Burger, Mariekie2016-07-192016-07-192015Burger, M. (2015). A future direction for HIV/AIDS communication : participation, HIV positive celebrities and their public self-expression. Communitas, 20(1), 200-217.1023-0556 (print).2415-0525 (online)http://hdl.handle.net/11660/3387After almost three decades of HIV/Aids communication in South Africa, a recent HSRC report (Shisana et al. 2014) indicated that South Africans’ knowledge on HIV/Aids has declined in the last few years and risky sexual behaviour amongst certain groups has increased. This shifts the thinking about HIV/Aids communication away from focusing on communication alone to issues around the uptake of HIV/Aids communication. This crisis of HIV/Aids communication suggests investigating future directions for communication about the virus in the hope that a new direction might stimulate the uptake. Instead of continuing the trajectory of strategically incorporating participatory techniques in project‑based HIV/Aids communication that is conceived “outside” the target community, this article investigates participatory HIV/Aids communication that emerges from “within” society. Through a review of existing literature, this article investigates the HIV/Aids communication of HIV‑positive South African celebrities, and indicates how they participate in HIV/Aids communication and how they express their life stories in public (public self‑expression). Furthermore, some HIV‑positive celebrities invite the public to share their life stories on a public platform – in line with the Freirean principle of participatory development communication. This form of HIV/Aids communication is also characterised by the sharing of real people’s personal views regarding all aspects – not only biomedical – of the virus.enParticipatory development communicationHealth communicationPublic self‑expressionHIV/AIDS communicationCelebritiesFuture of HIV/AIDS communicationParticipatory HIV/AIDS communicationArticleDepartment of Communication Science, University of the Free State