Table 3.

Themes of appropriate HIV prevention media message content for Black college females

Major Themes	Sub-themes	Supporting Quotes
Social media	Use of current technology for HIV prevention message delivery (e.g. Twitter; Facebook; Instagram)	“I will honestly say that I am ignorant when it comes to world news…but if I see it on Twitter or on my Instagram then I’ll take the time out to look it up”
Mirror Image	Commercials tailored specifically for Black college females (e.g. age and culture)	R1: “It might be better if you have a lot of short commercials with a black woman…like a down to earth person that’s around the same age. Because I feel like that’s who we listen to”; R2: “We need to see more people who look like us that we can relate to.”
Visually Dynamic Advertisements	Graphic pictorial representations of HIV progression; Attractive audio/visual HIV prevention advertisements (e.g., animations, emojis)	“More visual and less like writing sometimes because we’re very-our attention span is so short now. So more visuals”
The Real World	Real life examples of HBCU student experiences Honesty/transparency in sexual communication Use of age- and culturally- appropriate terminology/vernacular	R1: “Sex is just promoted everywhere. So your mind is like flooded with sexual thoughts because the music that you listen to, the TV shows, that you watch. It’s all sexually oriented…So if all you see is sex, sex, sex, and then the prevention-the little advertisement that you see are just watered down…you’re going to look over that”. R2: “It’s hard to pinpoint a real reality with our age. A TV show is too much & ads are too little”.
People, Place, Things (that provoke HIV risk behaviors)	Peer pressure Alcohol and drug abuse Parties	“It’s hard especially in our age group or younger…I’ll say from 17 to 26 or 27, it’s hard to practice safe sex because, the relationships are so short for us. It’s always in and out and then people always feel pressured or obligated to do certain things because sex is like all you see even growing up”.
HIV Knowledge	Share notable statistics & symptoms (e.g., impact of the disease on Black women) Environments to facilitate HIV knowledge (e.g., sex education class, group discussions on sex)	“I feel like not only should you know the different STD’s out there. I feel like females should know the statistics of these different STD’s and how often people are getting them. People in your own community that you don’t even know have these STD’s. I feel like they need to be educated on the statistics.”