beyond the scope of this study to draw conclusions about the reception and impact of songs on awareness and knowledge, the study shows that examining song lyrics can still be useful in understanding local attitudes toward COVID-19, as well as strategies for promoting preventive behaviors. We note that additional multidimensional efforts are needed to increase awareness among the general public about the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7847897/ /pubmed/33537281 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.607830 Text en Copyright © 2021 Thompson, Nutor and Johnson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Thompson, Rachel G. A.
Nutor, Jerry John
Johnson, Julene K.
Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title_full Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title_fullStr Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title_short Communicating Awareness About COVID-19 Through Songs: An Example From Ghana
title_sort communicating awareness about covid-19 through songs: an example from ghana
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7847897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33537281
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.607830
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