With th e in creased role of media in ra ising public awa ren ess, more and more health communicationsrncampaigns particul arl y focusi ng o n HI V prevention are now being imp lemented throughout thernco untry . In vesting co nside rab le amount of resources, these commu nications campa igns usernbroa dcast medi a, print, Intern et and interpersona l co mm uni ca tions to reach th eir in te nded audie ncesrnw ith different obj ecti ves and messages. Th is st udy aim ed t o id e ntify the fac to rs affecti ng audie ncernpe rcepti on of ca mpa ign messages to prevent HIV transmi ss ion. In add it ion, as th ey also affectrnpe rce pti on, th e stu dy will attempt to id entify preferred HI V preve ntion informat ion so u rces of FSW ,rnand their level of HI V preventi on methods knowledge ga in ed from th e messages.rnInformed by social cog niti ve and protectio n motivati on th eo ri es, th is descriptive audience resea rchrnused qu alitati ve and quant ita ti ve methods wi th survey questionnaires and in-depth interv iews asrntoo ls. Train ed a nd experienced da ta co ll ectors we re use d to co nd uct the interviews andrnquesti onn a ires. Tes t run s a nd q uality ass ura nce superv isions were co nducted to ensu re success.rnThe study location is Ko lfe Kera ni o sub city, th e area be hind Alert hos pital a nd a sa mpl e size of 14 5rnresponden ts were taken. Fo r the interv iews , non-ran dom quota and snowba ll sa mpl in g techn iqu esrnwe re used to reach a tota l of 30 respondents. For the survey questio nn ai re , a mi x of cl uster andrnsim ple rand o m sa m pl ing we re used based on esti mated number of FSWs in each clu st er.rnFindings on th e demog raphi c c harac teri stics of the wo me n shows th at majorit y are be low th e age ofrn25, wit h litt le to no edu ca ti on, speak in g varying prim ary lang uages, havi ng good kn ow ledge of HI Vrnpreventio n methods and an average inco me of over 500 Birr a mont h. Findin gs s how th at th ernpreferred HI V inform at ion so urces of t he wome n in clud ed interp erso na l co mmunica ti on s in th e formrnof peer educa to rs and women gro ups wi t h coffee ceremon ies, prin t materials such as brochures andrnleaflets foll owed by health professiona ls.rnTh e leve l of the responde nts' kn ow ledge with rega rd s to HI V preve ntion me th ods is very hi gh. Inrnaddi tion, respondents are practi cin g th e behav iors th at lea rn ed from the messages such as forrnexamp le the use of co ndo ms with all client s. Th ough th ere is so me deba te among respo nde nts abo utrnthe use of co ndo ms w ith th eir tru st ed partners, th e wo rd "tru sted" be in g th e ca use of de bate amongrnres pond ents.rnCred ibility of th e so urce of messages, co mpre hensibility of ca mpai gn messages, wo rk ing/liv in grnco ntext of th e res pond e nts, th e nature of messages that inc rease ability and sk ill s as we ll as raisernri sk pe rce ption are th e factors foun d to be stro ng ly affec tin g res pond ents pe rcepti on. Attractive nessrnof t he source of the messages, re leva nce of messages, appea l of m essages to audiences, messagernclutte r in message recip ie nts ' contex t, in te n sity of materi als (use of different chann els) , moti vat ion ofrnthe message reci pient as we ll as th e experi e nce of in cide nts are the f act ors th at we re found to bernmoderate ly affectin g respo ndents' pe rce ption. Fa mili a rity of th e so urce of the message to audie nces ,rnin the form of age , sex, re li gious be liefs, ethnic background, has no effect on audience perception ofrnmessages.