HIV and the Media
Media coverage of the HIV pandemic ranges from news stories and investigative journalism to soap opera storylines and popular blogs. What images are being presented to the public? Are the writers, reporters and scriptwriters informed about the nature of the disease and those that suffer from it? Do they perpetuate stereotypes and myths? Or are they presenting an image sustained by the ideals of journalistic responsibility and a ‘healthy’ media?
These are the questions raised by the HIV/AIDS and the Media Project. HIV is an extremely technical issue and journalists often lack the skill and knowledge to write accurately about it. News sources , along with other media outlets such as television and radio, frequently misrepresent issues related to HIV, such as men who have sex with men (MSM) and multiple and concurrent partnerships (MCPs).
Forums, Resources, Analysis
The project website (www.journAIDS.org) performs several functions at once. Its main function is to provide fact sheets, documents, contacts and guidelines for those involved in the media, in an attempt to promote and facilitate healthy media. The website also provides day-by-day coverage and analysis of news stories and media representations concerning HIV and AIDS.
The project periodically hosts media forums. Here a particular HIV-related topic is chosen, and members of the public are invited to witness and participate in a discussion in which various representatives of certain media outlets (print media, online publications, soap opera producers) and HIV-concerned organisations (NGOs, human rights groups) discuss and debate the topic and how it is being covered in the media. The conclusions drawn from these discussions are summarised and presented on the project website.
Publications
The project has published various booklets and documents over the years, and in 2010, the project released a compilation of the journalism and research it has produced since 2003, titled: What is Left Unsaid: Reporting South Africa’s HIV epidemic.