On November 7, 1991 a television interview with Lakers basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson delivered “shock felt” around the world. Johnson, 32, recently married and expecting a child, announced that he has contracted HIV and is retiring. The news was surprising. Maybe even shocking. The public, long desensitized to the horrors of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), a disease known (with the exception of a small percentage of exceptional cases, i.e. hemophiliacs) to select its targets from among the socially excluded, was perplexed. Despite Johnson's wholesome "all-male" appearance, some members of the public believed that Johnson had a secret life of depravity, filled with intravenous drugs and clandestine homosexual encounters. Unable to answer that burning question about how he contracted the virus, Johnson (who is currently ranked fifth on "The Quick 10: 10 Infamous Womanizers" (http://mentalfloss.com/article/23650/quick-10- 10-infamous-womanizers)) is undoubtedly heterosexual. Johnson informed his audience that he proposed leading a campaign for AIDS education and advocating for safe sexual behavior. “And here I am saying it can happen to anyone, even me, Magic Johnson (http://sports.espn.go. com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/7) In the following weeks, calls to the CDC and numerous health clinics nationwide have reported excessive telephone calls for AIDS information from self-identified heterosexuals. An almost equal number of studies to determine the effectiveness of the "safe sex campaign" advocated by "Magic" Johnson was initiated by academics in a variety of disciplines, including public health, communications, political science, marketing, sociology and psychology What did they show? ..n June The 1997 study by A. Flora et al on the use of the medium for a heart disease campaign, print and broadcast was evaluated based on two attributes, (a) scope/specificity (b) excitement/engagement study found that while TV had a greater “reach” because most households had a TV or easy access to one, messages tended to be more generalized and targeted to a broader audience. Furthermore, television is only slightly compromised by the issue of literacy. The press, on the other hand, could address a specific market. Compared to the second attribute, TV tends to evoke a higher degree of emotion, but the nature of changing scenes, sounds, changing lights and commercial breaks disrupts the ability to retain information. Reading is an active choice, and the process is more likely to stimulate both critical thinking and neuroplasticity. Use of different media for AIDS education