Verizon Wireless has formed a partnership with the University of Georgia's New Media Institute to raise awareness about the importance of HIV testing.

The wireless carrier will broadcasting a series of 15-to-30-second public service announcements on various Web channels, on TV and through the Verizon V Cast application.

"We've been working with the University of Georgia for over a year on this project," said Caran Smith, spokeswoman for Verizon, Basking Ridge, NJ.

"It's a fantastic use of our technology to capture that footage and allow street teams to be in touch with editors and producers, and a great way to use our V Cast service in a discreet way to get important information about social and health issues to our subscribers," she said.

The videos will be distributed in a variety of ways including online cards, podcasting on key Internet sites, email distribution, YouTube, MySpace, V Cast and Verizon Communications' FiOS network.

These personal public service announcements were created by college students from man-on-the-street interviews captured in Atlanta using Nokia video phones and technology. The information was verified by of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Verizon has launched these videos in honor of National HIV Testing Day June 27, an annual event organized by the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA).

These public service announcement videos were created within a 24-hour period and delivered on personal mobile media devices.

Using Verizon Wireless phones and data equipment, student teams from eight different universities collaborated during each event with health experts from the CDC, as well as professional producers and editors from around the country, to shoot, edit, produce and premiere short video personal PSAs encouraging HIV testing.

"Wireless technology is no longer about just voice-to-voice, it's become a broader way of getting information, from news and entertainment to social messages that are important to the community as a whole," Ms. Smith said.

"These videos are targeted to young people and we're getting this information to them via mobile, which is the vehicle they use the most," she said.

At the end of every video that was created there's an information panel where subscribers can text their ZIP code to the short code KNOW IT (566948). In return, they will receive a text message listing the closest health facility where they can go to take an HIV test.

"This is a traditional PR campaign, both from our standpoint and also our partners in the CDC, utilizing the media to let people know this campaign is out there," Ms. Smith said.

"We're also using the viral effect through social networking, for example, a Facebook group promoting the campaign," she said. "It's a great, pioneering way to use wireless technology to address social and health issues going forward and to raise awareness about them."

The real problem for anybody trying to get out health messages is that young people are not using media in the same way their parents did, said Scott Shamp, director of the New Media Institute in the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia and the executive producer of the AIDS Personal Public Service Announcement project.

"None of them read the newspaper, they're watching less TV and spending more time with video games, the Internet and, above all, mobile media," Mr. Shamp said. "Their first choice is the cell phone. The best way to reach out to this demographic is through the medium they use the most."

National HIV Testing Day is an opportunity for people nationwide to learn their HIV status and to gain knowledge to take control of their health and their lives.

According to a CDC study cited by Mr. Shamp, 1 million people are living with HIV in the United States, and one quarter of those don't know that they're infected. By getting tested, these people can receive treatments that can extend their life indefinitely and take the proper precautions so that they don't risk passing it along.

"By putting this important personal information in this mobile medium, it might have a bigger impact and have a bigger a better chance to change people's behavior," Mr. Shamp said.

"Verizon really stepped up and did something very risky," he said. "Verizon gave money and dedicated their V Cast network to airing this. They decided that they'd do something for their consumers, and I'm loving them for it."